Your one stop pundit shop.
Eugene Robinson, after spending some quality time slapping Dick Cheney around, says:
That said, Afghanistan is Obama's war now ...
We invaded Afghanistan to ensure that the country could never again be used to launch attacks against the United States. That mission is accomplished, and our only goal should be making sure it stays accomplished -- whether the place is run by Hamid Karzai or the Taliban. The counterinsurgency campaign that Obama is contemplating looks like a step onto the slipperiest slope imaginable. It doesn't matter whether the step is tentative or bold.
Sometimes a "war president" has to decide to start bringing the troops home. That's what Obama must do.
Bill Kristol really goes out on a limb to predict the future of the Republican Party:
The center of gravity, I suspect, will instead lie with individuals such as Palin and Huckabee and Gingrich, media personalities like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and activists at town halls and tea parties.
Richard Cohen on Afghanistan:
This is why McChrystal's request for 40,000 or so additional troops for Afghanistan ought not to be taken as some sort of holy writ. These requests are a starting point, a place to begin the debate. Those whose battle cry is "Give the generals what they need" are actually saying "Give the generals what they want" -- which is not responsible policymaking. President Obama's protracted review of all the options is precisely the right approach. We have gone to war in a hurry once too often of late.
Bob Herbert bemoans passivity:
Americans have tended to watch with a remarkable (I think frightening) degree of passivity as crises of all sorts have gripped the country and sent millions of lives into tailspins. Where people once might have deluged their elected representatives with complaints, joined unions, resisted mass firings, confronted their employers with serious demands, marched for social justice and created brand new civic organizations to fight for the things they believed in, the tendency now is to assume that there is little or nothing ordinary individuals can do about the conditions that plague them.
This is so wrong. It is the kind of thinking that would have stopped the civil rights movement in its tracks, that would have kept women in the kitchen or the steno pool, that would have prevented labor unions from forcing open the doors that led to the creation of a vast middle class.
This passivity and sense of helplessness most likely stems from the refusal of so many Americans over the past few decades to acknowledge any sense of personal responsibility for the policies and choices that have led the country into such a dismal state of affairs, and to turn their backs on any real obligation to help others who were struggling.
William McGurn sobs for President Obama to leave George Bush alone.
Cal Thomas has a plan:
If conservatives and Republicans support an exodus from public schools as a strategic goal, they will strike at the heart of liberalism while simultaneously liberating minorities trapped in failed government schools. To free them and teach them about America and its promise of hope would produce everything they are seeking but can't find in politics. It also would pay political dividends as children and their parents saw which party and persuasion cared about them enough to bring real change to their lives.
Lydia Khalil on the thread of homegrown terrorism:
Homegrown radicals only become a significant threat when they are able to connect with militant radical groups with significant experience. Anyone can become influenced by militant ideology and change from a middle-class college student to a would-be terrorist. But unless these individuals have access to organized terrorist networks, they are limited to what they can do.
Oklahoma City?
Kevin Horrigan tackles health care now that he's figured out how to deal with tough times:
Times being what they are, I have decided to suck up to Fox News by becoming a conservative commentator.
I know some people will doubt my credibility. But frankly, based on what I've seen and heard, credibility is not the issue. Money is - conservative commentators make a lot more money than I do. Their audiences skew to conservative-leaning older white men. Financially, you can't go wrong by telling people what they want to hear.