George F. Will
10/28/2010

Connecticut’s senatorial race–or wrestling match–between Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Linda McMahon is, as McMahon pointed out, lacking honesty. Blumenthal’s complete inconsistency regarding everything from his military service to his fundraising is not endearing him to voters, who are weary of such political antics. McMahon, however, exudes political inexperience and is not particularly popular with Connecticut women, some of whom take offense to WWE skits in the past that were demeaning to women. However, McMahon has experience with job creation and the advantage of being a unique candidate.

Will is a twice-weekly columnist for The Post, writing about foreign and domestic politics and policy.

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Shelby Steele
10/28/2010

Next week’s election is, among other things, a referendum on the idea of president-as-redeemer. We have a president so determined to transform and redeem us from what we are that, by his own words, he is willing to risk being a one-term president. Steele says Obama put the Democrats in the position of forever redeeming a fallen nation rather than leading a great one. People now wonder if Obama can pivot back to the center like Clinton did after his setback in ’94. But Steele suggests that Clinton was already a steward, a policy wonk, a man of the center. For Obama to enjoy such a turnaround he will have to change archetypes.

Steele is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

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Matthew Winkler
10/28/2010

Big banks don’t want you to know which of them went to the Fed for emergency help, writes Winkler. The Clearing House Association, which represents 20 of the country’s biggest commercial banks, is asking the Supreme Court to keep the bailout secret. Current law doesn’t require the Fed to disclose information about loans from its discount window. But such disclosure would show whether the central bank may have violated the law by lending to any insolvent banks for extended periods. Greater transparency would yield greater accountability–and more reason for taxpayers to trust the banks they helped save. Most importantly, it would give fragile markets a better chance to recover with new jobs financed by confident investors.

Winkler is the editor in chief of Bloomberg News.

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Michael Gerson
10/26/2010

This has been a tumultuous election season, but the Republican advantage has been tamed somewhat from where it was a month ago. Democrats have largely abandoned running on the president’s record and the tired refrain of attacking former President Bush. Rather, they’ve begun to focus their energies on the personalities and flaws of their opponents, several of whom rode reactionary waves into contention outside the traditional vetting process. Republicans should still achieve a majority in the House, while the Senate looks to be a much closer contest.

Gerson writes about politics, global health and development, religion and foreign policy.

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John Lee
10/27/2010

In Asia today, the source of America’s strategic pre-eminence is not just the dominance of the Seventh Fleet but strong regional support for a continued US presence. China has long viewed American pre-eminence in the region as a historical accident and an aberration and wants to ease America out of the region, but other nations want to reaffirm the US role. Therefore it is no wonder that Beijing is now rooting for Asean-plus-three–which does not include America–to be the primary problem-solving meeting. However, if expected US membership transforms the East Asia Summit into the region’s principal security institution, clumsy and impatient Chinese diplomacy will have contributed to the rise of a multilateralism that largely entrenches an extended US-led network of security alliances and partnerships.

Lee is a foreign-policy fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington, and the author of “Will China Fail?” (CIS, 2007).

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Bob Herbert
10/26/2010

Our nation’s water systems are deteriorating, Herbert says, with some built around the time of the Civil War. Sewage systems are contaminating drinking water and many are overwhelmed by heavy rain. Rather than fighting wars, Herbert says we need to spend money to fix our nation’s infrastructure, yet politicians don’t seem to have the political will to do so. If we don’t start correcting the problem now, we will pay dearly later.

Herbert is a New York Times columnist.

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George Soros
10/26/2010

Soros details the reasons he supports California’s marijuana legalization initiative, Proposition 19. He says the criminalization of marijuana has resulted in extensive costs and negative consequences to society. We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration. While legalizing marijuana wouldn’t solve all the problems connected with the drug, it would represent a major step forward and its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of experience. He concludes that proposition 19 already is a winner, whatever happens on Election Day. The mere fact of its being on the ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and marijuana policy.

Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and founder of the Open Society Foundations.

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Richard Cohen
10/26/2010

Anger is the primary motivation behind the Tea Party, but that is not an unusual trait among political movements of the past. Even Obama’s campaign for hope and change was one step away from anger. What unifies the Tea Party today and contributes to its nebulous nature is the internet. Obama can not engage a political enemy that is so hard to identify (a search by The Post turned up only 647 of the alleged 2300 local Tea Party groups). Cohen notes that it is not unlike trying to do battle with the elusive Taliban.

Cohen is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on domestic and foreign politics.

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Barry C. Burden and Kenneth R. Mayer
10/25/2010

The authors conducted research showing that the opportunity to vote by mail actually depresses voter turnout, typically by three percentage points. Although early voting does not eliminate the two-step process of registration and then voting, it does dilute the intensity of Election Day because campaigns begin to scale back their efforts once a significant portion of votes have been cast. To improve voter turnout, their research shows that combining early voting with same-day registration reverses the depressive effect of early voting.

Burden and Mayer are professors of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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