"What the Democratic base would get out of an Obama re-election is political power, which counts for something. It lets you tell other people what to do. But nothing in that Kansas speech, especially the wealth taxes, will produce real growth in the dry economy America has had for three years. Strong growth is the only solution to the Osawatomie catalog of horrors. If he wins, five years from now, the president's base will be about where it and nearly everyone else is today, trying to stay afloat in Barack Obama's still waters."

“I believe that I interpret the will of the Congress and of the people when I assert that we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost, but will make it very certain that this form of treachery shall never again endanger us. 

"Hostilities exist. There is no blinking at the fact that our people, our territory, and our interests are in grave danger. 

"With confidence in our armed forces, with the unbounding determination of our people, we will gain the inevitable triumph -- so help us God.”

"The Trump debate is a sideshow, and those who would be the Republican nominee for the presidency of the United States are, one and all, better than it. The nominating process must be about which candidate can lead the country back to fiscal and economic reality, not about which candidate can best truckle with a reality-TV star."

"It was all a lie. The angry denials, the high dudgeon, the how-dare-you accuse-us bleating emanating from Eric Holder’s Justice Department these last nine months. 

"Operation Fast and Furious — the 'botched' gun-tracking program run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives — did, in fact, deliberately allow some 2,000 high-powered weapons to be sold to Mexican drug cartel agents and then waltzed across the border and into the Mexican drug wars — just as Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, who are leading the congressional investigations, have charged all along. 

"That’s the conclusion we can draw from Friday night’s nearly 1,400-page document dump, which gives us a glimpse into the inner workings of the Justice Department as it struggled earlier this year to come up with an explanation for the deadly mess — and 'misled' Congress."

"It’s Iowa minus one month, and barring yet another resurrection, or something of similar improbability, it’s Mitt Romney versus Newt Gingrich. ...  

 "My own view is that Republicans would have been better served by the candidacies of Mitch Daniels, Paul Ryan, or Chris Christie. Unfortunately, none is running. You play the hand you’re dealt. This is a weak Republican field with two significantly flawed frontrunners contesting an immensely important election. If Obama wins, he will take the country to a place from which it will not be able to return (which is precisely his own objective for a second term). 

"Every conservative has thus to ask himself two questions: Who is more likely to prevent that second term? And who, if elected, is less likely to unpleasantly surprise?"

"The Fed signals that it intends to hitch our national wagon to Europe just as Europe is going over the edge, and the Dow jumps 4 percent. Maybe I’m missing something. 

"All that Bernanke & Co. did yesterday was to lower the dollar-financing cost for banks in Europe, where inter-bank lending is locking up — for good reason. But Europe’s problem is not its banks and their access to dollars. Europe’s banks are in trouble because European government bonds are in trouble, and European government bonds are in trouble because European governments are in trouble. European governments are in trouble because they spend too much money. The Fed can’t change that, and hasn’t tried. 

"The question is: What is the Fed thinking? Is it looking out for the United States, or is it looking out for the banks?"

"New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ripped President Obama for the failure of the debt supercommittee, calling the president 'a bystander in the Oval Office' in comments Monday. 

"'I was angry this weekend, listening to the spin coming out of the administration, about the failure of the supercommittee, and that the president knew it was doomed for failure, so he didn’t get involved. Well, then what the hell are we paying you for?' Christie said in Camden, N.J. "It’s doomed for failure, so I’m not getting involved"? Well, what have you been doing, exactly?' 

"Christie was contrasting the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements, saying both stemmed from 'anger' with government's inability to respond to the financial crisis. But while Christie said 'both parties deserve blame for what's going on in Washington, D.C.,' he pointed the finger squarely at Obama for failing to strike a budget deal."

 "House Democrats are jumping ship — suggesting a growing concern within the party that winning back the majority in 2012 will be a difficult task.  

"Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank’s announcement Monday that he’s stepping aside after more than three decades in office makes him the latest in what is quickly becoming a long line of Democrats to say they will not seek reelection. ...  

"The numbers are stark: Of the nine House members who are retiring and not seeking another office, all are Democrats. Another eight Democratic members are running for different offices entirely — deciding, apparently, that their political prospects are better served in venues other than the House minority. All seven retiring House Republicans are seeking other elected offices."

"Last week, 5,000 files of private email correspondence among several of the world's top climate scientists were anonymously leaked onto the Internet. Like the first 'climategate' leak of 2009, the latest release shows top scientists in the field fudging data, conspiring to bully and silence opponents, and displaying far less certainty about the reliability of anthropogenic global warming theory in private than they ever admit in public. 

"The scientists include men like Michael Mann of Penn State University and Phil Jones of the University of East Anglia, both of whose reports inform what President Obama has called 'the gold standard' of international climate science, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)."

 “Thanksgiving Day is a jewel, to set in the hearts of honest men; but be careful that you do not take the day, and leave out the gratitude.”