"All of these countries -- and many more -- are going through painful retrenchments because they spent too much money, made too many promises and expected too little from their own citizens. The era of European austerity is upon us, because the Europeans -- or at least those in charge -- understand the mess they've made of their economies.

"This should present a real problem for Barack Obama and the vast (though shrinking) chorus of experts, editorialists and activists who support his agenda. In broad terms, all of the policies Obama and the Democrats have pushed are the sorts of policies the British, the French and other Europeans had for years, even decades."

"One of the dominant myths of this election season is that Republicans have nominated too-extreme tea party candidates who are not electable in general elections, making it difficult for them to maximize their gains. It's been easy for cable talk show hosts to make that argument, given the high-profile, seriously-flawed candidacies of Christine O'Donnell and Carl Paladino, among others. 

"But in reality, the clear majority of conservative and tea party nominees have proven themselves to be squarely in line with the electorate's mood and are well-positioned to usher in one of the most conservative Congresses since 1994."

"We are in the era of Democratic Extreme Girls — Big Nanny handmaidens who demand control of your children, your health care, your energy use, your pocketbook, and your news. And that’s just for starters. If you think President Obama will move to the center after the midterms, think again...

"Among his inner circle, Obama has leaned on senior adviser and Chicago consigliera Valerie Jarrett, the woman who bragged about being 'delighted to be able to recruit' disgraced Marxist green-jobs czar Van Jones; Anita Dunn, the former communications director who touted Chairman Mao as her favorite philosopher and was the mastermind behind Team O’s war on Fox News; and, of course, the Big Nanny-in-Chief herself, Michelle Obama, who’s using her bully pulpit to pressure restaurants and schools to change their menus and to lobby Congress to redistribute $8 billion away from the federal food-stamp program for her public-employee-union payoff disguised as a child-nutrition bill. 

"While liberal New York Times harridan Maureen Dowd gins up fear about Republican 'Mean Girls,' it’s the left-wing women pretending to be our benevolent caretakers who pose the greater threats to our families and freedom."

"New numbers posted today on the Treasury Department website show the National Debt has increased by more than $3 trillion since President Obama took office. 

"The National Debt stood at $10.626 trillion the day Mr. Obama was inaugurated. The Bureau of Public Debt reported today that the National Debt had hit an all time high of $13.665 trillion.

"The Debt increased $4.9 trillion during President Bush's two terms. The Administration has projected the National Debt will soar in Mr. Obama's fourth year in office to nearly $16.5-trillion in 2012. That's more than 100 percent of the value of the nation's economy and $5.9-trillion above what it was his first day on the job."

"If voters return Republicans to majorities in one or both Houses of Congress, their Job One will be to start the process of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with realistic health care reforms that make universal access possible at a reasonable cost without putting federal bureaucrats in charge of U.S. medicine. President Obama will surely veto even a simple repeal measure, but Republicans still should put an end to Obamacare's most damaging and least popular provisions by defunding them. The process will also force Obamacrats in Congress to cast multiple votes they would probably prefer to avoid, thus setting the stage for a titanic 2012 presidential election contest."

"Most shameless attack campaign (national). President Obama suggesting that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is secretly using foreign money to fund its campaign ads. There’s not a shred of evidence that this is true. When Bob Schieffer asked David Axelrod for evidence, Axelrod responded, 'Well, do you have any evidence that it’s not, Bob?' That’s like some lunatic claiming that Obama secretly says Muslim prayers at night that no one can see and no one can hear. You ask: What’s your evidence? He says: What’s yours that he is not? You say: No one’s ever seen or heard him do that. He says: Aha, that’s exactly my point."

"The public opposes tax hikes not because they don't wish to pay down the debt, but because they suspect the increased revenue will simply be a green light for even greater deficit spending."

"In the home stretch of the 2010 campaign, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, more than even President Barack Obama, is emerging as the heaviest drag on Democratic hopes of holding on to the House.

"In district after district, from Florida's Gold Coast to central Ohio, in the Ozark Mountains, on the Minnesota prairie and in retiree-laden Arizona, Pelosi's face, plastered on billboards, recorded in video clips and emblazoned on mailers, is casting a pall over her colleagues’ chances of winning reelection.

"Conventional wisdom holds that midterm elections are referendums on the president — and Obama is certainly the central figure in the unfolding drama of the 2010 election. But if Democrats lose the House, it’s likely to be as much a rejection of the policies and politics of a woman who has managed to simultaneously become one of the most powerful speakers in congressional history and one of the most unpopular figures in American politics today."

"In their latest attempt to distract voters from their job-killing policies, President Obama, his White House and senior Democrats in Congress have added to their long list of bogeymen the outside groups that seek to help elect Republicans in November. They threaten congressional investigations, discuss private tax information and level baseless accusations of criminal activity against those who have been public in seeking to defeat Democratic candidates and their liberal agenda. Without a trace of irony, powerful Democratic officeholders lament that many who support these groups wish to remain anonymous...

"Interestingly, there is one investigation already under way, and it's of the White House. The Treasury Department's inspector general is looking into whether the president's top economic adviser improperly discussed with reporters private tax information about Koch Industries, whose founders are well known for their support of free-market ideas and conservative principles. 

"The fate awaiting Democrats in November is a result of their dismal economic record and their arrogance. One reason voters are deserting President Obama in droves is because of fears of unfettered, invasive government power -- fears that will only be reinforced by the Democrats' new political vigilantism."

"Barack Obama is being politically crushed in a vise. From above, by elite opinion about his competence. From below, by mass anger and anxiety over unemployment. And it is too late for him to do anything about this predicament until after November's elections. 

"With the exception of core Obama Administration loyalists, most politically engaged elites have reached the same conclusions: the White House is in over its head, isolated, insular, arrogant and clueless about how to get along with or persuade members of Congress, the media, the business community or working-class voters. This view is held by Fox News pundits, executives and anchors at the major old-media outlets, reporters who cover the White House, Democratic and Republican congressional leaders and governors, many Democratic business people and lawyers who raised big money for Obama in 2008, and even some members of the Administration just beyond the inner circle."