Michael Barone (b. 1944 in Highland Park, Michigan) is an American political analyst and commentator. He is best known for being the principal author of The Almanac of American Politics, a reference work concerning US governors and federal politicians, and published biannually by National Journal. The Almanac contains documentation on the history, demographics, and political culture of each state and congressional district. Mr. Barone is a regular television commentator on U.S. elections and political trends.

Career
Mr. Barone is a senior writer for U.S. News & World Report and a frequent contributor for the Fox News Channel. Barone's stated political views are generally conservative. He has said he is not a religious believer, although he is sympathetic to and respectful of socially conservative religious believers.
One of the emphases of his commentary has been immigration. Perhaps partly as a result of his being a descendant of Italian immigrants, Barone takes an optimistic view of contemporary immigration into the US. He says that Hispanic immigration has parallels to the Italian experience and that, given the right circumstances, that current and future Hispanic and other immigrants can become Americanized and assimilated, just as the Italians were.
He is the author of several books:

Our Country : the shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan (Free Press, 1990)
The New Americans : how the melting pot can work again (Regnery Pub., 2001)
Hard America, Soft America : competition vs. coddling and the battle for the nation's future (Crown Forum, 2004)
Our First Revolution: the remarkable British uprising that inspired America's founding fathers (Crown Publishers, 2007), a history of the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and how it led to the the American Revolution.