Let Us Now Praise Barack Obama.

There's No Light At The End Of The Tunnel In The Republican Message, No Promise Of Better Things To Come. There's Only The Present Stagnation, Followed By A Slow Decline.

Electoral Contests Have Nothing But Polls, Which Is Why People Have Grown So Obsessed With Them; We're Desperate For An Objective Rendering Of What Is Happening And What May Happen.

The Problem Is That Borrowing Money To Pay Back More Borrowed Money That Will Oblige You In The Future To Borrow Even More Money Doesn't Sound Kosher. Because It Isn't.

Imagine His Delight After It 'leaked' That He Will Propose Raising Taxes On The Wealthy By $320 Billion Over The Next 10 Years, Including Increases To The Capital Gains And Inheritance Taxes.

Memories Of The Last Nine Years Have Turned Ground Zero From A Site Of Horror, To A Reminder Of Grief, To An Occasion For Ludicrous Artistic Posturing - And Now To Something Very Close To Parody.