But...but...the president can't control Congress!

Of the excuses why the public option was stripped out of the health care bill, that was by far the lamest.

Last year, Nader said there was an almost 100 percent chance Obama would face a primary challenge.

Nader explained that he had planned to organize a slate of six candidates to primary Obama on a variety of issues. The plan didn’t work out though, Nader said, partially blaming those who are working to get Obama reelected.

“The minute any name was mentioned ... they made the calls,” Nader said of the White House’s efforts. “They jumped like a cat.”

Nader said it’s understandable why pressure from the Obama administration would deter liberal candidates.

“The retaliation is incredible,” Nader said.

For example, he said if former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) had opted to run against Obama, his future in the Democratic Party would be finished.

No, everyone doesn't need to go to college.

But then the government needs to create a viable educational alternative to get to the middle class -- advanced trade schools like they have in Germany.

I'm pretty sure Santorum isn't proposing that.

Also, too.

Charles Krauthammer: Rick Santorum is a "common man."

Geebus:

Santorum’s electoral advantage is sociological: His common-man, working-class sensibility would be highly appealing to battleground-state Reagan Democrats.

Working-class?

Perhaps the most jarring detail from his tenure in office is the unorthodox $500,000 mortgage that Santorum and his wife secured on the home in rural Virginia they had purchased for $643,361. According to a series of reports in the Philadelphia Daily News, the mortgage came from Philadelphia Trust Company, a fledgling private bank catering to "affluent investors and institutions" whose officers had contributed $24,000 to Santorum's political action committees and re-election campaign.

PS

"Reagan Democrats"? What is this, 1988?

Rick Santorum: We found the WMDs in Iraq.

Remember this?

Hugh Hewitt proven right!

Four years later, of course, but...

Now posting at C&L.;

Stop by and say hello.

Teabagger fail.

The great thing about last night was it officially made the Teabaggers totally irrelevant.

As you wake up this morning, the tea party has failed because it has surrendered itself into the hands of Romney, Santorum, or Gingrich — all of whom would use government to suit allegedly conservative ends, which is not conservative in and of itself.

It's almost as though the "Tea Party" wasn't a distinct political movement at all -- and just another name for "Bush/Cheney Republican." Shocking, but true.

At least we're all honest about that now. Even Putz.

I THINK HE’S RIGHT: Rand Paul on a third-party run by Ron: The tea party’s better off within the GOP.

Notice he didn't say "with" -- but "within."

UPDATE

Yeah, the jig's up, Teabaggers.

Lesson One: The Tea Party isn't a small government-first movement. It was Sarah Posner who coined the term "Teavangelicals," a little neologism for a simple idea. The Tea Party, she argued, was not some new force of libertarians. It was a new framework for the same conservatives who dominated the GOP a month before the Tea Party began. Iowa may not have been the best place to test this, as its Republicans have always been more economically populist than not, and in the last decades they've been reliable social conservatives. But its Tea Partiers did not demand much economic libertarianism from their GOP. Sixty-four percent of caucus-goers called themselves "Tea Party supporters," and 30 percent of them backed Rick Santorum -- a social conservative who proudly defended his earmarks.

Rick Perry must be a masochist.

Looks like the Secessionist is back in. Feel the Perrymentum!

Rick Santorum just compared Obama to Mussolini.

But he's running a very positive campaign!

Adios mofo.

Damnit, the Secessionist just dropped out. I was enjoying watching him humiliate himself and get his ass repeatedly kicked.

No one should care who wins Iowa.

If Santorum wins, Romney will be the nominee.

If Paul wins, Romney will be the nominee.

If Romney wins, Romney will be the nominee.

Southern right-wingers have a bad track record for being wrong about stuff.

Reich:

America has had a long history of white Southern radicals who will stop at nothing to get their way - seceding from the Union in 1861, refusing to obey civil rights legislation in the 1960s, shutting the government in 1995, and risking the full faith and credit of the United States in 2010.

Not to mention the tacit approval of 100 years of lynching after the Civil War.

Pants on fire.

I remember quite vividly that the Obama-Clinton primary was pretty rough -- but I don't think the candidates themselves got quite this ugly.

Then again, these are Republicans, and no one does ugly personal attacks like they do.

Prediction

No matter who wins the Iowa caucuses, it will be a big win for the Tea Party.

Ronald Reagan cut taxes to 0% and personally took down the Berlin Wall with a sledgehammer.

The cult of Reagan is fun to watch, certainly, but if I were Eric Cantor, I would not want my press secretary shouting at interviewers.

Terrorism in NYC

But it's against Muslims, so -- we won't call it "terrorism."

This would've been extremely useful in 2009.

I assume the Obama administration thought that by the fourth year of his first term, the economy would be pretty much fixed.

Even so, the GOP has been the Rich People Party since the 1920s. So this "new" positioning they've come up with should've been the positioning from the beginning -- and really, should always be the positioning of any Democratic politician, period.

Surrender

In wingnutland, Obama can dramatically increase drone attacks, surge in Afghanistan, expand the war into Libya and kill bin Laden -- and it's all still "surrender."

(Above: Henry Kissinger's non-surrender to the North Vietnamese.)

UPDATE

Pavlovian Putz picks up the "surrender" meme.

Yes, that Obama is seeking to end a decade long war George W. Bush completely fucked up means he's "surrendering."