"I have shaken Romney's hand a few times, and I can say he feels surprisingly lifelike. But politically he just seems fake, even though what you see is what he really is. Romney is a much better candidate than he was in 2008, but there's still something about the guy that makes people say, 'There's just something about that guy.' And given Romney's rich history of flip-flops, he just seems untrustworthy to the tea-fueled base of the GOP. ... 

"Perry, the Texas governor, has a very different challenge. He doesn't have to worry about seeming lifelike enough. He needs to figure out just how much larger than life he can appear without becoming a caricature. 

"As it is, there are days where Perry seems like he could count on two hands the number of times he's had to shoot a man for cheating at cards."

"'Everything in this bill,' Obama said in his eighth paragraph, 'will be paid for. Everything.' 

"By whom? Well, in the 24th paragraph he tells us that he is asking the 12-member super-committee Congress set up under the debt ceiling bill to add another $450,000,000,000 or so to the $1,500,000,000,000 in savings it is charged to come up with. The roving camera showed the ordinarily hardy super-committee member Sen. Jon Kyl looking queasy. 

"Obama is like the guy in the bar who says, 'I'll stand drinks for everyone in the house,' and then adds, 'Those guys over there are going to pay for them.'"

"From the firefighters who set out to rescue the victims of al-Qaida’s war on America, to the passengers on Flight 93 who were the first to hit back, to the troops who have waged the fight abroad, it has been a decade of heroes, traditionally defined — men willing to risk life and limb for their country, their mission, their friends. ... 

"Why did Jay Jonas and his unit in the North Tower of the World Trade Center, evacuating as it was on the verge of collapse, stop to carry out a distressed woman even though it slowed their escape? Why did a band of passengers on Flight 93 storm the cockpit of their hijacked plane? Why did Jason Dunham, Ross McGinnis, and Michael Monsoor — all Medal of Honor winners from the Iraq War — throw themselves on grenades to save their comrades?

"Ask a firefighter such a question and he’s liable to answer, 'That’s just what we do.' What we do, in turn, is express our astonishment and gratitude."

"It's easy to see how the debates could become a contest in which each of the two leading candidates attempt to undermine the other's conservative bona fides. Others, notably Michele Bachmann, whose victory in the Aug. 13 Ames straw poll in Iowa was overshadowed by Perry's candidacy announcement the same day in Charleston, S.C., have an incentive to do so, as well. 

"The challenge for Perry and Romney, who both have more executive experience than candidate Obama had in 2008, is to show the discipline and focus to establish themselves as serious general election candidates with better ideas about how to jump-start the economy than the hapless incumbent."

"One would have to be stubbornly blind and deaf to the current mood not to sense that the nation is moving towards one of the most combustible moments in our political history. America has had three years of economic hard times, deep, and perhaps, unprecedented national pessimism regarding both the present and the future, angry polarization of political attitudes -- and elements of a senior leadership of the Democratic Party that, by its silence, might seem to be assenting to such imploration. And all of it is happening as we enter an always-emotional national election campaign.

"It is a commonplace to observe that we rarely appreciate the value of what we have until we lose it. And despite all our current difficulties, America has been -- and remains -- blessed with a nonviolent political and electoral process. We should cling to that tradition with both hands because Americans are generally a rough and ready people. That we have kept violence largely out of our political process can thus almost be seen as providential. We should not, however, rely on providence in that regard. Keeping our politics peaceful is up to each of you, and I have never seen an upcoming political season more in need of our attention to that civic duty."

"[Teamsters President] Hoffa’s comments were much worse than Biden’s, though the vice-president’s demeanour suggests he could be a liability on the campaign trail (I’d wager there’s a campaign plan for him to be used only in 'rev up the base' type events). Put together, they are embarrassing enough to require an apology from Obama.

"But will Obama have the political and moral courage to repudiate a powerful union boss and his own vice-president?"

"Only Congress has constitutional authority to establish U.S. immigration policy, and fundamental reform requires legislative action. Thus the administration’s recent announcement that deportation will be sought only for undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes in the United States violates the separation of powers and is unconstitutional. ... 

"Obama has not declared his intent to dispense with immigration law, and the point at which permissible executive enforcement discretion becomes suspension of statutory requirements often is one of degree. In this case, however, there is little question that the line has been crossed. The president is entitled to establish enforcement priorities, but the ultimate goal must always be implementation of the law as enacted by Congress. If the president disagrees with that law, he must persuade Congress to change it."

"Months into the new normal that is routinely called the worst economy since the Great Depression, President Barack Obama gets it. It's all about jobs, jobs, jobs. And not like it was back in January 2009 (when he promised 3.5 million jobs over the next couple of years) or December 2009 (when he pushed for clean-energy jobs) or January 2010 (when he announced that jobs would be his 'number one focus' in his State of the Union address) or even September 2010 (when he promised employment via road-building projects that weren't undertaken as part of the 2009 stimulus' stated emphasis on shovel-ready infrastructure projects). This time he means it. 

"Of course he does. After all, this time, it's not just about the economic vitality of the nation. His political future rests upon a jobs program so urgently needed that he's going to announce it mere days after Labor Day weekend. Nothing focuses the mind so much as worries about losing your own job."

"Oh dear. Maybe it seemed like a clever move during a late-night pizza session amongst White House aides. But the decision to try to get one over on House Republicans by publicly asking for President Barack Obama to address a Joint Session of Congress without first agreeing the date and time was a petty and foolish one. ... 

The White House says that the fact that timing of the 8pm on Wednesday September 7th request happens to be the exact moment when the Republican debate at the Ronald Reagan Library was due is 'coincidental'. Well, that doesn’t pass the smirk test. Obama’s advisers are not so stupid as to fail to know exactly what they were doing in stamping all over the GOP debate."

"There's been only one visible Fast and Furious resignation: U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke in Phoenix, who quietly stepped down on Tuesday. One of his last acts? Opposing the request of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's family to qualify as crime victims in a court case against the thug who bought the Fast and Furious guns used in Terry's murder. 

"The fish rots from the head down, of course. DOJ is run by Eric Holder, the Beltway swamp creature who won bipartisan approval for his nomination -- even after putting political interests ahead of security interests at the Clinton Justice Department in both the Marc Rich pardon scandal and the Puerto Rican FALN terrorist debacle. Remember: Holder won over the Senate by arguing that his poor judgment made him more qualified for the job. 

"Screw up, move up, cover up: It's the Holder way, the Obama way, the Washington way. And innocent Americans pay."