It's Sunday! Where's Frank Rich? Oh, good, there he is.
Frank Rich:
This is what Obama is talking about when he insists on pushing for change simultaneously on so many fronts — green jobs, health care, education, new financial regulation, infrastructure spending and all the rest. As has been true since he promised “a new foundation for growth” at his inauguration, the most important question is not whether he will try to do too much at once but whether he will and can do enough. Change is hard. Change is traumatic. Sending a juicy C.E.O. — or six — to the gallows is at most a crowd-pleasing opening act to the heavy lifting of reform and rebuilding we still await.
Cynthia Tucker: In praise of Michelle Obama.
Simon Johnson and James Kwak: What if Bernacke's plan doesn't work? Still...
Today, Bernanke's gamble looks like the worst possible alternative, apart from all the others.
Maureen Dowd:
Gabriel Byrne’s brooding psychoanalyst on “In Treatment” might envy Barack Obama’s calming psychoanalysis in Europe. He may not have come away with all he wanted substantively. His hand was too weak going in, and there was too much hostility toward America, thanks to W.’s blunders and Cheney’s bullying. But he showed a psychological finesse that has been missing from American leadership for a long time.
Edward Luce:
At the end of Barack Obama’s press conference following the Group of 20 summit on Thursday, a large crowd of journalists did something journalists never do: they gave a politician a standing ovation (this reporter stayed neutral)...
“He actually answered the questions he was asked,” says one startled Asian reporter.
Fred Barnes: Europe? What about us?
President Obama is the master of misdirection. His skill in using this tactic is a key to his success as a candidate and to his popularity as president. He is a great salesman, marketing his product--the liberal agenda, plus a few add-ons--in a manner that disguises what he's really up to.
And besides, he cheats. He speaks in full sentences that make sense. My crowd can't handle that.
Kathleen Parker: Christian conservatives are not turning the other cheek when it comes to infighting. Maybe they finally realize that the GOP was using them? Well, don't hold your breath waiting for them to fight against poverty and war and such and give up on Republicans.
Bill Schneider: Remember Afghanistan (see Afghan Polling: A Hard Sell To The American People)? Well...
Thomas Friedman:
From the left, Mr. Obama is being ripped for having too much of a market-based approach and not just bowing to the inevitability of nationalizing insolvent banks. From the right, he is being ripped for too much government intervention and not letting market forces play out.
My own sense is this: The Obama package represents the sum total of what was minimally necessary to prevent systemic breakdown, what was politically possible with a Congress that was in no mood to shell out another dime to bail out Wall Street, and what was operationally preferable — at this time — which was a strategy that did not require nationalizing Citigroup & Friends.
So there.