Abbreviated Pundit Round-Up

Your one stop pundit shop.

David Brooks takes a long time to say it, tossing in as many liberal stereotypes as he can along the way, but finally admits that Sarah Palin isn't qualified to be a 72-year old heartbeat away from the presidency.

Bob Herbert asks an important question:

Talk about a shock to the system. Has anyone bothered to notice the radical changes that John McCain and Sarah Palin are planning for the nation’s health insurance system?

These are changes that will set in motion nothing less than the dismantling of the employer-based coverage that protects most American families.

And if the traditional media can stop salivating over the pseudo-outrage of the day from the McCain campaign, perhaps they could be bothered to spend a little time on this issue.

Richard Cohen rakes John McCain over the coals, concluding with:

McCain lied about his lying and maybe thinks that if he wins the election, he can -- as he did in South Carolina -- renounce who he was and what he did and resume his old persona. It won't work. Karl Marx got one thing right -- what he said about history repeating itself. Once is tragedy, a second time is farce. John McCain is both.

And as an added bonus, Cohen admits that he is one of the journalists who has given McCain a free ride over the years.

Kenneth Rogoff applauds the government's new willingness to let Wall Street firms fail.

Mona Charen, after an odd aside about almost wishing Obama would win to prove that people like her aren't racists, says that Obama (and Pelosi and Reid - boo!) will destroy the American health care system. Not like his maverick opponent who will give you a $5000 tax credit and his best wishes that you never, ever get sick.

David Limbaugh manages to combine lies, pettiness, stupidity and even a bit of concern trolling before finishing his weekly screed on this odd note:

Gratifyingly, Mr. McCain was a big enough man to choose and surrender the spotlight to Sarah Palin.

Apparently Mr. Limbaugh forgot who is running for president.

David M. Cutler, J. Bradford DeLong, and Ann Marie Marciarille explain why Barack Obama's health care plan is superior to that of John McCain, because under McCain's plan:

Those already sick are completely out of luck, as individual insurers are free to deny coverage due to pre-existing conditions. Mr. McCain has proposed a high-risk pool for the very sick, but has not put forward the money to make it work.  [...]

The immediate consequences of the McCain plan are even worse. The McCain plan is a big tax increase on employers and workers. With the economy in recession, that's the last thing America's businesses need.