Save or delete Hillary?

Hillary Clinton’s aura of inevitability is colliding with the Clintons’ aura of inevitable scandal. What do we make of the email flap? We know that Hillary-haters will seize on any story to gin up controversy and “scandal.” We know that Hillary’s palace guard will blame it on a hostile media and a vast right-wing conspiracy.…

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Say it ain’t so, Joe

Don’t do it, Joe. Don’t run for President. A Biden candidacy has appeal. Democrats would have a happy-warrior version of Donald Trump, an authentic character who campaigns with joy, gusto and an unfiltered mouth. A warm, genuine human being who has seen tragedy and suffering, yet soldiered on. But he will lose. He will be…

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The 24-Hour News Cycle

With the dawn of 24-hour news cycle and the instant ‘Tweet’ reporters need a new story every five minutes and, it turns out, even a Republican Primary with nineteen candidates and Donald Trump, all talking at once, can’t fill the bill. The reporters need more so they’re straining to turn Hillary versus Bernie Sanders into…

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The great Mt. McKinley freakout

At this point you suspect President Obama is just messing with Republicans’ minds: “How can I drive the crazies crazier?” You can see him relaxing on the Truman Balcony one evening, nursing an extra-dry Grey Goose martini and looking forward to his Alaska trip. Suddenly it hits him: “I’ve got it! I’ll change the name…

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The Capitator

Back when the legislature came to town, State Senator Ralph Hise announced Medicaid spending was out of control but he had a solution – Capitation – which worked like this: He was going to hire MCOs (Medicaid HMOs) to run Medicaid then he was going to tell them: This is all you get to spend.…

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How the State Senate Works

A handful of Senate leaders sit down in backrooms and make plans then come out of the rooms and a bill pops into a committee then they march over to the Senate Chamber and pass it in the blink of an eye. The same Senate powers-that-be made a plan to ‘transfer’ millions of dollars in…

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