Martin Feldstein, Harvard University Professor of Economics and Former Council of Economic Advisers Chairman, Regarding the Cost/Benefits of Cap-and-Trade:

“In my judgment, the proposed cap-and-trade system would be a costly policy that would penalize Americans with little effect on global warming. The proposal to give away most of the permits only makes a bad idea worse. Taxpayers and legislators should keep these things in mind before enacting any cap-and-trade system.”

The Editors, The Wall Street Journal, On Congress, the Health Care Industry and Universal Healthcare Coverage:

“Democrats have so far succeeded in conjuring an illusion of political inevitability, which has kept industry groups in line lest they be shut out of the negotiations. But once the policy details of Mr. Obama's new foundation are poured — above all for a public insurance program run by the government that will run private carriers out of the market and eventually fix medical prices — even shell-shocked CEOs might stir up their courage to resist. Democrats are of course acutely aware of how industry opposition chewed through HillaryCare in 1994.

“The reality is that Democrats are contemplating the most sweeping restructuring of the health markets since Medicare in 1965, and they don't want to let the details slow them down. Or to be more precise, they don't want to let the details let others slow them down. Better to grab what they will portray as a major domestic achievement while President Obama is at the height of his popularity and before anyone understands what it will mean in practice. The consequences and the cost can be explained later.”

Henry Payne, The Detroit News, Regarding Political and Economic Priorities in the Automobile Business:

“GM was one of the richest contributors to Barack Obama's campaign, and to ensure its viability the White House has upped the federal commitment to $50 billion, gutted bankruptcy law and shredded contracts with secured bondholders. It has placed our largest automaker in the hands of Big Labor and Big Government interests, entities whose political priorities clash with the economic priorities necessary to make GM profitable.”

Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent, The (Washington, DC) Examiner, On Opposition to Closing Gitmo:

“I've gotten a look inside the Gallup poll numbers showing that a majority of Americans oppose shutting down the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay. The numbers are stunning. They show a strong and virtually across-the-board rejection of President Obama's proposal to close the prison.

“Overall, 65 percent of those surveyed oppose shutting Gitmo, versus 32 percent who say it should be closed. According to the poll's internal numbers, large majorities of men oppose closing the prison, large majorities of women oppose it, large majorities of white people oppose it, large majorities of non-white people oppose it, people with graduate degrees oppose it, and people who didn't finish high school oppose it. Pretty much everybody.”

Regarding the Upcoming Senate Confirmation Hearings for Supreme Court Nominee Sonia Sotomayor:

“Sonia Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings won’t happen for over a month, but it’s easy to predict how they will go. In a series of preening, long-winded questions, the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee will attempt to divine Sotomayor’s position on a variety of controversial topics — from affirmative action to abortion to presidential power. In a series of polite, evasive answers, the nominee will feign a studious neutrality on almost every issue that could come before her during what’s likely to be decades as one of the most powerful women in the world.”

— Ross Douthat, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist

“When all else fails, supporters of Judge Sotomayor say that she is Hispanic and a woman, and that it would be politically dangerous to deny her a place on the Supreme Court. This is as much an insult to the intelligence of Hispanic and female voters as it is to the Constitution of the United States and to those who put their lives on the line for equal rights.”

— Thomas Sowell, Economist, Author and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow

“If the U.S. Senate rejects race-based justice, Sonia Sotomayor will never sit on the Supreme Court.

“Because that is what Sonia is all about. As The New York Times reported Saturday, the salient cause of her career has been advancing persons of color, over whites, based on race and national origin.

“‘Judge Sotomayor, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico,’ writes reporter David Kirkpatrick, ‘has championed the importance of considering race and ethnicity in admissions, hiring and even judicial selection at almost every stage of her career.’”

— Patrick J. Buchanan, Syndicated Columnist and Founding Editor, The American Conservative Magazine

On President Obama’s Words and Deeds:

“[President] Obama's rhetoric brims with inconsistencies. In the campaign, he claimed he would de-emphasize partisanship — and also enact a highly partisan agenda; both couldn't be true. He got a pass. Now, he claims he will control health-care spending even though he proposes more government spending. He promotes ‘fiscal responsibility’ when projections show huge and continuous budget deficits. Journalists seem to take his pronouncements at face value even when many are two-faced.”

— Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek and Washington Post Contributing Editor

“Despite disclaimers from President Obama that the government doesn't want to be in the car business, it is hard to see what it has bought with our tax dollars other than two of what used to be known as ‘the big three.’ Government by default or determination will choose the types of cars the companies it owns will make. Government will buy a lot of them because not enough customers will unless they are made offers they can't refuse, not by a car salesman in a loud sport coat, but by a government bureaucrat in a suit.”

— Cal Thomas, Syndicated Columnist

“Until now, the new president has benefited from public willingness to give him a honeymoon. He decided to use that grace period to push for the largest expansion of government in U.S. history and to reward political allies (see the sweetheart deals Big Labor received in the GM and Chrysler bankruptcies).

“The difficulty for Mr. Obama will be when the public sees where his decisions lead — higher inflation, higher interest rates, higher taxes, sluggish growth, and a jobless recovery.”

— Karl Rove, Former White House Senior Adviser and Deputy Chief of Staff

Michael Barone Principal Co-Author, The Almanac of American Politics and U.S. News & World Report Senior Writer, Defining the Concept of a “Centered” GOP:

“Move to the center. That's the advice Republicans are getting from quarters friendly and otherwise. It seems to make a certain amount of sense. If opinion is arrayed along a single-dimension, left-to-right spectrum and clustered in the middle in a bell-curve pattern, then a party on the right needs only to move a few steps toward the center or just beyond to convert itself from minority to majority status.

“But the world is a lot more complicated than that. Opinion is not arrayed on a single dimension, but flies all over the place in two or three or even four dimensions (which is to say it changes over time). New issues crop up, and old issues appear in a different light. Success in politics often comes not from readjusting one's stand to conform with current opinion, but in redefining what is at stake and reframing issues so that you have majorities on your side.

“So I think Republicans today should be less interested in moving toward the center and more interested in running against the center. Here I mean a different ‘center’ — not a midpoint on an opinion spectrum, but rather the centralized government institutions being created and strengthened every day. This is a center that is taking over functions fulfilled in a decentralized way by private individuals, firms and markets.”

Kim Capello (R), Oakland County Commissioner, Having Been Caught by Police While Engaging in a “Public Sex Act”:

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

On the (2012 GOP) Campaign Trail:

“Political crackheads, fire up your pipes.

“Let the 2012 political games begin. Hell, they’ve already begun. Only 1,251 days to go until the first primary… [a]nd we have one of the first credible horse-race polls from CNN, which shows that of those candidates polled, we have a dead heat among Mike Huckabee (22 percent), Sarah Palin (21 percent), and Romney (21 percent). These three alone will probably raise the Iowa GDP by a point or two over the next few years.”

— Mark McKinnon, Republican Campaign Strategist

QUOTES IN TIME:

“Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:  You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world…

“I have full confidence in your courage and devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!”

— Order of the Day from General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Allied Commander, June 6, 1944