FRANK J. GAFFNEY JR. — Knowing President Obama’s Alinskyite proclivities, his third State of the Union address — coming as it did amidst a re-election campaign — could have been predicted to be filled with lofting, sometimes inspiring but routinely bait-and-switch rhetoric… (more)

NEWSMAX — President Barack Obama has one remarkable ability that few presidents ever have emulated, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said on Wednesday: the ability to say something with a straight face when he really thinks exactly the opposite… (more)

DEROY MURDOCK — Liberals love to laugh off voter fraud. It’s “a made-up problem invented by GOP operatives,” Robert Koehler snickered in the January 5 Huffington Post. Regarding ballot hijinks, Democratic National Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz chuckled: “There is almost none”… (more)

DAVID LIMBAUGH — Republican internecine squabbles this primary season seem to turn on the vying candidates’ respective electability against incumbent Barack Obama. But if even uber-liberal New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd has finally awakened to President Obama’s arrogance, what does it say about his electability?… (more)

POLITICO — The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request for debate over whether Justice Elena Kagan should recuse herself from the health care reform case due to be argued in March.Freedom Watch, a group led by Larry Klayman, asked the court for permission to file a brief on Kagan’s participation in the case. The court on Monday denied the request without comment, though it did note that Kagan did not participate in the discussion… (more)

The National Defense Authorization Act is probably something you never heard of before the last few weeks of 2011, even though some iteration or other of this federal law has been enacted every year for the past 49 years… (more)

PHILIP KLEIN — President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law on Aug. 14, 1935, laying what he described as a “cornerstone” of the modern welfare state. At the time, Roosevelt claimed that the sweeping program would, “act as a protection to future administrations against the necessity of going deeply into debt to furnish relief to the needy”… (more)

MARK STEYN — The nature of this peculiar primary season — the reason it seems at odds with both the 2009–2010 political narrative and the seriousness of the times — was determined by Mitt Romney. Even if you don’t mind Romneycare, or the abortion flip-flop, or any of the rest, there’s a more basic problem: He’s not a natural campaigner, and on the stump he instinctively recoils from any personal connection with the voters… (more)

WASHINGTON EXAMINER — Being the establishment candidate, as Mitt Romney learned Saturday, was far easier when the establishment really mattered… (more)