michael kurth »
Who Is More Horrible-er?
Donald Trump’s poll numbers have plunged and it’s not because Hillary Clinton is on a roll or enjoying a temporary “post-election bounce.” Clinton has had a horrible three weeks since the Democrat convention and
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Chasing The News
Every two weeks I write a column for Lagniappe. I usually pick a topic and start composing the column in my head about a week before the deadline. I haven’t written about family matters
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The Special Interest Effect
Economists are famous for disagreeing with one another. So a few years ago, Harvard professor Greg Mankiw put together a list based on various surveys of what economists agree about. He found that 93
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The Search For A Vice President
Donald Trump is now the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, and Hillary Clinton, despite a pesky challenge by Bernie Sanders, appears to have a lock on the Democrat nomination. Thus, speculation has turned to whom
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A New Political Center?
It appears the presidential election this fall will offer us a choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton — two candidates with the highest unfavorable ratings in political history. Their campaigns will be based
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Who ‘Owns’ Our Political Parties?
A Primer on the Electoral Process Many people are angry about and befuddled by our convoluted process for choosing the president. The confusion has been made worse this year as millions of new voters
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Can The GOP Survive A Contested Convention?
It’s looking more and more likely that no Republican candidate will have the 1,237 delegates necessary to win the nomination before the party convention. That means it will be a contested convention, with a
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TRUMP: I CAN MAKE THE SAINTS GREAT AGAIN
Before Donald Trump decided to run for president of the United States, there was another job he coveted. An anonymous Lagniappe reader sent me a transcript of a phone conversation between Trump and New
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LOUISIANA’S FISCAL CRISIS
All eyes in Louisiana will be on the special session of the state Legislature for the next three weeks as it works to avert a fiscal crisis. Legislators must come up with nearly a
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LOOKING FORWARD TO 2016
The year 2015 was not a particularly good one. It was dominated by news of terrorist attacks, crazy people with guns, fear of immigrants and refugees from war-torn Syria, protests and riots, villainization of
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