Mark Shields from Creators Syndicate

Nobody Asked Me, But ... for 07/05/2008

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Let me express my appreciation to the late and legendary sportswriter Jimmy Cannon, who occasionally wrote a column filled with witty one-liners and random insights, which he called "Nobody Asked Me, But ..."

Now -- with oil on its way possibly to $200 a barrel -- do you believe Alan Greenspan? In his 2007 autobiography, ...

Updated: Sat Jul 05, 2008

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Coventional Forecast -- July 2008 for 07/12/2008

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The predicting business can inflict heavy damage on the predictor's reputation. I think we can agree that economic forecasting during the last six months has given a brand new respectability to astrology. But still, fish have to swim, birds have to sing and columnists have to court derision and ridicule by making political predictions.

Here is the scenario I now see that, at the very lea ...

Updated: Sat Jul 12, 2008

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Washington Will Miss Ray LaHood for 07/26/2008

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Because they sense that voters have finally had it up to here with the petty, polarizing partisanship of the kind that prizes making political points instead of making tough decisions, candidates in 2008 are busy touting their commitment to bipartisanship.

The sad fact is that one public servant, unknown to most, who has lived and practiced genuine bipartisanship is retiring this year. A ...

Updated: Sat Jul 26, 2008

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Obama Should See This Play for 08/02/2008

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Thanks to Boston political commentator turned playwright Dick Flavin and to gifted actor Ken Howard (television's "White Shadow" and the excellent movie "Michael Clayton"), who uncannily captures the warmth, humor and compassion of the late House speaker, I had a totally fulfilling theater experience laughing and tearing up at "According to Tip," a one-man show dra ...

Updated: Sat Aug 02, 2008

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The Robert Novak I Know for 08/09/2008

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When people learn that for nearly 40 years — including more than 17 spent disagreeing, often heatedly, with him on CNN's weekly "Capital Gang" — that columnist Robert Novak has been my good friend, they often shake their heads in disbelief. In 30 years of covering American politics, the most frequently asked question I get about any journalistic colleague has remained the ...

Updated: Sat Aug 09, 2008

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Memo to Obama: This Election Is About the Voters for 08/16/2008

Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

One of my very favorite Americans, former Vice President Walter F. "Fritz" Mondale, began his doomed 1984 challenge to President Ronald Reagan with a forgettable sound-bite: "I am ready to be president now."

Launching her campaign for the 2008 presidential nomination, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton regularly told audiences: "I'm in it to win, and that's what I int ...

Updated: Sat Aug 16, 2008

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The Real "Big Tent" Party for 08/23/2008

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Never known for their humility, Democrats frequently brag about their being the "inclusive "American political party. It is true that if the Democrats in Denver took a class picture, there would be more people of different racial, ethnic and national origin who look different from each other than there would be in a similar Republican photo op in St. Paul. But the truth is that Democr ...

Updated: Sat Aug 23, 2008

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McCain's Best Way for 08/30/2008

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution casts a long shadow on the 2008 presidential election. That amendment, an act of posthumous vengeance on the memory of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had four times won election to the White House, was the vengeful work of some petty — mostly Republican — men who, unable to defeat FDR in life, decided to get even with him in death by limiti ...

Updated: Sat Aug 30, 2008

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Debates Count More Than Running Mates for 09/06/2008

Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Republican National Convention is over (let's hear a loud shout-out for St. Paul!). All the 2008 presidential primaries and caucuses are history. Barely eight weeks remain before the nation's voters — in the civic sacrament of democracy we call a national election — will choose a new American leader.

Republican nominee John McCain's running-mate pi ...

Updated: Sat Sep 06, 2008

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John McCain 2008/Hubert Humphrey 1968: Striking Parallels for 09/13/2008

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Like Republican presidential nominee John McCain in 2008, Democratic standard-bearer in 1968 Hubert H. Humphrey was, after eight years, making his second run for the White House. Like McCain this year, Humphrey then was trying to defy historical patterns by winning for his party a third consecutive presidential term. And like Humphrey 40 years ago, McCain today is running to succeed an unpopula ...

Updated: Sat Sep 13, 2008

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Bias in Favor of Action for 09/20/2008

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The late Republican pollster Bob Teeter, a man treasured by those lucky enough to have know him for his integrity as well as his wisdom, told me many years ago what is about to happen in the weeks and months ahead in our nation's response to the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

Here is what Bob teeter taught me: American voters are philosophically conservative but operationally liberal. T ...

Updated: Sat Sep 20, 2008

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The First Ever Post-Debate "Poll" for 09/27/2008

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0700

You want to know who won the debate that just ended? Relax. In a matter of minutes, every media outlet in your time zone — from the local weekly shopper to the all-weather station — will have just conducted its very own voter "focus group" or quickie poll and will be telling you who won and who lost the big debate.

In 1960, when the nation held its first-ever presid ...

Updated: Sat Sep 27, 2008

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Tough Speeches Instead of Tough Choices for 10/04/2008

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Former Republican Senate leader Bob Dole, a man of uncommon candor, once said of his Senate colleagues, on both sides of the aisle, "We like to make tough speeches, but we don't like to make tough choices."

I can only hope that Bob Dole was watching (as I was from the Senate press gallery) last Wednesday night, less than five weeks before a national election, when U.S. senators ...

Updated: Sat Oct 04, 2008

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Offering Voters a Hot Fudge Sundae Diet for 10/11/2008

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When Ronald Reagan was in the White House, then-U.S. Rep. Pat Schroeder — acknowledging Reagan's remarkable ability to escape without any of the voters' blame for his administration's mistakes and misdeeds ever sticking to him — dubbed him "the Teflon President."

It was not too much of an exaggeration to say then that if Ronald Reagan had driven a convertible &mdash ...

Updated: Sat Oct 11, 2008

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MARK SHIELDS for 10/18/2008

Sat, 18 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Heading into the last two weeks of this presidential campaign, which began shortly after the cooling of the earth, my Gentle Readers' time and patience have already been more than overtaxed. What follows are some timesaving tips to spare you having to read every political word written between now and Nov. 4, 2008.

Campaign spokespersons for Arizona Sen. John McCain, the Republican presid ...

Updated: Sat Oct 18, 2008

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Bush Legacy: The Debasing of Military Service for 10/25/2008

Sat, 25 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

With the characteristic keenness of speech insight and bluntness that has earned him nearly unanimous respect in both parties and the press, Virginia Republican congressman Tom Davis assessed President George W. Bush's impact on the GOP: “The Republican brand is in the trash can … if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf.”

We all know that probably sooner rather than later ...

Updated: Sat Oct 25, 2008

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After 2008, American Politics Will Never Be the Same Again for 11/01/2008

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Theodore White in his masterful work, "The Making of the President 1960," describes a reception hosted in June of that year on the lawn of Gracie Mansion by New York Mayor Robert Wagner. Sen. John F. Kennedy, by then the clear front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, was there and so, too, were the hard men who ran the tough New York Democratic organization.

Ken ...

Updated: Sat Nov 01, 2008

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Forget McCain and Palin -- the GOP Has Deeper Problems for 11/08/2008

Sat, 08 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The cheap shots being aimed almost hourly at Alaska governor and former VP candidate Sarah Palin from anonymous John McCain staffers prove once again that too many losing campaigns sooner or later resemble a civil war in the leper colony.

It is true that when asked on Election Day if "Sarah Palin is qualified to be president if necessary," three out of five voters answered no a ...

Updated: Sat Nov 08, 2008

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Choices Have Consequences -- Unless You're Joe Lieberman for 11/15/2008

Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

It is an inescapable truth of adult life that our choices do have consequences. And each of us must live with the consequences of the choices we make. Each of us, that is, except for U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut.

The Senate Democratic caucus, with which Lieberman regularly meets and which has rewarded him with the chairmanship of the Senate Committee of Homeland Security, repor ...

Updated: Sat Nov 15, 2008

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Whatever Happened to Accountability? for 11/29/2008

Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Just about a year ago, President George W. Bush, presiding over the five largest federal deficits in U.S. history, finally vetoed the very first spending bill in his two White House terms. His administration argued that this veto was necessary because we did not have the money — an extra $30 billion over five years — even though the legislation provided that the funds would come fro ...

Updated: Sat Nov 29, 2008

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