"We are reaching -- or may already have passed -- the practical limits of 'economic stimulus.' Last week, the Federal Reserve adopted an open-ended bond-buying program of $40 billion a month to goad the economy into faster growth. But even before the announcement, there was skepticism that it would do much to lower the unemployment rate, which has exceeded 8 percent for 43 months. The average response of 47 economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal was that a similar program might cut the jobless rate 0.1 percentage point over a year. 

"There is a desperate air to Bernanke's latest move. At best, it will reinforce a long-awaited housing revival. At worst, it will founder on obvious problems. How much lower can the Fed drive long-term interest rates? How much money can the Fed shovel into the economy without rekindling inflationary expectations and behavior? The Fed is on the brink of moving beyond what it understands and can control."

"[A]t at the same time that it does nothing, the administration warns Israel sternly, repeatedly, publicly, even threateningly not to strike the Iranian nuclear program. With zero prospect of his policy’s succeeding, Obama insists on Israeli inaction, even as Iran races to close the window of opportunity for any successful attack.
 
"Not since its birth six decades ago has Israel been so cast adrift by its closest ally."

"Apologizing for America, appeasing our enemies, abandoning our allies and slashing our military are the hallmarks of Mr. Obama's foreign policy. The Obama economy, with its high unemployment, massive debt and out-of-control spending, has rightly demanded our attention. As we head to the polls in November, we cannot ignore what is an even more dismal national-security record. An America already weakened by four years of an Obama presidency will be unrecognizable after eight."

“The world tells Israel, 'Wait. There’s still time,’” Netanyahu said Tuesday, according to The Associated Press. “And I say: 'Wait for what? Wait until when?' Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

"Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children."

"At their convention, Democrats swore that GM is 'thriving,' but the market doesn’t think so: GM shares have lost half their value since January 2011. And while the passing of the Great Recession has meant growing sales for all automakers, GM is seriously lagging behind its competitors: Its sales are up 10 percent, a fraction of the increases at Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Porsche. With its sales weak, its share price crashing, and its business model still a mess, some analysts already are predicting that GM will return to bankruptcy — but not until after the election. ...

"We have bankruptcy laws and bankruptcy courts for a reason. It may make sense to expedite the proceedings for very large firms such as GM in order to prevent disruptions in the supply chain that would, as Ford’s executives argued, harm other, healthier firms. But bankrupt is what GM was, and bankrupt is what GM is, a fact that will become blisteringly apparent should the government ever attempt to sell off the shares it owns in the company. 

"The GM bailout was a bad deal for GM’s creditors, for U.S. taxpayers, and, in the long run, for the U.S. automobile industry and our overall national competitiveness. No wonder the Democrats are campaigning on a fictionalized account of it."

"Barack Obama is deeply overexposed and often boring. He never seems to be saying what he's thinking. His speech Thursday was weirdly anticlimactic. There's too much buildup, the crowd was tired, it all felt flat. He was somber, and his message was essentially banal: We've done better than you think. Who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes? 

"There were many straw men. There were phrases like 'the shadow of a shuttered steel mill,' which he considers writerly. But they sound empty and practiced now, like something you've heard in a commercial or an advertising campaign. 

"It was stale and empty. He's out of juice."

"Clinton rallied the faithful splendidly; but Michelle Obama had done that already on Tuesday, maybe more effectively.
 
"And its length and blizzard of detail suggest this tasty Chick-fil-A of a speech won’t change the mind of anyone who has drawn his own conclusions about how the Obama years have gone for him.
 
"But Clinton did change the subject a bit from the catcalls at the inclusion of God and Jerusalem in the Democratic platform, and for that, he did his president and his party a considerable service.
 
"Still, those lunatic boos are more likely to stick in the memory, and to pop up in ads, than will Clinton’s speech."

"When President Obama took office, unemployment was at 7.8%. After three and a half years, it stands at 8.3%. Median income when the President took over was about $55,000. Now, $51,000. Gasoline prices in January 2009 were $1.84 per gallon. Now, $3.82 per gallon. That’s painful to working folks and it’s largely ignored by the President. National debt of $10.6 Trillion when President Obama took the oath of office. It is now more than $16 Trillion - an astronomical and dangerous rise. Finally, the budget deficit in President Bush’s last year was $458 Billion. In 2011, under President Obama, it had risen to nearly $1.3 Trillion - again, a dangerous amount of money to have to borrow. 

"There’s no way the Democrats can spin those facts; they’re in stone."

"The one sure way Obama can win is to convince a nation ready for change -- to fear, loathe and recoil from the proposed agents of change. 
 
Obama aides and media auxiliary have already painted the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., as permeated with lies and dog whistles to racists. 
 
Yet, one wonders: After such a campaign, how does Obama unite and lead the country should he win."