Your Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

End of week punditry! What can be said that hasn't been said already? To a pundit, that's a challenge!

Paul Krugman:

Health care reform hangs in the balance. Its fate rests with a handful of "centrist" senators — senators who claim to be mainly worried about whether the proposed legislation is fiscally responsible.

But if they’re really concerned with fiscal responsibility, they shouldn’t be worried about what would happen if health reform passes. They should, instead, be worried about what would happen if it doesn’t pass. For America can’t get control of its budget without controlling health care costs — and this is our last, best chance to deal with these costs in a rational way.

They are, of course, Senators like Joe Lieberman (used to be a D-CT): more responsive to insurance lobbyists than their constituents.
David Brooks:

Barring a scientific breakthrough, we can’t merge Obama’s analysis with George Bush’s passion. But we should still be glad that he is governing the way he is. I loved covering the Obama campaign. But amid problems like Afghanistan and health care, it simply wouldn’t do to give gauzy speeches about the meaning of the word hope. It is in Obama’s nature to lead a government by symposium. Embrace the complexity. Learn to live with the dispassion.

I hate agreeing with Brooks, but there it is.

Nate Silver on the enthusiasm gap:

Looked at a bit differently -- as the percentage of electorate that whites and black make up each cycle -- the gap is a bit larger than that. But it's certainly nowhere near the numbers identified by Research 2000. Their 'definitely/probably' electorate would be 80.4 percent white, 8.2 percent black, 9.5 percent Hispanic, and 2.0 percent 'other'. Contrast that to the situation in 2008, where the electorate was 74 percent white, and 13 percent black, and you can see why Democrats have such problems.

Kristen Soltis:

One year later, young voters are still giving Obama a chance and have not returned to the GOP. But the Republican Party now has an opening on issues that do not create an age rift in the party: spending and the economy. It will be up to GOP leadership to take this opportunity and invite young voters to join a Republican majority coalition in greater numbers. Young voters are not lost to the GOP forever, but proactive steps need to be taken to capitalize on the opportunity to drive an economic message.

TIME:

Yet in today's hard economic times, something startling began showing up in public-opinion polls: fewer people than in the past wanted Washington to step in. In the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, only 23% of respondents said they trust the government "always or most of the time"--the smallest proportion in 12 years. The percentage of voters who think government should "do more to solve problems and meet the needs of people" has dropped 5 points since Obama's first weeks in office, while that of those who think government should leave more things "to businesses" rose 8 points. The shift is especially noticeable among independent voters, a small plurality of whom wanted government to "do more" after Obama took office; now--by a margin of 17--they think government does "too much."

Eugene Robinson: Obama should withdraw from Afghanistan.

President Obama should have declared victory in Afghanistan and begun a withdrawal. His escalation of the war may achieve its goals, but at too great a cost -- and without making our nation meaningfully safer from the threat of terrorist attacks.

Charles Krauthammer: Obama should withdraw from DC. That was the worst warmongering speech I've ever heard. No "dead or alive" or any red meat for the "kill the Islamofascists" crowd. No good songs. What kind oif war is this, anyway?