Frank Rich:
If logic applied to Palin’s career trajectory, this month might have been judged dreadful for her. In an otherwise great year for Republicans she endorsed a "Star Wars" bar gaggle of anomalous and wacky losers — the former witch, Christine O’Donnell; the raging nativist, Tom Tancredo; and at least two candidates who called for armed insurrection against the government, Sharron Angle and a would-be Texas congressman, Stephen Broden, who lost by over 50 percentage points. Last week voters in Palin’s home state humiliatingly "refudiated" her protégé, Joe Miller, overturning his victory in the G.O.P. Senate primary with a write-in campaign.
But logic doesn’t apply to Palin. What might bring down other politicians only seems to make her stronger: the malapropisms and gaffes, the cut-and-run half-term governorship, family scandals, shameless lying and rapacious self-merchandising. In an angry time when America’s experts and elites all seem to have failed, her amateurism and liabilities are badges of honor. She has turned fallibility into a formula for success.
Only for the fawning media. The polls say most of America rejects her as unqualified. In fact, if/when she fizzles out, it will be the biggest political media failure on record. She is good at making money, though. I wonder how much John McCain regrets what he created. Nah, probably only regrets he lost. McCain is as shallow as she is.
Maureen Dowd:
Still, if the president calls the Republicans’ bluff and makes them vote against ratification, they look petty. Is it worth risking the obliteration of the world to obliterate Obama’s second term?
Republicans stopped putting the public interest first back in 1994. It's Newt Gringrich's legacy for Republicans, and it's still alive and well. See McCain and his choice of an unqualified Palin for VP. And the irony that Newt wants to be President should not be lost on us.
Tom Jensen/PPP:
Barack Obama was the first Democratic Presidential candidate to win Virginia in a generation in 2008 and a new PPP survey finds that with the most mentioned possible 2012 GOP hopefuls viewed dimly in the state he'd probably do it again if he had to stand for election today.
Obama leads Mitt Romney (48-43) and Mike Huckabee (49-44) each by 5 points in hypothetical contests, a margin similar to his victory over John McCain in the state. If the Republican nominee was either Newt Gingrich or Sarah Palin Obama's lead widens to 11 points, by spreads of 52-41 and 51-40 respectively.
Logic? Facts? Feh, as my grandmother would say. We have our narrative.
Tammy S. Schultz:
After 17 years, "don't ask, don't tell" may finally be on its way out. Even if the Senate resists the latest efforts to end the policy, it appears that most members of the military - from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on down - support the law's repeal.
But there's one part of the military where resistance is greater than in any other: the United States Marine Corps...
As a rule, ground pounders are more conservative, resistant to change and likely to uphold tradition. This equates to a fear of the unknown - in this case, serving in combat with an openly gay Marine.
Every Marine sees himself or herself as on the front lines, if not at the moment, then ready to deploy at any time. The Marine Corps is a smaller service than the other branches, with a greater singularity of purpose. That attitude is part of Marine Corps exceptionalism broadly, as well as when it comes to the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." Anything that could dilute the warrior ethos will face a challenge.
This is about understanding the issue, not dumping on the Marines.
Jeffrey Pfeffer on Schoen and Caddell's poorly thought out (and poorly reviewed) idea that Obama should announce he's not running again:
Bad idea. As soon as her end date at the company was well known, she later told me, her role at the firm changed. People stopped consulting her on hiring or investment decisions. She wasn't invited to key meetings. Essentially, most people started freezing her out, treating her as if she'd already left.
And in a sense, she had. Her co-workers correctly anticipated that she soon would have no power to help or hurt them, so she became effectively irrelevant to their working lives.
Newsweek on Jim Webb:
It is a political truism that a lot of things can happen in two years. The national mood could shift in the progressive direction. President Obama might pull a Clinton and move to meet the electorate halfway. Republicans could overreach. But none of these things will necessarily happen. Politicians, like generals, tend to view the next campaign through the lens of the last one. By that standard, senators from deep-blue states—like Ben Cardin of Maryland, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, or Daniel Akaka of Hawaii—can look toward 2012 and relax, confident that sticking up for the president’s agenda, no matter how liberal it is, will not hurt their chances. But for Webb and his endangered colleagues from deeply conservative areas of the country, or swing states where the Democrats got clobbered this year, following the leader in the White House doesn’t feel like an effective electoral strategy. "I’ve been saying this for five years," Webb told me. "Democrats have to reach out to the working class. Something has to change in the Democratic Senate."
Liberals and conservatives agree. Write that down. Wall Street is in NY, the rest of the country lives on Main Street (and these days, they rent.)