The Foundation

“In politics, as in religion, it is equally absurd to aim at making proselytes by fire and sword. Heresies in either can rarely be cured by persecution.” –Alexander Hamilton

Upright

“Last week Mitt Romney got skunked in South Carolina by Newt Gingrich. Over the course of five days and two debates Gingrich returned a punt, a fumble, and an interception, scored on a safety and pinned Obama deep in his own territory – everything an opposing candidate could have done within the football metaphors of Superbowl week. Then came Florida. Big. Diverse. Expensive. Romney and his campaign righted the ship and put the big hurt on Gingrich. … The problem Gingrich faces now is there is not much on the horizon for the next three weeks that can change the story line … from his big loss last night. … If the Obama campaign learned anything this week it was this: Mitt Romney didn’t get to be Mitt Romney by rolling over and whimpering in the face of adversity.” –political analyst Rich Galen

“To counteract Romney’s money and organization, Gingrich needed electrifying debate performances but didn’t deliver them, a blow to his chances in Florida and to his electability argument, which is heavily dependent on the notion that he would effortlessly flatten President Obama on the debate stage. … Romney is now the dominant frontrunner again without having yet made a compellingly positive case for himself, although his victory speech promising ‘a new era of prosperity’ was a start. … Conventional wisdom holds that the stiff challenge from Gingrich has made Romney a better candidate. If that’s true, he’s going to get the chance to get better still.” –columnist Rich Lowry

“These endless debates have allowed front-runners to stumble and dark horses to catch up – up to a point. Now as the primaries begin to come thick and fast, and debates wane, organization and money matter more and more, and that favors Romney. … [T]hat said, the race is not over – or rather, in terms of primaries and delegate counts, it has hardly begun, especially in the age of disastrous gaffe or embarrassing disclosure. … Meanwhile, the candidates have to cut the suicidal ‘you’re a liar!’ back and forth, and demand from Obama an explanation for the continued massive borrowing amid the latest dismal news.” –historian Victor Davis Hanson

“To me, the real split among conservative voters is about whether it’s actually important that a politician ‘loves’ us or is ‘one of’ us. Count me with the conservatives who could not care less. Notice this is different from saying character doesn’t matter. Indeed, I look past the basic condescension common to most politicians to other, more important virtues of personal and professional conduct. The point is that, if politicians look at voters instrumentally, then we should return the favor. I don’t care about wanting to have a beer with you, I care about whether you can be compelled or cajoled into enacting conservative policies.” –columnist Daniel Foster

Share your thoughts on the Florida primary.

Editorial Exegesis

“A new congressional report shows that joblessness is underestimated, while debt skyrockets. Thirty-six pages into the Congressional Budget Office’s ‘Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022,’ released Tuesday, is the news that ‘the unemployment rate in the fourth quarter of 2011 would have been about 1 ¼ percentage points higher than the actual rate of 8.7%’ once the ‘unusually large decline over so short a time’ in labor force participation is factored out. This means that, contrary to the claims of a media rooting for Obama re-election, the real jobless rate is nearly 10% – belying the notion of an Obama-led ‘recovery.’ … Worse, as CNS News’ Terry Jeffrey notes, the CBO forecasts a 30% jump in tax revenues between 2012 and 2014. … In short, if current policies continue, ‘hope’ and ‘change’ – at least in the form of a prosperous economy – won’t be coming any time soon. If that weren’t bad enough, the CBO forecast another $1 trillion deficit this year and $4.7 trillion over the next four years, as the government speeds toward a fiscal abyss on a trip financed by the taxpayers’ credit card. … But as private-sector workers get stiffed, are their government counterparts feeling their pain? In a separate but not unrelated report, the CBO noted that federal employees’ lavish pay and benefits put them far ahead of their private sector counterparts. Noncollege educated federal workers averaged ‘36% higher total compensation than similar private-sector employees,’ the CBO said. Those with a bachelor’s degree, meanwhile, averaged 15% higher. Overall, ‘the federal government paid 16% more in total compensation’ than the private sector. The dominant media may tell you a new day is dawning in Obama’s America. In fact, our overfed government is partying, while those of us in the private sector pick up the tab for its excesses.” –Investor’s Business Daily

The Demo-gogues

Distortions: “Now I hear folks running around calling this class warfare. This is not class warfare, let me tell you something. Asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as a secretary, that’s just common sense.” –Barack Obama

He’s right about one thing: “What I can say is this: That whoever [the Republican] nominee is, they represent ideas that I think are wrong for America. On a whole range of issues I think that whether it’s Mr. Romney or Mr. Gingrich or Mr. Santorum or whoever else they might decide to select, they represent a fundamentally different vision of America. And it’s not the bold generous forward looking optimistic America that I think built this country.” –Barack Obama

The Party of Civility: “[Republicans] want to use legislation as a way to act like terrorists. They hold things as hostage. … That is so stupid already for them to be pushing the Keystone pipeline issue in this [payroll tax cut extension] bill, in this conference. Republicans have been so mean-spirited, and I think that’s coming across to the American people.” –Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA)

Delusional: “It’s hard to believe how far the Tea Party has taken us away from making the kind of progress our country so greatly deserves. Republicans have launched an all-out assault on women, the middle class and our seniors in the name of protecting billionaires and Big Oil. … With your support, Democrats can win in 2012 and once again produce the progressive change our country needs.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in a fundraising email

Dezinformatsia

The BIG Lie, Part I: “I think the unemployment rate … is lower now than it was when [Obama] inherited it from President George W. Bush.” –MSNBC’s Chris Matthews

The BIG Lie, Part II: “Five trillion [dollars in debt] is what Bush did. Obama’s 1.5. These are the facts. These are the facts.” –HBO’s Bill Maher (“According to the Treasury Department … the total federal debt was $10.6 trillion when Obama was inaugurated. It is now $15.2 trillion, a $4.6 trillion increase. This is not up for debate. To quote Maher, these are the facts.” –Newsbuster’s Noel Sheppard)

The BIG Lie, Part III: “There was a tax, a small tax raise that [Bill Clinton] put forward that not one Republican voted for. The economy turned around. Turned out that that tax raise really did a lot of good things for the economy.” –HBO’s Bill Maher

Blame the Tea Party: “[H]as the Tea Party made compromise a dirty word, and is that why Congress can’t seem to get anything done?” –CBS’s Bob Schieffer to Rep. Michelle Bachmann

Race bait: “The language of GOP racial politics is heavy on euphemisms that allow the speaker to deny any responsibility for the racial content of his message. The code words in this game are ‘entitlement society’ – as used by Mitt Romney – and ‘poor work ethic’ and ‘food stamp president’ – as used by Newt Gingrich. References to a lack of respect for the ‘Founding Fathers’ and the ‘Constitution’ also make certain ears perk up by demonizing anyone supposedly threatening core ‘old-fashioned American values.’” –Fox News’ Juan Williams

Newspulper Headlines:

In Other Words, We Are Hopelessly Lost: “Obama Declares ‘We’ve Come Too Far to Turn Back Now’” –MSNBC.com

Longest Books Ever Written: “The State of the Union: What Obama Doesn’t Get About America” –TheAtlantic.com

Shortest Books Ever Written: “Obama’s Common Sense” –Huffington Post

We Blame Global Warming: “Woman Claims Neighbor’s Energy Efficient Windows Are Melting Her Toyota Prius” –CBS Los Angeles website

Is There a Case for It?: “The Case Against Stretching Earlobes” –Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Bottom Story of the Day: “GOP Candidates Criticize Obama, Each Other” –CNN.com

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Completely backwards: “The thing that’s dragging down the economy is the government is shrinking so rapidly that it’s pulling the overall growth rate to 2.8 percent.” –White House adviser Austan Goolsbee

“Mistakes”? “Obviously I think if the question is referring to things like Fast and Furious, I think everyone has acknowledged that mistakes, serious mistakes, were made there. The key question [is] to make sure that those mistakes, from my standpoint, are never again repeated.” –Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on the biggest scandal in years

“The Obama administration has undertaken the most serious and sustained actions to secure our borders in our nation’s history. And it is clear from every measure we currently have that this approach is working.” –Janet Napolitano

Faulty memory: “[I] don’t remember anything coming from the Democratic Party about George W. Bush being equated to a terrorist or George W. Bush being equated to somebody who’s been accused of manslaughter. I don’t remember anybody questioning, you know, some of the things about George W. Bush that have been questioned about the president. I don’t remember an opposing governor wagging his or her finger in president George W. Bush’s face. I mean, the truth is, is that the Republican Party starts from a core of extreme positions and it seems that that leads to extreme rhetoric when things don’t seem to be work out for them with the voters.” –DNC spokesman Brad Woodhouse

Left-theology: “There is also a negative underside to that history with respect to slavery, manifest destiny, to war, you know, to empires, so I, frankly, am glad American civil religion is dying. But it does raise the practical question, what does bind us together in some way as a country? We need some substitute for that and I don’t think we’ve found it yet.” –Obama’s former “faith adviser” Shaun Casey

Short Cuts

“President Obama halted the Keystone pipeline, citing its potential harm to underground aquifers in Nebraska. He said he’s a committed environmentalist. Barack Obama is so committed to recycling that he’s promising hope and change in his next term.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“The worst thing about the political debates isn’t the format or the content, but that it magnifies debating skills to such an extent. I keep hearing that Gingrich would demolish Obama in a debate. I disagree. Republicans would watch such a debate and decide that Newt had mopped the floor with Barack; Democrats would see it the other way around. And the next day, the liberal media would announce that Obama won by a knockout in the first round. As we all know, a president no more needs to be a great debater than he needs to know how to juggle plates, play the accordion or yodel.” –columnist Burt Prelutsky

“Had I been asked to deliver the State of the Union address, it would not have delayed your dinner plans: ‘The State of our Union is broke, heading for bankrupt, and total collapse shortly thereafter. Thank you and goodnight! You’ve been a terrific crowd!’” –columnist Mark Steyn

“During an interview with ABC, President Obama said, ‘I make a mistake every hour, every day.’ I wouldn’t mind that so much if he didn’t keep signing them into law.” –Fred Thompson

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team