Chronicle

The Foundation

"Every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle. We have called by different names brethren of the same principle." --Thomas Jefferson

Editorial Exegesis

"For all of his struggles as a campaigner, Mitt Romney doesn't lack for resilience. That character trait is essential in a President, and Mr. Romney proved again Tuesday that he has it by winning primaries in Arizona and in an especially rough contest against Rick Santorum in Michigan. Mr. Romney never makes it look easy, but as Hillary Clinton knows from 2008, victory beats the alternative. While narrow, Mr. Romney's triumph in Michigan was important in showing he could win his native state and in the Midwest. ... Mr. Romney also improved his case for his own candidacy, stressing a reform agenda as much as his business biography. In the final days in particular, he pressed his new plan for a 20% across-the-board income tax cut, as well as Medicare reform. He stressed his ability to revive the economy, which remains the dominant issue even among conservatives, despite the prominence of social issues in the last week. ... The race moves on to Super Tuesday next week, and if past is prologue it is far from over. The media are already predicting that no Republican can defeat Mr. Obama, despite his low approval rating and 8.3% unemployment, and many GOP hand-wringers seem to agree. But most of the American public hasn't begun to pay close attention, much less decided to re-elect this President. The candidates can help themselves if they stop playing the game of who-is-the-real-conservative? They are all conservatives of one stripe or another. GOP voters want to hear a critique of Mr. Obama, but above all they want to hear an agenda and vision for a better future that can rally a majority to defeat him." --The Wall Street Journal

Upright

"Romney came back to edge Rick Santorum in his home state that he won handily in 2008. ... [I]n the end, he won (and out in Arizona, won overwhelmingly). ... Although [Santorum's] message has been pitched to working-class voters, it's not clear whether it has hit home. ... He and Romney are a study in contrasts. Santorum the widely dismissed underdog versus Romney the frontrunner; Santorum's shoestring operation against Romney's proficient organization; Santorum's passionate and sometimes blustery stump performances and interviews in contrast Romney's buttoned-up-to-a-fault presentations. Santorum's gaffes are a product of speaking his mind, Romney's of straining too much to connect. Ohio on Super Tuesday next week will be a fairer test between the two candidates, since Romney won't have a home-field advantage." --National Review's Rich Lowry

"According to the Institute for Energy Research, there is enough natural gas in the U.S. to meet electricity demand for 575 years at current fuel demand, enough to fuel homes heated by natural gas for 857 years and more gas in the U.S. than there is in Russia, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and some place called Turkmenistan combined. Oil? The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the United States could soon overtake Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's top oil producer. ... Yet in the end, high gas prices are part of the plan. This is what the administration wants." --columnist David Harsanyi

"We'd almost feel sorry for Mr. Obama's gas-price predicament if it weren't a case of rough justice. The President has deliberately sought to raise the price of energy throughout the economy via his cap-and-trade agenda. He is now getting his wish, albeit a little too overtly for political comfort. Mr. Obama has also spent three years blaming George W. Bush for every economic ill. If Mr. Obama now feels frustrated by economic events beyond his control, perhaps he should call Mr. Bush for consolation." --The Wall Street Journal

"Courts have consistently concluded that 'gross' disparities are probative of a pattern and practice of discrimination. So what to do? One remedy that Congress might consider is to require females, who are overrepresented in fields such as preschool and kindergarten teaching, to become boilermakers and brickmasons and mandate that male boilermakers and brickmasons become preschool and kindergarten teachers until both of their percentages are equal to their percentages in the population. You say, 'Williams, that would be totalitarianism!' But if Americans accept that Congress can make us buy health insurance whether we want to or not, how much more totalitarian would it be for Congress to allocate jobs in the name of social equality and the good of our nation?" --economist Walter E. Williams

Insight

"The problems in the world today are so enormous they cannot be solved with the level of thinking that created them." --theoretical physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"There should be a tax on every man that wanted to get a government appointment, or be elected to office. In two years that tax alone would pay our national debt." --American humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

The Demo-gogues

About values: "America's not just [about] looking out for yourself, it's not just about greed, it's not just about trying to climb to the very top and keep everybody else down. ... Hard work, that's a value. Looking out for one another, that's a value. The idea that we're all in it together and [that] I'm my brother's keeper and [my] sister's keeper, that's a value." --Barack Obama

Change: "I'm here to tell [Republicans] they are wrong about America. Because in America we understand -- yes, we're rugged individuals. Yes, we don't expect a handout. But we also understand we are greater together than we are on our own." --Barack Obama

Pot, meet kettle: "Just like they did last year, gas prices are starting to climb. ... Now, some politicians always see this as a political opportunity. ... Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling. ... Well the American people aren't stupid. You know that's not a plan -- especially since we're already drilling. It's a bumper sticker. It's not a strategy to solve our energy challenge. It's a strategy to get politicians through an election." --Barack Obama

Heaven forbid: "[M]y presidency is not over. I've got another five years coming up." --Barack Obama

Faith matters: "[N]inety-eight percent of women in childbearing age who are Catholic use contraception. Ok, so in practice the church has not enforced this and now they want the federal government and private insurance to enforce it. It just isn't consistent to me."-- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

What Constitution? "Well, basically, we're not looking to the Constitution on that aspect of [government being allowed to require organizations to provide free services]. What I'm trying to say is basically the decision has been made by this congress that American citizens are entitled to health care." --Rep. Kathy Hochul (D-NY)

Dezinformatsia

Civility, Exhibit A: "Republicans, you vile, repulsive, scum. You're not leading this country. You're not contributing to this country. You're not even part of this country. You are the maggot-ridden rot that arises in this country's damaged flesh; you are the vultures constantly picking at us to see if we're weak enough yet to become your next meal; you create problems where none would otherwise exist, just to further weaken America and quicken your own insatiable appetites; you are garbage, and you are traitors. And you are not welcome in this country anymore." --Daily Kos blogger Troubadour

Civility, Exhibit B: "[W]hat a waste of an education Rick Santorum is! ... Let's just pray that none of his home-schooled kids grow up to be an airline pilot, okay? That's all I'm asking. Please dear God, do not let any of these home-schooled kids grow up to be a surgeon, an airline pilot, or a nurse. Or somebody that's in charge of my trans-vaginal mandatory ultrasound. Seriously, no science-y things for them, you know, just religion, let them be all preachers or something." --talk radio-host Randi Rhodes

Civility, Exhibit C: "Remember earlier in the campaign when Newt Gingrich was worrying everyone about Sharia law: the Muslims were going to impose Sharia law in America? Sometimes Santorum sounds like he's creeping up on a Christian version of Sharia law." --Time columnist Bill Keller

That's racist! "Boy, the thing is, you play to what you've got. And what the Republicans have is an awful lot of scared white people in their party. And one of the things they're most scared about is people of different colors and ethnicities and, you know, backgrounds polluting their white picket fence sense of America." --Time magazine's Joe Klein

Credit where it isn't due: "While President Obama may not be Wall Street's ideal candidate, stock prices are rising on growing expectations he will be re-elected this November." --CNBC's John Melloy

Newspulper Headlines:

We Blame George W. Bush: "Dem Leader Pelosi Blames Wall Street for Spike in Gas Prices" --TheHill.com

Longest Books Ever Written: "Gingrich's Transcendent Self-Regard" --Commentary website

Answers to Questions Nobody Is Asking: "How Callista Gingrich Makes Her Hair Stay Still" --Boston Globe website

Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Richard Dawkins: I Can't Be Sure God Does Not Exist" --Daily Telegraph (London)

Out on a Limb: "Beheadings Raise Doubts That Taliban Have Changed" --The New York Times

Bottom Story of the Day: "Roemer Running as Independent" --Politico.com

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

Village Idiots

It's Bush's fault: "The president made clear when he was a candidate for this office and when he took this office, that unfortunately prior to his taking office, because of the focus on Iraq, and the U.S. efforts there, that the original war, if you will, in Afghanistan had been neglected, the strategy there was unclear, and that it was not properly resourced." --Jay Carney, desperate for an excuse for this administration

Revisionist history: "[W]hat you don't hear from these [GOP] candidates is that they really can't go after this president on domestic production of oil and gas. He's actually done quite a lot. In fact, I would suspect they're environmentalists who are worried that we're doing too much drilling and fracking, in fact. I know that for a fact." --Jared Bernstein, former economic policy adviser to Joe Biden

On religious liberty: "People who cry moral indignation about government-mandated contraception coverage appear unwilling to concede that the exercise of their deeply held convictions might infringe on the rights of millions of people who are burdened by unplanned pregnancy or want to reduce abortion or would like to see their tax dollars committed to a different purpose. ... At a minimum, the Catholic bishops and employers resisting contraceptive coverage should be willing to pay for the care of all those unwanted children. Or perhaps they'd be willing to spend some time in jail in protest." --Harvard administrator Erika Christakis, arguing that because a woman didn't buy or use contraceptives (or they failed) before having un-wed sexual intercourse and ending up pregnant, Catholic bishops should go to jail

No cuts, just tax more: "[I]f you don't try to generate more revenues through tax reform, if you don't ask, you know, the most fortunate Americans to bear a slightly larger burden of the privilege of being an American, then you have to -- the only way to achieve fiscal sustainability is through unacceptably deep cuts in benefits for middle class seniors, or unacceptably deep cuts in national security." --Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner

Non Compos Mentis: "[I]t's an honor to be a food stamp president. Food stamps feed the hungry. Food stamps save the children. Food stamps help the farmer. Food stamps help the truck driver. Food stamps help the warehouse. Food stamps help the store. Food stamps hire people and feed people. Food stamps save people from starvation and malnutrition. ... Give President Barack Obama a big hand. Show your love. Show your appreciation." --Jesse Jackson

Short Cuts

"Richard Dawkins says he can't be sure God doesn't exist. Well, you know what I do when I'm not sure about something? I go on a big crusade about it and write a bunch of books on the subject. No, wait, that sounds more like what someone with a mental disorder would do. That's one of the crazy things about lots of atheists: They're whole movement is supposed to be about being logical and reasonable, yet they tend to rail against religion is a very mindless way that doesn't seem to serve any more purpose than a tantrum. Perhaps I just don't understand their strong faith in not having faith." --humorist Frank J. Fleming

"Iran cut off oil exports to its six biggest European customers in retaliation for the EU's vow to stop buying oil from Iran. Oil prices soared. Gasoline is so expensive in L.A. that police pulled over a van on the freeway yesterday with fifty legal Americans in it." --comedian Argus Hamilton

"Due to the rising price of oil and gas, the Obama administration announced today they are considering dipping into our national strategic re-election reserves. I mean, I'm sorry -- strategic oil reserves." --comedian Jay Leno

"In Florida, a man was arrested after he dropped his gun during an attempted robbery and returned to the scene to try buying it back from the victims. Now THERE'S an 'Obama 2012' metaphor." --Fred Thompson

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