"Many liberal Americans continue to scream about raising taxes to bring down the debt. But that crushes economic expansion. Corporations and rich folks will only take so much taxation before they leave the building, as Elvis once did. 

"Capitalism is a tough system. It's not touchy-feely like in Sweden, where cradle-to-grave entitlements rule. But there are fewer than 10 million Swedes, so they work it out. With more than 300 million Americans, we can't 'provide' for everyone.  

"The cold truth is that unions are on the way out. High tech means big changes in the workplace, and labor protections are not needed as much as they once were. What we are seeing in Wisconsin is the beginning of a new attitude toward the American worker. And there will be pain until we get things sorted out."

"President Obama hasn't abandoned his jobs-killing global-warming agenda, just wrapped it in the rhetoric of 'clean energy.' And that may be enough to get Republicans to sign on.

"That 'clean energy' is code for 'anti-warming' is obvious, given that even Environmental Protection Agency numbers show that virtually all emissions have dropped dramatically in recent decades -- except for greenhouse gases. ... 

"Global warming is a dying cause because the costs of the favored 'fixes' for the problem vastly outweigh the supposed benefits -- and China and India aren't going to stop industrializing, and stay poor, simply to please Western elites. Republicans should wake up and not let Obama use the guise of clean energy to keep the anti-warming crusade alive."

"Public-sector unions are a creature of government, and the Democrats are the party of government. The two of them have identical interests and worldviews, and both want to leverage government to swell their campaign coffers. How to characterize this? The word 'shame' comes to mind."

"Remember the ad Hillary Clinton ran against Barack Obama during the 2008 campaign?

'It's 3 a.m. and your children are safe and asleep,' it began. 'But there's a phone in the White House and it's ringing. Something's happening in the world.

'Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it's someone who already knows the world's leaders, knows the military, someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world . . . Who do you want answering the phone?'

"Now we know the answer: neither of the above."

"Obama’s Democrats have become the party of no. Real cuts to the federal budget? No. Entitlement reform? No. Tax reform? No. Breaking the corrupt and fiscally unsustainable symbiosis between public-sector unions and state governments? Hell no."

"Democrats are acting as if Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's demand that public sector employees give up collective bargaining would have George Washington rolling in his grave (a clear violation of Gravediggers' Local 803 regulations concerning the rolling of the dead)."

"First lady Michelle Obama said, 'Let's Move!' Who knew Democratic politicians in Wisconsin and Indiana would take her literally? 

"Faced with stifling debt, bloated pensions and intractable government unions, liberal Midwestern legislators have fled those states -- paralyzing Republican fiscal reform efforts. Like Monty Python's Brave Sir Robin and his band of quivering knights, these elected officials have only one plan when confronted with political hardship or economic peril: Run away, run away, run away."

"It is becoming clear that the Wisconsin battle was a strategic political blunder for President Obama and the Democratic Party. The decision by the Democratic Party and its allies to draw a line in the sand in Wisconsin was the wrong strategy, in the wrong state, at the wrong time, on the wrong issue, and executed in the wrong way. 

"The White House, which for the last two years seemed so tone deaf over health care, jobs, and the economy, may again be displaying a stunning political miscalculation. Unless the Democrats pull the plug on their ill-conceived Wisconsin campaign, the statewide and national backlash now beginning to emerge may continue to resonate all the way to the 2012 presidential elections ... 

"For in the end, the images and messages tell the story. The showdown in Madison pits pampered public employees against hard-pressed taxpayers. It portrays union workers as an angry mob against those seeking orderly legislative deliberation. It paints Democratic lawmakers as outlaws on the run, undermining the democratic process. It launched a national debate about the generous salaries and benefits for government workers during a time of economic shortages. And it showcased school teachers who abandoned their children in favor of narrow, partisan political gain. 

"This is a bad unraveling of a political campaign."

"In 2009, the country witnessed Chris Christie, who at the time was relatively unknown outside of New Jersey, defeat Democrat incumbent Jon Corzine for the governorship. Then it watched  Christie declare a 'state of fiscal emergency.' Then it watched him propose major spending cuts and give the proverbial middle finger to teachers’ unions. 

"Now, Christie’s playbook has become standard reading for many of the Republican governors that were elected in 2010."

"Obama fancies his happy talk, debt-denial optimism to be Reaganesque. It's more Louis XV. Reagan begat a quarter-century of prosperity; Louis, the deluge.

Moreover, unlike Obama, Louis had the decency to admit he was forfeiting the future. He never pretended to be winning it."