"Before his American Jobs Act failed to pass a Senate cloture vote Tuesday, President Barack Obama made a last-ditch speech to talk up his troubled bill. Not once did Obama mention 'green jobs' -- his erstwhile jobs of the future. 

"Smart move. Obama's 2009 $787 billion stimulus package included $500 million for training programs that were supposed to create new green jobs for thousands of middle-class Americans. Last month, however, the Department of Labor's inspector general conducted an audit that found that as of June 30 -- with one-third of the funds spent and more than 50,000 participants -- only 10 percent of trainees were placed in jobs. And only 1,336 participants, or 2 percent, had held jobs for six months or longer. ... 

"Unfortunately, the White House thought that it could stimulate the economy by rewarding favored donors and pet green causes, only to find that you can't build an economic recovery on a bubble of phantom jobs."

"To say that Mitt Romney dominated last night’s Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire wouldn’t quite do his performance justice. By the end of the evening, he seemed to be the only even remotely plausible presidential candidate on the stage.

"In part that was due to the failure of the seven other candidates to rise to the occasion."

"Mr. Attorney General, you have made numerous statements about Fast and Furious that have eventually been proven to be untrue.  Your lack of trustworthiness  while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility as Attorney General.  The time for deflecting blame and obstructing our investigation is over.  The time has come for you to come clean to the American public about what you knew about Fast and Furious, when you knew it, and who is going to be held accountable for failing to shut down a program that has already had deadly consequences, and will likely cause more casualties for years to come. 

"Operation Fast and Furious was the Department’s most significant gun trafficking case.  It related to two of your major initiatives – destroying the Mexican cartels and reducing gun violence on both sides of the border.  On your watch, it went spectacularly wrong.  Whether you realize yet or not, you own Fast and Furious.  It is your responsibility."

"The debates have overwhelmed the Republican race. 'They are about all there's been to the campaign,' says Fox political commentator Brit Hume. After each debate the campaign has been frozen until the next one, except for arguments over issues spawned by the debates themselves. ...   

"For Republicans, a campaign dominated by televised debates has two disadvantages. It puts the folks they loathe, the press, in control. The media can dwell on subjects such as tax cuts for the rich or social issues that one or more of the candidates would prefer not to discuss. They are hard pressed to squeeze their talking points into the dialogue.  Mr. Obama gets a pass.  

"Since the media pit the candidates against each other, Mr. Obama's strategists get an early glimpse of the vulnerabilities of the Republican candidates, their strengths and weaknesses on issues, and the attacks used most effectively against them. All Mr. Obama has to do is sit back and enjoy the show."

"In a shocking development Thursday evening, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) triggered a rarely used procedural option informally called the “nuclear option” to change the Senate rules. 

Reid and 50 members of his caucus voted to change Senate rules unilaterally to prevent Republicans from forcing votes on uncomfortable amendments after the chamber has voted to move to final passage of a bill. 

Reid’s coup passed by a vote of 51-48, leaving Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) fuming."

"I am not the first to note the vast differences between the Wall Street protesters and the tea partiers. To name three: The tea partiers have jobs, showers and a point. ... 

"The tea partiers didn't arrogantly claim to be drafting a new Declaration of Independence. They're perfectly happy with the original. 

"Tea partiers didn't block traffic, sleep on sidewalks, wear ski masks, fight with the police or urinate in public. They read the Constitution, made serious policy arguments, and petitioned the government against Obama's unconstitutional big government policies, especially the stimulus bill and Obamacare. 

"Then they picked up their own trash and quietly went home. Apparently, a lot of them had to be at work in the morning."

"Is there a clumsier group of newspaper character assassins than the hit squads at The Washington Post? On Oct. 1, the Post was back on the racist-Republican attack with a 3,000 word, investigative treatise over a rock. Specifically, Gov. Rick Perry had leased a property where the N-word was painted on a rock, and then he had it painted over with white paint. ... 

"Three thousand words on this.

"Apparently, investigative reporting at the Post means staring at old rocks under paint (with a microscope?) to discern almost invisible letters and suggesting this should ruin a presidential campaign. It resembles the Post feverishly fumbling through foreign-language dictionaries trying to find a racially defamatory definition for 'macaca' to torpedo Sen. George Allen's re-election in 2006."

"What is it that Mr. Obama doesn't like about the United States -- a country that sent him hurtling like an American Idol contestant from the obscurity of an Illinois Senate seat to the presidency in a mere four years? 

"I suspect it's the same thing that so many run-of-the-mill liberals dislike: Americans typically believe that happiness is an individual pursuit; we bridle at other people setting limits on what's 'enough'; we enjoy wealth and want to keep as much of it as we can; we don't like trading in our own freedom for someone else's idea of virtue, much less a fabricated concept of the collective good."

"After Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., successfully added his 'swipe fee' amendment to last year's Dodd-Frank financial regulation bill, he promised, 'By requiring debit card fees to be reasonable ... small businesses and their customers will be able to keep more of their own money.' That was the theory, at least.

"But big banks didn't become big by eating billion-dollar losses. Last week Bank of America announced it will start charging customers a $5 fee every month they make at least one debit transaction. And BofA is not alone. Wells Fargo, Chase and SunTrust are all instituting similar versions of the 'Durbin fee.' Washington Mutual says it is not adding any debit fees, but is tightening restrictions on free checking accounts. The bottom line is that whatever extra cash retailers are picking up from debit card transactions, consumers are losing from banks."

"... Obama is not an FDR, nor a Lincoln, nor a liberal Reagan. At this point he’s simply hoping not to be a Carter. And that’s fomented establishment despair. Tina Brown, editor of both the Daily Beast and Newsweek, recently let it slip on MSNBC (a trifecta of establishmentarian liberal media outlets!) that she thinks Obama 'wasn’t ready' for the job in 2008. 

"The establishment can’t bring itself to blame liberalism (or themselves). So instead they blame the system. Obama’s own reelection theme of running against 'Washington' — a town he had near total control over for two years and in which he is still the most powerful figure — is a variant of the same argument. Obama can’t blame the party he leads, so he blames the 'system.'"