"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?"

"... It’s a mistake to think that voters who describe themselves as 'conservative' think about politics and react to politicians the same as people who are professionally or avocationally conservative. ...

"In the end, professional and avocational conservatives want a candidate who was in the trenches with them, who speaks their language and whose views resonate with theirs down the line. They want purity. 

"The conservative voter? She doesn’t care all that much about purity. Turns out she wants a winner."

"All six candidates have enough resources to run hard in the next contest, in South Carolina on Jan. 21. Already, five campaigns have placed over $6 million on television in the state, with Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney accounting for over $4 million of it. ... 

"South Carolina will be the last chance for several candidates. It will be hard to justify going on after being at the back of the pack in three contests — especially with Florida's 10 expensive media markets and four million registered Republican voters for this closed primary looming at month's end."

"Romney’s chronic flip-flopping political career is teeming with reasons for grassroots conservatives to oppose his nomination — his support for racial preferences and government funding of abortion, liberal judges, global-warming enviro-nitwittery, TARP, auto bailouts, the Obama stimulus, gun control, and, of course, the Massachusetts individual health-insurance mandates that presaged Obamacare. But instead of focusing on his long political record of expedience, incompetent non-Romneys have borrowed from McCain’s 2008 playbook and thrown wealth creators of all kinds who take risks in the private marketplace under the bus.

"With frenemies like these, who needs Democrats?"

"One reason so many Americans entrusted Barack Obama with the presidency was his pledge to correct the prior administration's tendency to push unilateral executive power beyond constitutional and customary limits.

"Yet last week's recess appointments of Richard Cordray as the first chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and three new members to the President's National Labor Relations Board — taken together with other aggressive and probably unconstitutional executive actions — suggest that this president lacks a proper respect for constitutional checks and balances.

"The Obama administration has offered no considered legal defense for the recess appointments. It even appears that it got no opinion from the Office of Legal Counsel in advance of the action — a sure sign the administration understood it was on shaky legal ground."

"The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31% to 27%. ...

Despite the Democratic advantage in party identification, proportionately more American independents lean to the Republican Party than to the Democratic Party. Thus, when independents' party leanings are taken into account and combined with the party's core identifiers, the parties end up tied. In 2011, 45% of Americans identified as Republicans or leaned to the Republican Party and 45% identified as Democrats or leaned Democratic. ...

"Increased independent identification is not uncommon in the year before a presidential election year, but the sluggish economy, record levels of distrust in government, and unfavorable views of both parties helped to create an environment that fostered political independence more than in any other pre-election year."

"President Obama’s executive power-grab this week — making four 'recess' appointments when the Senate isn’t in recess — is a mark not of his strength, but of his relative weakness. He is asserting an authority he does not possess through the Constitution because he has precious little personal authority left to assert. 

"He had it and he lost it, and he can’t figure out how to get it back — so he’s just going to take it."