"Once upon a time, small ball was not Barack Obama’s game. Tuesday, it was the essence of his State of the Union address. The visionary of 2008 — purveyor of hope and change, healer of the earth, tamer of the rising seas — offered an hour of little things: tax-code tweaks to encourage this or that kind of behavior (manufacturing being the flavor of the day), little watchdog agencies to round up Wall Street miscreants and Chinese DVD pirates, even a presidential demand 'that all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18.' Under penalty of what? Jail? The self-proclaimed transformer of America is now playing truant officer?

"It sounded like the Clinton years with their presidentially proclaimed initiatives on midnight basketball and school uniforms. These are the marks of a shrunken presidency, thoroughly flummoxed by high unemployment, economic stagnation, crushing debt — and a glaring absence of ideas."

"... South Carolina attorney general Alan Wilson told the U.S. Justice Department on January 19 that his office has documented 953 cases in which ballots have been cast by dead voters in the Palmetto State. Democrats can giggle all they want, but 953 is a potentially game-changing number of votes. ... 

"ID cards would help cleanse America’s increasingly soiled voting system. Photo IDs also would allow dead people to rest in peace rather than rush to the polls every Election Day."

"In three short years, an unprecedented explosion of spending, with borrowed money, has added trillions to an already unaffordable national debt.  And yet, the President has put us on a course to make it radically worse in the years ahead.  The federal government now spends one of every four dollars in the entire economy; it borrows one of every three dollars it spends.  No nation, no entity, large or small, public or private, can thrive, or survive intact, with debts as huge as ours. ...   

"No feature of the Obama Presidency has been sadder than its constant efforts to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others.  As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat.   If we drift, quarreling and paralyzed, over a Niagara of debt, we will all suffer, regardless of income, race, gender, or other category.  If we fail to shift to a pro-jobs, pro-growth economic policy, there will never be enough public revenue to pay for our safety net, national security, or whatever size government we decide to have."

"Monday, while enroute to Washington to speak to hundreds of thousands of people at the March for Life, I was detained by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for not agreeing to a patdown after an irregularity was found in my full body scan. Despite removing my belt, glasses, wallet and shoes, the scanner and TSA also wanted my dignity. I refused. ... 

"Let me be clear: I neither asked for nor expect any special treatment for being a U.S. senator. In fact, this case is not about me at all. This is about every single one of us and how we are sick of the intrusive nature of our government. ... 

"I refused an unnecessary patdown and stood up for my rights as an American citizen. This is a battle Americans face every time they fly. It is my firm belief that TSA should not have such broad authority to violate our constitutional rights in ineffective and invasive physical searches, thus I will further push for the reinstatement of traveler privacy and rights. I will be proposing legislation that will allow for adults to be rescreened if they so choose."

"There is a near-unanimous sentiment among the high-minded that negative advertising is a bad thing. It pollutes the air even more than carbon dioxide. It breeds cynicism about politics and government. It is somehow unfair. 

"In response, let me say a few words in praise of negative ads. 

"First, elections are an adversarial business, zero-sum games in which only one candidate can win and all the others must lose. Sometimes it’s smart for competitors to concede points to their opponents. But it’s irrational to expect one side to sing consistent praises of the other. ...

"In any case, negative campaigning will persist. Those who enjoy wallowing in negative ads should fly to Florida, find a TV, and keep clicking the remote control."

"Wednesday, the Republican House reconvened to reject Obama’s planned $1.2 trillion debt-ceiling increase. (Lacking Senate concurrence, the debt ceiling will be raised nonetheless.) No one noticed. It made page A16 of the New York Times. All eyes are on South Carolina and Romney’s taxes. 

"This is no mainstream-media conspiracy. This is the GOP maneuvering itself right onto Obama terrain. 

"The president is a very smart man. But if he wins in November, that won’t be the reason. It will be luck. He could not have chosen more self-destructive adversaries."

"Who knows how many potential jobs President Obama killed yesterday when he bowed to hard-core environmental activists and put an indefinite hold on the mammoth Keystone XL oil pipeline?

"Beyond doubt, it was a lot.

"At the same time, he planted a big wet one on his greenie base — which he’ll need to hold on to if he’s to win re-election.

"Obviously, he has his priorities."

"Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and author the Protect IP Act, accused opponents Tuesday of trying to 'stoke fear' through tactics like the Wikipedia blackout. 'Protecting foreign criminals from liability rather than protecting American copyright holders and intellectual property developers is irresponsible, will cost American jobs, and is just wrong,' he said in a statement."

"Obama sold his health care law to the American public as an effective way to bend the health care cost curve down and eliminate the ranks of the uninsured. 

"It won't achieve either goal: Since the law passed, evidence has poured in proving that the PPACA is actually accelerating the growth in the cost of medical care, and that it will not solve the problem of uninsured Americans. 

"The solution: Stop the madness, repeal the legislation, and replace it with a plan that delivers affordable, accessible, quality care for all. Start by implementing reforms that increase both patient autonomy and competition among insurers and providers."

"There’s a very troubled company out there called U.S. Government, Inc. It’s teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. And it badly needs to be taken over and turned around. It probably even needs the services of a good private-equity firm, with plenty of experience and a reasonably good track record in downsizing, modernizing, shrinking staff, and making substantial changes in management. Yes, layoffs will be a necessary part of the restructuring.

"A quick look at the income statement of this troubled firm tells the story. Just in the past year (FY 2011) the firm spent $3.7 trillion, but took in only $2.2 trillion in sales revenues. Hence its deficit came to $1.5 trillion. ...

"... Isn’t a Bainful turnaround exactly what America needs?"