"The gunshots came out of the blue. An Army psychiatrist [Maj. Nidal M. Hasan], trained to treat soldiers under stress, allegedly opened fire Thursday in a crowded medical building at Fort Hood, Tex. When the assault ended minutes later, the attack had become what is believed to be the largest mass shooting ever to occur on a U.S. military base. Twelve were killed, 31 wounded."

"Tuesday's election results should make clear to Obama and Democratic leaders in Congress that they seriously misinterpreted what voters were saying in 2006 and 2008. In 2006, angry voters turned out a Republican majority that for more than a decade had promised one thing but delivered something else. Then in 2008, voters took Obama at his word that he was a centrist and they closed the book on racism in American history by making him the nation's first black president…

"But Republicans will go far amiss if they conclude simply saying no to Obama and the Democrats is their ticket back to power. Voters want leaders they can trust because they do what they promise. Everything else is secondary."

"Looking ahead, the bad news for Democrats is that the legislation that helped lead to the collapse of support for their party on Tuesday could yet inflict more pain on those foolish enough to support it. The health-care bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wants to vote on this week could sink an entire fleet of Democratic boats in 2010…

"Every page of the 1,990 bill seems to contain a landmine that could explode on Democrats.

"Tuesday's results were the first sign that voters are revolting against runaway spending and government expansion. But Democrats likely ain't seen nothin' yet if they try to ram through health-care reform. There is nothing in the House bill that would do anything to reverse the voter trend we saw this week."

"Don't be suckered by the reverse hype. This was a dreadful night for the president and his party -- and an unmistakable signal that voters are, at the very least, uneasy with Democratic political dominion in the United States."

"... A vast 89 percent in New Jersey and 85 percent in Virginia said they were worried about the direction of the nation's economy in the next year; 56 percent and 53 percent, respectively, said they were 'very' worried about it.

"Voters who expressed the highest levels of economic discontent heavily favored the Republican candidates in both states – underscoring the challenge Obama and his party may face in 2010 if economic attitudes don't improve. The analogy is to 1994, when nearly six in 10 voters said the economy was in bad shape, and they favored the out-of-power Republicans by 26 points, helping the GOP to a 52-seat gain and control of Congress for the first time in 42 years."

"We are incessantly being told that the cost of medical care is 'too high' -- either absolutely or as a growing percentage of our incomes. But nothing that is being proposed by the government is likely to lower those costs, and much that is being proposed is almost certain to increase the costs...

"There are some ways in which the real costs of medical care can be reduced but the people who are leading the charge for a government takeover of medical care are not the least bit interested in actually reducing those costs, as distinguished from shifting the costs around or just refusing to pay them."

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly told fellow Democrats that she's prepared to lose seats in 2010 if that's what it takes to pass ObamaCare, and little wonder. The health bill she unwrapped last Thursday, which President Obama hailed as a 'critical milestone,' may well be the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced. In a rational political world, this 1,990-page runaway train would have been derailed months ago.

"With spending and debt already at record peacetime levels, the bill creates a new and probably unrepealable middle-class entitlement that is designed to expand over time. Taxes will need to rise precipitously, even as ObamaCare so dramatically expands government control of health care that eventually all medicine will be rationed via politics.

"Yet at this point, Democrats have dumped any pretense of genuine bipartisan "reform" and moved into the realm of pure power politics as they race against the unpopularity of their own agenda. The goal is to ram through whatever income-redistribution scheme they can claim to be "universal coverage." The result will be destructive on every level—for the health-care system, for the country's fiscal condition, and ultimately for American freedom and prosperity."

"The King James version of the Bible runs more than 600 pages and is crammed with celestial regulations. Newton's Principia Mathematica distilled many of the rules of physics in a mere 974 pages. Neither have anything on Nancy Pelosi's new fiendishly entertaining health-care opus, which tops 1,900 pages. So curl up by a fire with a fifth of whiskey and just dive in.

"But drink quickly. In the new world, your insurance choices will be tethered to decisions made by people with Orwellian titles ('1984' was only 268 pages!) like the 'Health Choices Commissioner' or 'Inspector General for the Health Choices Administration.'

"You will, of course, need to be plastered to buy Pelosi's fantastical proposition that 450,000 words of new regulations, rules, mandates, penalties, price controls, taxes and bureaucracy will have the transformative power to 'provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in health care spending . ...'"

"Ten years ago, we effectively had no broadband marketplace. Dial-up Internet was common, but not ubiquitous. Consumers had a choice of service providers, but they were typically confined to walled gardens of preselected or preferred content. The broadband revolution led us out of that desert. Instead of dog-paddling, we could surf the net, choosing between broadband service offered by traditional phone and cable companies and, now, wireless companies as well.

"Compare that to the last decade of success at government dominated companies like Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, GM or Chrysler.

"Yet despite an overwhelming record of innovation, and customer satisfaction, Washington wants to replace the judgment of consumers with that of politicians and bureaucrats. ...

"Is it reasonable to believe committees of suits in Washington — with hearings and markup meetings and regulatory comment periods — can keep up with the competitive pressures of the Internet economy?

"To ask the question is to answer it. There is a time and place for federal economic regulation, but the middle of a recession is not the time, and the Internet is certainly not the place."

"America is a great nation. It enjoys unprecedented wealth. Its people are among the freest in the world. And, with the world's most powerful armed forces, the United States is largely the master of its own destiny.

"Yet there is an insidious threat to America's continued greatness. It gets scarce attention because its effects are not immediate, but that threat is real. It is the threat of crushing government debt...

"What difference does this make for U.S. security? The more we have to pay to service the rising debt and pay out for entitlements, the less there is for defense.

"Unless we reverse course, this means that - in our children's lifetime - the U.S. military might be unable to protect a sea lane vital to trade and military supply lines. We might be unable to suppress an enemy regime that launches a terrorist attack against us. And absent the great American economic engine, we might lack the resources to stay on the cutting edge of technology, leaving our soldiers vulnerable to being matched or even trumped on the battlefield by better-equipped foes."