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Beware flamboyant candidates with no experience

National Columnists

Four New Yorkers have been killed by Legionella bacteria in the last week, tragedies that were preventable if the city had performed its core, lifesaving duty to monitor and inspect air conditioning cooling towers. But New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is focused on creating a socialist utopia instead of keeping the city running. The current outbreak is in the 10128, 10028 and 10075 ZIP codes. City officials claim the worst is probably over. But the truth is, all signs point to more Legionella outbreaks – and a city unprepared to stop them. Short of staying inside, ...

Socialists v. the Senate

National Columnists

Political parties tend to harshly reject the idea that they are a threat to the constitutional order, but the Democratic Socialists of America are making it part of their brand. The DSA has released a new program that, besides contemplating the advent of a classless society, calls for abolishing the Senate, the presidency and the Supreme Court. This is literally a revolutionary program to topple the American system as we have known it since 1789. It's the kind of thing you might expect after angry rebels mount the barricades in Washington, D.C., and overthrow the government. It makes ...

Why debate over life-saving vehicles?

National Columnists

Last year, 36,640 Americans died in traffic crashes. That was the fewest since 2019, yet it still works out to more than 100 fatalities per day. The new generation of vehicles quietly accumulating mileage on our streets offers enormous promise to bring the number down even more and more each year. Over at Marginal Revolution, economist Alex Tabarrok reminds us that as of March, Waymo's driverless vehicles had logged more than 220 million miles across five of its areas of operation. Compared with human drivers on the same roads over the same period, and counting every crash ...

Principles should not be abandoned

National Columnists

Political commentator Hasan Piker recently appeared in a Mao jacket – a conspicuous tribute to the Chinese dictator whose regime was responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people – before addressing college students. Around the same time, Melat Kiros, a Democratic Socialists of America candidate in Colorado, declared that America would stop "exploiting the world" only after the country elects enough immigrants from the Global South. That is more than a campaign slogan. It reflects an ideology that seeks to replace America's founding principles with an entirely ...

When seniority becomes substitute for statesmanship

National Columnists

Every time questions arise about the advanced age of America's elected leaders, Washington responds with the same familiar refrain: Experience matters. Republicans say it. Democrats say it. Editorial writers repeat it. Longevity in office, we're told, produces wisdom, steadier judgment and better public policy. It's an appealing argument. It also invites a simple question: If experience matters so much, where are the results? Experience can absolutely be an asset. A seasoned physician has seen diseases a younger doctor has not. A veteran CEO has navigated recessions and ...

Nebraska's Osborn is really real

National Columnists

"A Face in the Crowd" is the prophetic 1957 movie about a charismatic drifter "discovered" in an Arkansas jail. The face belongs to "Lonesome" Rhodes, a scoundrel whose folksy act catapults him to national prominence. "Lonesome" (Andy Griffith) abuses women, but the crowd only sees a lovable spinner of down-home yarns. He deflates after getting caught on an open mic mocking his followers as idiots and fools. Maine's Graham Platner was a face in the crowd, sold to Democrats as a salt-of-the-sea oysterman who actually came from a privileged background. The senatorial candidate ...