On November 14, 2011, the Supreme Court agreed to review the constitutionality of President Obama’s health-care act. The central question is, What limits does the Constitution — specifically, the Commerce Clause — impose upon the federal government’s exercise of power? This health-care act is the defining legislation of the president’s term, and the issue of limited government is at the very heart of the debate between Obama and his opponents

Cheers for Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) for standing up to President Obama on his unconstitutional recess appointments.

At the Heritage Foundation last week, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan demonstrated why he doesn’t need to be running for President to be framing the debate for 2012. He delivered there on October 26 a breathtakingly beautiful speech on Saving the American Idea, which defines the Spirit of 2012.

Washington Democrats are not just out to lunch on jobs. They have devoured the entire buffet table.

At The Huffington Post on Friday, liberal professor and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich lamented ” The Triumph of Dogma” at National Public Radio, apparently represented by David Frum's decision to resign his right half of commentaries on the business-ish show Marketplace. “I respect David's decision but I disagree with his understanding of his job on Marketplace

F.H.

WASHINGTON — Supposedly this White House has just made a furious attempt to sink a book, Confidence Men : Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President , by Ron Suskind, which came out September 20. Jay Carney, the White House spinmeister, spoke ill of it. Numerous former White House staffers spoke ill of it

There are many observations that can be made about President Obama’s remark Monday to ABC News that businesses “don’t have some inherent right just to get a certain amount of profit if your customers are being mistreated.” In and of itself, this comment reveals much about his beliefs and knowledge (or lack thereof) on economics, consumer choice, and the private sector in general. But in the context in which it was made — Bank of America, Citi , and other banks’ recently announced debit-card and checking-account fees for consumers, which they are charging to recoup losses from the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law’s price controls on debit-card fees charged to retailers — what must first be said is that he was lecturing the wrong set of Fortune 500 corporations. The price controls were added to the law by an amendment from Senate majority whip Dick Durbin (D., Ill.).

American Spectator senior editor Quin Hillyer appeared on the Fox News Channel’s America’s News Headquarters program on Sunday to highlight the media’s continued silence about the Obama administration’s use of liberal ideology as a criterion in hiring lawyers for career Justice Department positions, even though the media leaped on similar accusations during the Bush years. While Bush’s DOJ was subjected to media condemnation and an official investigation over it’s hiring practices, Hillyer recounted, “cut forward to the Obama administration and they are doing not just the same thing, but to the Nth degree

There is only one issue this week in Washington -

In one of the least needed reassurances in modern political history, President Obama's top political man David Plouffe, “told Democrats late last week that the White House would not suffer from overconfidence. 'What I don't want to suggest is that we're sitting around and thinking everything is great,' he said.” With the White House's own economists predicting 9 percent or worse unemployment on Election Day, the president at about 39 percent job approval, college grads unable to find jobs, a quarter of American homes under water, no credible White House policy or strategy for changing things — and with most non-institutionalized Americans convinced we are in a recession that is going to get much worse — it is surpassing odd that Plouffe was worried that his fellow Democrats might think the president and his men believed everything to be hunky-dory. And yet, if it is not overconfidence driving White House strategy, what is?

It is clear from the way President Barack Obama has been talking about the federal budget recently, and about taxation since he came to office, that all the money that Americans earn belongs to the federal government. The key words in this conversation are “tax expenditures.” Obama has lost a lot in tax expenditures, and he wants more of those tax expenditures back.

The media “are so vested” in Obama “not being a failure that it's going to be amazing to watch the lengths they go to protect him,” Rep. Joe Walsh (R-Ill.) told NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell in an exclusive for CNSNews.com earlier this week.

“DO YOU recognise the irreconcilable class antagonism between workers and capitalists that exists under the present economic system?” That is question one on the membership application form of the Socialist Labour Party of America. A helpful note explains that all questions must be answered Yes for an application to be considered. This insistence on ideological purity may explain why the fortunes of the party have disappointed of late.

David Brooks admitted in his column yesterday what conservatives have long suspected: He really, really liked Obama. In fact, he’s “a sap.” Here are ten examples of his sappiness over time. 10

From NewsMax.com: House Minority Leader John Boehner is striking back at President Barack Obama with a video that questions the president’s leadership on key national issues. The YouTube video, titled “What About the Country, Mr. President?” is in response to Obama’s speech in Racine, Wis., on Wednesday in which he ripped into Boehner for telling [...]

From The Washington Times: President Obama: You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies. You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, [...]

From PrisonPlanet.com: Democratic proponents of the health care bill have attempted to portray anger being expressed by the majority of Americans who opposed the bill as some kind of vicious and deadly mass assault, casting themselves as poor victims of a bloodthirsty mob, when in reality the only real instances of violence have been carried [...]

From National Review Online: On the morning of November 5, 2008, the world rocked to news that the United States had elected Barack Obama to the presidency. That same morning, Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana, joined the list of those most often mentioned as potentially defeating President Obama in 2012. In what may be a [...]

From National Review: Picture this: It is midnight on Nov. 4, 2009. The previous day’s elections in Virginia, New York’s 23rd congressional district, and New Jersey have all been won by Republicans. Health reform is stalled. The latest employment numbers are still dismaying. President Obama cannot sleep. He paces the halls of the White House [...]