"WASHINGTON -- We pay our presidents for judgment, and President Obama committed a colossal error of judgment in making health-care 'reform' a centerpiece of his first term. Ahead of the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) -- and regardless of how the court decides -- it's clear that Obama overreached. His attempt to achieve universal health insurance coverage is a massive feat of social engineering that, by its sweeping nature, weakens the economic recovery and antagonizes millions of Americans. ... 

"To all the ACA's substantive defects is now added a looming political and constitutional firestorm. Whether the Supreme Court upholds the whole law, strikes it all down or discards only parts, anger and outrage will ensue. The court may be accused of usurping legislative powers or of cowering before White House intimidation. The ACA has become an instrument of the political polarization that the president regularly deplores. 

"When historians examine Obama's first term, the irony will be plain. A president bent on burnishing his legacy acted in ways that did the opposite. It's a case of bad judgment."

"At a speech in Baltimore, President Obama laughingly dismissed the notion that he is responsible for our nation's current spending orgy. Seriously. ...

"A fascinating question is whether Obama actually believes this fantasy or he and his disciples are laughing at us, as well. ...

"Obama has not cut trillions in spending. At most, he has been forced to agree to reductions in the level of spending increases. But even here, he has gone back on his word and broken his agreements. He offers us nothing but more spending proposals -- claiming it's the only way to stimulate the economy and pretending we are too stupid to realize we've already been there and done that.

"Obama's claim that he is not a big spender is preposterous, but if he insists on insulting the intelligence of the American people in sticking to his story, that's fine with me because it will make our task of defeating him in November that much easier."

"The authors of our Constitution may have envisioned a federal government of limited powers that would leave education, police and fire protection to local governments, but since the 1970s, the federal government has been steadily increasing its involvement in each of these areas. And hard data show these federal programs have completely failed to improve outcomes.
 
"Take federal education spending. Since 1970, federal spending on K-12 education has increased 375 percent. And over that same time, public school employment has almost doubled while enrollment has stayed the same. So what have federal taxpayers got in exchange for this investment? Nothing. Math and reading scores at the end of high school are unchanged over the past 40 years, while science scores have declined slightly. ...

"The question American voters should ask themselves this November is: Who do you best trust to understand your community's educational and safety needs, your state, local and city governments, or Congress?
 
"For the first 200 years of our republic, local governments made these decisions on their own just fine. Obama needs to explain why expanding the federal government's failed intervention is suddenly necessary."

"'There has been zero accountability at the Department of Justice. … The leaking of classified information represents a major threat to national security, and your office faces a clear conflict of interest, yet you will not appoint a special counsel,' Cornyn told the attorney general. 'Meanwhile, you still resist coming clean about what you knew and when you knew it with regard to Operation Fast and Furious. You won’t cooperate with the legitimate congressional investigation, and you won’t hold anyone — including yourself — accountable.
 
"'It is more with sorrow than regret and anger that I would say that you leave me no alternative than to join those who call upon you to resign your office,' Cornyn said, joining three other Republican senators and several dozen House members who have called on Holder to go. 'Americans deserve an attorney general who will be honest with them. They deserve an attorney general who will uphold the basic standards of political independence and accountability. You have proven time and time again, sadly, that you’re unwilling to do so. … You have violated the public trust, in my view.'"

"If politicians talked not of 'growth' versus 'austerity' but of 'borrowing and spending' versus 'fiscal discipline,' then there would be very little public support for their disastrous agendas. Instead, we are supposed to like the nurturers who 'grow' and despise the 'austere' who hack away.
 
"It’s that simple."

"So Attorney General Eric 'Fast and Furious' Holder has let slip the dogs of war on those intelligence leaks that had President Obama in such a swivet Friday — assigning a pair of US attorneys to the case.  
 
"Puppies of war is probably more like it, given the obstructionist pace the Justice Department has adopted in the now-infamous 'Fast and Furious' gun-running scandal — to say nothing of other politically sensitive subjects. ... 

"The leaks amount to slow-motion treason, and must be treated as such. If Obama is as offended as he says he is, let him appoint that special prosecutor."

"The uproar in Congress includes both sides of the Capitol and both sides of the aisle. Lawmakers are making furious calls for FBI investigations and for tightening up the nation’s espionage laws. The reason: a spate of New York Times articles and a new book by its chief Washington correspondent, David Sanger. Last Friday, Sanger revealed a state secret that is arguably more sensitive than any other state secret that has been revealed since the Rosenbergs tipped off Stalin about the American atomic bomb. Sanger’s new book reveals that the Obama White House is conducting a coordinated campaign of industrial sabotage against Iran by means of cyber weapons. Remember the Stuxnet virus or the more sophisticated worm known as Flame? According to Sanger, all were components of an American government plan to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program. Or as Pogo famously pointed out: 'We have met the enemy and he is us.' 
 
"The foreseeable harm done by Sanger and his Times colleagues now includes the likelihood of Iranian retaliation because industrial sabotage, like blockades and air raids, are acts of war. You might remember how, earlier this year, the Iranians forced down our beyond-top-secret spy drone, apparently by spoofing its GPS system. Given the sloppy condition of our cyber defenses, the mullahs must surely be contemplating retaliation, say against the notoriously computer-dependent American infrastructure. Could Iran really do that? Obama’s own cyber-czars have long acknowledged our vulnerabilities to such attacks. Although few Americans now realize it, The New York Times has brought us closer to another horrific day like 9/11, when the lights go out, the ATMs don’t work and the gas pumps at the local filling station aren’t open."

"We'll be talking about Tuesday's Wisconsin recall election for a long time to come. 

"The results were a historic setback for organized labor, which failed to oust Gov. Scott Walker in a citadel of modern progressivism. And how it must have stung that 38% of union households voted for Mr. Walker, up a point from 2010 when he was first elected. ... 

"Before Tuesday's vote in Wisconsin there was already evidence that Democrats nationally didn't have quite the ground game they brag about. Witness the fact that they are so far losing the voter-registration war in the eight battleground or 'swing' states (as recognized by the media and the two campaigns) that enroll voters by party. ... 

"If the Wisconsin results are cause for concern among Democrats, they provide a call to action for Republicans, especially in battleground states. To beat Mr. Obama, Republicans must duplicate the ground game deployed by the GOP in Wisconsin that registered, persuaded and produced a massive turnout."

"The year-long saga of the Wisconsin recall is, at long last, over, and Scott Walker is still standing. The low-key Republican governor has withstood a sustained (and expensive) onslaught from the forces of Big Labor and its allies on the Left that featured everything from the coordinated cross-border retreat of intransigent Democratic lawmakers, to the occupation of the state house by a band of radicals, bongo drummers, and high school truants, to ill-fated attempts to nullify Republican legislative majorities and pick off uncooperative judges. Walker’s enemies did everything but release the kraken. 

"And yet, he won. ... 

"Walker won because his reform program is popular, and because it is working."

"President Barack Obama is racing down the trail blazed by Sen. George McGovern, who in 1972 was buried by the largest popular vote landslide in American history. ... Sen. McGovern was too far to the left, swing voters thought, and not very competent -- an image reinforced by the shambles his supporters made of the Democratic national convention. 

"Swing voters are forming a similar opinion about President Obama, who sometimes seems as if he's deliberately trying to dismantle the coalition that elected him in 2008. ... 

"But if President Obama goes down this year, he'll drag lots of Democrats in Congress with him. They're identified too closely with his failed policies to avoid sharing blame. ... 

"Though few other Democrats suffered when Sen. McGovern tanked, the election produced much bitterness and recrimination within the party. Come November, those may seem to Democrats the salad days."