President Obama has kicked off a three-day bus tour of Minnesota, Iowa and Illinois, where the corn is high and at least some factories are spewing smoke. He won these Midwestern states handily in 2008, but he's not taking anything for granted these days. To understand the political economy of the region, it helps to put it in historic perspective.

Unlocking "unconventional" energy requires unconventional politics, and that's one resource that is genuinely scarce among today's backwards-looking bureaucrats and green interest groups.

A new bookfeatures the influential economists at the University of Chicago.

Wisconsin’s loss confirms not only that the Santorum coalition is a minority of the GOP, but close examination shows that he is losing his grip on his own voters.

The chief obstacle to ROTC's expansion today is not antimilitary sentiment but a Pentagon that prefers to allocate its resources to surer recruiting prospects, primarily in the South and the Midwest.

Wisconsin Republicans won and Bachmann has been surging despite the fact that their opponents raised and spent much more money and despite the ridicule and rancor of the chattering classes. They are evidence that out here in the Midwest, and in the nation generally, there are a lot of little people--somebodies--who want to see big government reined in.

Despite China's emergence as an economic power and all the talk about how America has become a service economy, U.S. manufacturing is alive and well.

Despite China's emergence as an economic power and all the talk about how America has become a service economy, U.S. manufacturing is alive and well. But there is a fly in the ointment -- the U.S. has become dangerously dependent on imports of raw materials needed to keep the economy moving.