Monday opinion.
Paul Krugman:
The best thing about the Irish right now is that there are so few of them. By itself, Ireland can’t do all that much damage to Europe’s prospects. The same can be said of Greece and of Portugal, which is widely regarded as the next potential domino.
But then there’s Spain. The others are tapas; Spain is the main course.
And things would be better if McCain-Palin, Bush, Romney or Huckabee were in the WH?
Daniel Larison:
In addition to raising doubts about President Barack Obama's ability to win support for accords he has signed, the treaty's fate will show the world that every administration initiative, no matter what it is, will be subjected to constant opposition for narrow political ends. Contrary to most expectations, the recent midterm election results have not just had some impact on U.S. foreign policy, but are immediately having an outsized, disruptive effect that seems likely to increase during the next two years.
Many foreign governments may decide that it is better to wait until after the next election before entering into serious negotiations with America over anything.
The willingness of the GOP to gut everything in their obsession over gaining power remains under-discussed.
Black Friday watch:
Black Friday sales rose only slightly from a year ago even though more shoppers visited stores, retail traffic monitor ShopperTrak said Saturday, setting the stage for another uncertain holiday season for retailers.
Sales increased 0.3% to $10.7 billion, according to ShopperTrak, which installs monitoring devices in stores to gauge traffic. Traffic rose by 2.2%, ShopperTrak said.
CNN:
Sen. John McCain helped catapult former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to the national stage and now he's equating her to former President Ronald Reagan.
He made the comparison Sunday when asked if Palin is "divisive."
"I think anybody that has the visibility that Sarah has is obviously going to have some divisiveness," McCain said on CNN's "State of the Union." "I remember that a guy named Ronald Reagan used to be viewed by some as divisive."
The former Republican presidential nominee called Palin "an incredible force in the American political arena" and said she's "keeping her options open.
Mccain has likely been on the Sunday talk shows more than any other guest, but (except, apparently, for the Sunday talk show hosts) does anyone care what McCain says or thinks? His credibility died the day he picked Sarah the Unready for VP.
NY Times/The Lede on reaction to Wikileaks:
My colleague Elizabeth Heron reports that commentary on the leaked documents on social media sites is divided along the same lines as it is in the comment thread below this post: into those who salute and those who decry both WikiLeaks and the news organizations that have published the documents.
On Twitter, an observation posted by David Waldock has been repeated hundreds of times: "Dear government: as you keep telling us, if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear #wikileaks."
Another popular comment on the social network was posted by a microblogger using the scree name Renderfarm.fi, who wrote: "Sorry to all who disagree, but to me #cablegate represents why Internet was invented and what it should stand for. Freedom of information."
WaPo on American exceptionalism:
Pfeiffer contended that the new criticism of Obama on the subject says more about the race for the Republican presidential nomination than anything else.
The GOP contenders know that this kind of argument - with its suggestion that Obama is undermining American values - was "a huge piece of what Sarah Palin did in 2008," Pfeiffer said. "They want a little bit of Sarah Palin magic, because she has a lot of enthusiasm and support among the base."
WSJ on investing in fear:
Call it a bull market in fear.
The popularity of the VIX index, which has become a widely watched barometer of investor fear since the financial crisis, is generating a host of spinoffs, copycats and derivatives. It is adding up to big business for VIX's owner, the Chicago Board Options Exchange, as well as partners and competitors that have developed products pegged to, or inspired by, the VIX.
Mark Mellman and Jim Margolis on how they helped Harry Reid win:
Cell phones: Robopolls, like those produced by Rasmussen, are precluded by law from calling cell phones. At one stage Reid led by 19 points among those reached on cell phones, but was nearly tied among those reached on land lines.
As a result of these methodological shortcomings, many public polls contributed to a net loss of knowledge about this race.