Walter E. Williams, Author, Economist and Professor of Economics, Regarding Congressional Job Approval Ratings:

“According to latest Rasmussen Reports, 30 percent of Americans believe congressmen are corrupt. Last year, Congress' approval rating fell to 9 percent, its lowest in history. If the average American were asked his opinion of congressmen, among the more polite terms you'll hear are thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks. But what do the same people say when our nation faces a major problem? ‘Government ought to do something!’ When people call for government to do something, it is as if they've been befallen by amnesia and forgotten just who is running government. It's the very people whom they have labeled as thieves and crooks, liars and manipulators, hustlers and quacks.”

On Growing Government and the Deficit:

“The deficit in Obama’s first year in office alone may well exceed the deficit for the entire eight years of Bush’s presidency.”

— Burton Folsom, Jr., Author, Hillsdale College Professor of History

“Whether Obama is spending or saving, creating red ink or fighting it, he’s growing government. This from the president who promised to scour the federal budget for savings, and to level with the American public about tough choices as he pursued nonideological and responsible government.”

— Rich Lowry, National Review Editor

“Only a Washington economist can argue with a straight face that providing quality health care to 46 million Americans who are now uninsured and assert it will save ‘between $75 billion and $125 billion per year.’

“Folks, that's how government and deficits keep getting bigger.”

— Debra J. Saunders, Syndicated San Francisco Chronicle Columnist

Julie Hirschfeld Davis, Associated Press Writer, Regarding the Politicization of a Supreme Court Nominee’s Broken Ankle:

“[I]t’s clear that Democrats are also using Sotomayor's nomination to stoke and expand their political base. The Democratic National Committee launched a feature on its Web site called ‘Sign Judge Sotomayor's Virtual Cast,’ where supporters can leave a note for the judge, who broke her ankle in an airport stumble Monday.”

Cal Thomas, Syndicated Columnist, On the Mainstream Media’s Coverage of President Obama:

“The intensity of media worship and slavish devotion by more journalists to President Obama and his policies has risen to what one might expect from members of a cult….

“I recently saw two bumper stickers on the same car. One said, ‘Obama '08’ and the other ‘Question Authority.’ Surveys have shown most in the mainstream media supported Mr. Obama's election. Too many journalists have forfeited their responsibility by failing to question his authority, losing what little remains of their credibility, not to mention readers and viewers. The public is losing its right to be told the truth.

“There are houses for worship. Newsrooms ought not to be one of them.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Regarding Unions and the Scandalous Government Takeover of Chrysler and General Motors:

“Between 2000 and 2008, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union gave $23,675,562 to the Democratic Party and its candidates.

“In 2008 alone, the UAW gave $4,161,567 to the Democratic Party, including Barack Obama.

“In return, the UAW received 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of GM, plus billions of dollars.

“But nobody’s calling this a scandal.  It’s time we start.”

Regarding the Economic Stimulus Plan:

“The data for April and May prove that Obama's plan to rescue those facing mortgage foreclosure is a dismal failure. Since this issue was the cornerstone of his economic program during the campaign, its abject failure is a significant setback for the administration's economic plan.

“In the month ending on May 26, there were 464,983 foreclosures of subprime and Alt-A mortgages (out of a universe of 3.2 million studied). So 15% of all subprime mortgages were foreclosed in May! Only 19,041 — a paltry 6% — were modified during this period. And of those modified, only 11,200 involved any reduction in the monthly payments. Only 12% involved any write-off of interest, fees or principal, and 27% of the loan modifications actually increased the monthly payments due.”

— Dick Morris, Political Commentator and Former Clinton Advisor and Eileen McGann, Attorney and Vote.com CEO

“If the [jobs] ‘saved or created’ formula looks brilliant, it's only because Mr. Obama and his team are not being called on their claims. And don't expect much to change. So long as the news continues to repeat the administration's line that the stimulus has already ‘saved or created’ 150,000 jobs over a time period when the U.S. economy suffered an overall job loss 10 times that number, the White House would be insane to give up a formula that allows them to spin job losses into jobs saved.”

— William McGurn, Author, News Corporation Vice President and Former White House Speechwriter

“The Obama administration was out in full force defending the stimulus this weekend. The mantra is that the economy is getting better but Americans need to be patient to see progress. The problem is that, so far, there hasn't been any economic progress…

“The Obama administration is trying to rewrite history even as it is being made. The stimulus appears only to have delayed the recovery that economists were expecting before it was passed.”

— The Editors, The Washington Times

John Bolton, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow and Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, On U.S. Foreign Policy:

“Conservative foreign and national-security policies do not need remaking, rebranding or remessaging. They need not be escorted by prefixes or adjectives, nor do they need ‘moderating.’

“Conservative foreign policy is unabashedly pro-American, unashamed of American exceptionalism, unwilling to bend its knee to international organizations, and unapologetic about the need for the fullest range of dominant military capabilities. Its diplomacy is neither unilateralist nor multilateralist, but chooses its strategies, tactics, means and methods based on a hard-headed assessment of U.S. national interests, not on theologies about process. Most especially, conservatives understand that allies are different from adversaries, and that each should be treated accordingly.”

On President Obama’s Middle East Trip:

“Obama is the anti-Reagan. Where Reagan ever spoke of the greatness and glory of America, her history and heroes, her capacity to make the world all over again, Obama is like a dismal parson, forever reminding us — and everyone within earshot — of our own and our fathers' sins.

“Obama is not only demoralizing Middle America, he is driving away the God-and-country patriots who are sick of hearing this rot from professors and journalists, and prefer not to hear it from their president. He is ceding moral high ground to regimes and nations that do not deserve it.

“If Obama believes he can build himself up by tearing America down, he is mistaken. Cynical foreigners will view it with snickering contempt, patriotic Americans with disgust. What kind of leader is it who talks down his own country on foreign soil?”

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

“Defending U.S. interests is neither arrogant nor disrespectful of others, but is instead the basic task of our presidents. Despite the 2008 election, neither the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, nor international terrorism, nor the challenges of geostrategic adversaries have in any way diminished.

“Overseas ‘apology tours,’ public displays of empathy and inviting the likes of Iran to Fourth of July receptions at our embassies will not alter these underlying realities.”

— John Bolton, American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow and Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

“Most disturbingly, Obama seems to have gotten the history of the Israel-Palestine issue wrong. The plight of the Palestinians since 1948 or 1967 is not the moral equivalent of the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust, as Obama's ‘on the other hand’ segue suggested. Nor are private statements by Arabs accepting the continued existence of Israel the moral equivalent of Israeli governments' public willingness to negotiate with Palestinians.

“Obama seems not to have learned from previous presidents' attempts to negotiate an Israeli-Palestinian agreement that no solution is possible without an interlocutor willing to let Israel live in peace. His attempt to muscle Israel into stopping even natural growth of settlements beyond the 1967 line applies pressure to the party already willing to make peace. Obama needs to brush up on the Barbary pirates, but even more so on the last 40 years of Middle East history.”

— Michael Barone, Principal Co-Author, The Almanac of American Politics and U.S. News & World Report Senior Writer

“In another sharks-to-kittens comparison, Obama said, ‘Now let me be clear, issues of women's equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam.’ No, he said, ‘the struggle for women's equality continues in many aspects of American life.’

“So on one hand, 12-year-old girls are stoned to death for the crime of being raped in Muslim countries. But on the other hand, we still don't have enough female firefighters here in America.

“Delusionally, Obama bragged about his multiculti worldview, saying, ‘I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal.’ In Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan and other Muslim countries, women ‘choose’ to cover their heads on pain of losing them.”

— Ann Coulter, Attorney, Legal Correspondent and Syndicated Columnist

Quotes in Time:

“Resolved, that the Flag of the thirteen United States shall be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.”

— Adopted by the Continental Congress, June 14, 1777