Regardless of whether or not some form of this SOFA ends up being approved by all sides, one has to wonder if this is really why we went to all this trouble in the first place, considering the vast expense of time, money, prestige, and especialy lives.

McCain seems to have had his real persona under better control in past years, but he was still the same guy underneath. One difference in McCain 2008 seems to be that his age really does seem to be getting the better of him.

Palin's timing wasn't bad; in fact, for her particular set of talents, it was probably the best she could have hoped for. Many of these cultural issues are not going to go away any time soon, but Palin will not be the one that will be able to lead the charge. She may share some characteristics with other empty suits like George W. Bush, but Bush had many other resources besides ideology he could draw upon.

If God didn't want Obama to win, It wouldn't have allowed for it to happen.

I tend to vote for Democrats, mostly because they are not Republicans. That doesn't mean that I like them all that much, just more than I like Republicans.

Annoying over 50% of the voters doesn't strike me as "genius".

If these people had made as much of a fuss about missing WMDs as they do about missing Bibles, the world might be a better place.

Brooks can't help just making things up.

What a bunch of pricks.

like the super-dignified Bush did for German Chancellor Merkel.

Obama and his Democratic colleagues have allowed the debate to be framed from the beginning as how to least disrupt the current system while possibly expanding coverage. It should have been framed as how to provide the best health care delivery system for the public, followed by how the system could be paid for, eventually reconciling the two opposing forces. The current objective seems to be how to ensure the robustness of the insurance industry, rather than on the actual public health care. On its current trajectory, reform is likely to leave us worse off than we are now, setting real reform back another generation. Sometimes it would be nice to be able to drink the Republican Kool-aid; at least they know how to stay focused on their objectives.

"Recovery" is not measured in jobs, forclosures, personal bankruptcies, or consumer confidence and spending; it is measured in how quickly financial institutions can restore extravagant salaries and bonuses to their executives.