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Jonah Goldberg, NY Post.com

 

In August, Ted Kennedy, the Lion of the Senate, the last son of Camelot, the soul of the Democratic Party, friend of the people and scourge of robber barons, fat cats and special interests, departed this mortal coil.

 

Now, that's not really my opinion of the man. But if you were inclined to imbue Tom Brokaw with pontifical authority or view the world through the prism of The New York Times, or its mini-me The Boston Globe, that's how you'd see Teddy.

 

So it should be of more than passing interest that "Ted Kennedy's seat" in the Senate may go to Republican Scott Brown next week. And not just any Republican, but an actual conservative, as opposed to some me-too Republican who promises to drive in the same direction as liberals.

 

Not long ago, Brown was down 30 points to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley. Now it's neck and neck, according to many polls. Brown is still the underdog, but the fact that it is even close is in itself hugely significant. It's a bit like Tibet holding its own against China in a land war, or Abe Vigoda giving Tiger Woods a run for his money at Augusta (or, for that matter, at a Vegas nightclub).

 

Even more astounding, Brown is running directly against what everyone agrees was Ted Kennedy's signature issue and legacy: health-care reform. Read article.

Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ.com

 

House Republicans smell at least a whiff of blood, enough to launch a campaign targeting 37 Democrats who may have a case of yes-vote regrets. These include members like Oregon freshman Kurt Schrader; 49% of his seniors are enrolled in Medicare Advantage, which will be gutted under the legislation. Also up for special attention are Democrats hailing from flat-broke states that will nonetheless be saddled with huge new Medicaid costs under the bill.

 

Critics of the legislation shouldn't get their hopes too high. The Democratic leadership is now clinically obsessed with passage. No first-round yes vote has yet jumped ship, and even if some do, Mrs. Pelosi has options. Prior no votes might be convinced that a more "moderate" Senate bill gives them cover to flip. Three no votes, including Tennessee's John Tanner, are retiring, and may feel liberated. The White House no doubt has a list of plum jobs it can offer people as consolation prizes for voting yes and losing their seats.

 

The point is rather that there is now officially enough nervousness that anything can happen. Whatever the Tuesday election outcome, Mr. Brown already claims victory for rattling Democratic minds. And should he win, health care becomes even more toxic. This isn't over yet. Read article.

Charles Krauthammer, Townhall.com

 

What went wrong? A year ago, he was king of the world. Now President Obama's approval rating, according to CBS, has dropped to 46 percent -- and his disapproval rating is the highest ever recorded by Gallup at the beginning of an (elected) president's second year.

 

A year ago, he was leader of a liberal ascendancy that would last 40 years (James Carville). A year ago, conservatism was dead (Sam Tanenhaus). Now the race to fill Ted Kennedy's Senate seat in bluest of blue Massachusetts is surprisingly close, with a virtually unknown state senator bursting on the scene by turning the election into a mini-referendum on Obama and his agenda, most particularly health care reform.

 

A year ago, Obama was the most charismatic politician on earth. Today the thrill is gone, the doubts growing -- even among erstwhile believers. Read article.

Karl Rove, WSJ.com

 

Americans learned last year that President Obama discards campaign promises like most people discard used Kleenex. Among the pledges he cast aside were reducing the deficit, reining in federal spending, not allowing lobbyists to work in his administration, increasing taxes only on those who make more than $250,000, and opposing "government-run health care" because it is "extreme."

 

This year, Mr. Obama is picking up where he left off.

 

Consider presidential signing statements. Since Andrew Jackson, presidents of both parties have told Congress that while they are signing a bill into law, they intend to ignore specific provisions because they involve unconstitutional restrictions on the executive branch or are otherwise problematic. A president's power to do this springs from his oath of office, through which each new chief executive promises to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution."

 

Because of Washington's hyperpartisan atmosphere, President George W. Bush drew heated criticism from Democrats for his signing statements. Among his toughest critics was Barack Obama.

 

Yet Mr. Obama started issuing signing statements shortly after taking office. Democratic Reps. Barney Frank and David Obey called him out on it in a letter to the White House complaining that they were "chagrined" that Mr. Obama was issuing signing statements. Read article.

Flopping Aces.net

 

We’ve talked a lot in the past week about Obama brazenly violating his pledge to conduct health care negotiations on C-Span where the entire country could watch as the process unfolded. It didn’t happen.

 

But knowing how skillful our Obama loving friends are in the art of self deception, I doubt many of them cared. After all, they had to make quite a few excuses to themselves to get excited about such an inexperienced and unqualified candidate, all for the sake of some hokey feel good bandwagon of hope and change.

 

Obama promised to be a new kind of politician, and one who wouldn’t tolerate, let alone take part in, the old Washington games that he railed against. His speech in Green Bay Wisconsin on September 22, 2008 was stuffed to the gills with the kind of new politics rhetoric that Obama used to hoodwink the gullible. It’s worth a read in its entirety while reflecting on how his young Administration has turned out to be the most partisan, divisive, lobbyist friendly big government loving Administration in modern history.

 

In one section of the speech, Obama trotted out a list of promises he made to the American people. The video of this portion of the text is only two minutes long. Everyone who voted for Obama should view it: Read article.

 

Freemenow.Wordpress.com

 

Has it really taken nearly a year for a troop of lawyers to ask these questions? Pardon me but it’s a no brainer! I have been calling him a puppet since the New Hampshire primary, but even the slowest of us figured this out before Inauguration Day!

 

I have been having a nagging intuition lately that something is not quite right about Barack Obama. I am not suggesting there is something wrong with the man, per se. Nor am I talking about the crazy, even dangerous, policies coming out of the White House. No, lately, I have been wondering if Barack Obama is, in fact, the person who is actually functioning as President of the United States

 

I mean, there’s no doubt that he fills the position of POTUS but is he really the one in command? The man actually seems lost at times. He seems to be reacting to ideas about which he does not really have a clue. He has left the writing of this health care bill to Nancy Pelosi’s House of Representatives and she, in turn, has farmed the writing out to several fairly radical community action groups.   When questioned about health care, he seems not to know or understand the details and even with his silver-tongue seems unable to demonstrate any leadership on the issue.

Read article. 

 

The Foundry, Heritage.org

 

Big government is what is holding back the economy. More big government is the disease, not the cure.

 

As one business analyst tells the media “Unemployment is at 10 percent and all these businesses see are higher costs in the future from health care and other policies — so they are hoarding cash. They’re making money, but why logically would any businessman use this money to expand if he doesn’t know what all his costs will be because of the expansion of these government programs?”

 

Our biggest job-creators, small businesses, are especially skittish. As NFIB (National Federation of Independent Businesses) reports, after its latest national survey of small business, the problem is the uncertainty caused by big government:

 

The horizon is filled with cost unknowns, from healthcare to cap and trade to yawning deficits and the need to come to grips with them, from paid family and medical leave to card check, from expiration of the Bush tax cuts to state decisions about their finances. Washington cannot expect small business owners, facing difficult economic circumstances anyway, to commit themselves to investing in new employees or equipment and vehicles without acknowledging and revealing the policy-inspired costs that will be imposed on them. It is all about uncertainty and confidence.

 

A similar and detailed description was also offered in the Wall Street Journal by economic scholars from Stanford and the University of Chicago (including Nobel Prize winner Gary S. Becker), who summarized the stifling threat as “changes that could radically transform the American economy.” Read article.

 

Ilan Berman.com

 

The near-disaster that took place in the skies over Detroit on Christmas Day has refocused domestic attention on an issue that has dominated headlines for much of the past year. That issue is the state of U.S. counterterrorism strategy, and the picture isn't pretty.

 

Since taking office last January, Team Obama has focused extensively on the most obvious battlefields in what was once known as the "War on Terror." It has moved ahead with its pledge to draw down troops in Iraq, where stability is slowly but surely returning. And it has bolstered its commitment to Afghanistan through a significant troop surge and a new policy approach that takes a more holistic view of the causes and consequences of conflict there.

 

When it comes to the larger struggle against radical Islam, however, there's still a great deal to be desired. To be sure, President Obama has gone on record as saying the United States is at war with al-Qaeda. And so it is.

 

But the challenge facing the U.S. is substantially broader than just the Bin Laden network. It involves a resurgent Iran, the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism, which is now within striking distance of possessing a nuclear capability. It also encompasses the undecided voters in the Muslim world - an enormous constituency of over a billion souls whose "hearts and minds" the West needs to win if it is to have any hope of persevering against Islamic radicalism.

 

For the moment, official Washington shows few signs of even understanding that these issues are interrelated - let alone formulating a comprehensive strategy to tackle each. Read article.