The idea of American exceptionalism has been embedded in our DNA for generations. It is the faith-based belief that, as Ronald Reagan put it, America is a “shining city on a hill.” Do modern liberals believe that?

No issue is more entwined in paradox than free trade versus protectionism. Here’s the first. Polling suggests that voters recognize the benefits of free trade more now than at anytime in many years, even as the presidential candidates advocate more protectionism.

In a supremely weird election season the latest weird twist is the consensus emerging on Wall Street that Hillary Clinton would be better for financial markets than Donald Trump.

Late last year while playing tennis I reached up to serve and I felt a painful pop in my shoulder. The inflammation got worse over the next few months. Now anytime I try to put my arm above my head, pain shoots up my arm. I often wake up at night with an agonizing throb in my shoulder.

Early this week a top Republican consultant whined: “Donald Trump is hijacking the Republican party.”

If Donald Trump’s gravity-defying ascendancy has validated anything, it is that for middle America, jobs and economic security are still the dominant issue. Republicans have talked up tax reform, regulatory relief and fiscal restraint — and those are all critical to growth.

When I was a smart aleck college student I had a sign on my dorm door that read: “Reality is for those who can’t handle drugs.”

Barack Obama’s latest and last budget is nothing if not is a grandiose visionary document. No one — least of all Congress — paid much attention to it, because no one cares where this lamest of duck presidents wants the country to go fiscally. After $8 trillion of new debt added, he’s done enough trouble to our nation’s finances already.

The Iowa caucuses may have only muddied the waters in the presidential race, but they almost definitively decided one thing: the next president will not be a governor. That’s an amazing revelation because just one year ago all the smart money was betting that the next president would be a Republican governor.

With the first real votes being cast in the presidential race on Monday, this is an opportune moment to do some last-minute comparison shopping on the candidate tax reform plans. On this issue there’s a lot to cheer about. All the Republican candidates have crafted plans that would slash tax rates for everyone and most would vastly simplify the thousands of pages of IRS tax code too.