"It’s Iowa minus one month, and barring yet another resurrection, or something of similar improbability, it’s Mitt Romney versus Newt Gingrich. ...  

 "My own view is that Republicans would have been better served by the candidacies of Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, or Chris Christie. Unfortunately, none is running. You play the hand you’re dealt. This is a weak Republican field with two significantly flawed frontrunners contesting an immensely important election. If Obama wins, he will take the country to a place from which it will not be able to return (which is precisely his own objective for a second term). 

"Every conservative has thus to ask himself two questions: Who is more likely to prevent that second term? And who, if elected, is less likely to unpleasantly surprise?"

"The Fed signals that it intends to hitch our national wagon to Europe just as Europe is going over the edge, and the Dow jumps 4 percent. Maybe I’m missing something. 

"All that Bernanke & Co. did yesterday was to lower the dollar-financing cost for banks in Europe, where inter-bank lending is locking up — for good reason. But Europe’s problem is not its banks and their access to dollars. Europe’s banks are in trouble because European government bonds are in trouble, and European government bonds are in trouble because European governments are in trouble. European governments are in trouble because they spend too much money. The Fed can’t change that, and hasn’t tried. 

"The question is: What is the Fed thinking? Is it looking out for the United States, or is it looking out for the banks?"

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ripped President Obama for the failure of the debt supercommittee, calling the president 'a bystander in the Oval Office' in comments Monday. 

"'I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the supercommittee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn’t get involved. Well, then what the hell are we paying you for?' Christie said in Camden, N.J. "It’s doomed for failure, so I’m not getting involved"? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?' 

"Christie was contrasting the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, saying both stemmed from 'anger' with government's inability to respond to the financial crisis. But while Christie said 'both parties deserve blame for what's going on in Washington, D.C.,' he pointed the finger squarely at Obama for failing to strike a budget deal."

 "House Democrats are jumping ship — suggesting a growing concern within the party that winning back the majority in 2012 will be a difficult task.  

"Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s announcement Monday that he’s stepping aside after more than three decades in office makes him the latest in what is quickly becoming a long line of Democrats to say they will not seek reelection. ...  

"The numbers are stark: Of the nine House members who are retiring and not seeking another office, all are Democrats. Another eight Democratic members are running for different offices entirely — deciding, apparently, that their political prospects are better served in venues other than the House minority. All seven retiring House Republicans are seeking other elected offices."

"Last week, 5,000 files of private email correspondence among several of the world's top climate scientists were anonymously leaked onto the Internet. Like the first 'climategate' leak of 2009, the latest release shows top scientists in the field fudging data, conspiring to bully and silence opponents, and displaying far less certainty about the reliability of anthropogenic global warming theory in private than they ever admit in public. 

"The scientists include men like Michael Mann of Penn State University and Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, both of whose reports inform what President Obama has called 'the gold standard' of international climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

 “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.” 

"Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner says, 'We're facing a very consequential debate about some fundamental choices as a country.' People talk that way in Liberal Land. Moreover, such statements pass muster with those who simply take in the words, decide whether they sound nice to them, and then move on. 

"But, if you take words seriously, the more fundamental question is whether individuals are to remain free to make their own choices, as distinguished from having collectivized choices, 'as a country' -- which is to say, having choices made by government officials and imposed on the rest of us. 

"The history of the 20th century is a painful lesson on what happens when collective choices replace individual choices. Even leaving aside the chilling history of totalitarianism in the 20th century, the history of economic central planning shows it to have been such a widely recognized disaster that even communist and socialist governments were abandoning it as the century ended."

"When Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson accepted the reality that they could not effectively govern the nation if they sought re-election to the White House, both men took the moral high ground and decided against running for a new term as president. President Obama is facing a similar reality — and he must reach the same conclusion. 

"He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president's accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton."

"Congratulations, average American! It’s your turn to be blamed for President Obama’s — and America’s — problems. 

"This is the biggest honor you’ve won since Time magazine named 'you' the Person of the Year. ... 

In 2008, Obama said Bush’s deficit of $9 trillion was 'unpatriotic.' Now he questions the patriotism of those who think the Obama deficit of $15 trillion argues against spending even more money we don’t have. And of course, there’s that giant unfunded disaster known as Obamacare ... 

"But, yes, by all means, let’s blame our lack of competitiveness on the American people."

"Only domestic politics can explain two of the Obama administration's most controversial moves: Exporting illegal guns to Mexico and balking at building an oil pipeline from Canada. ...

"We don't know for sure why the ATF and Justice Department embarked on Fast and Furious. Officials are keeping mum. But no one has come up with a more plausible explanation than the charge that it was intended to make a case for gun control at home. 

"In any case, Mexican citizens and government officials are understandably incensed. But maybe not as incensed as Canadians citizens and government officials are over the Obama administration's decision to punt until after the 2012 election the decision on whether to allow the Canadian firm TransCanada to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline from Alberta to Oklahoma and Texas. 

"This was a crass political decision if there ever was one. The policy arguments for blocking the pipeline, first proposed in September 2008, are pathetically weak."