We're going to devote all the talking points this week to the efforts by Democrats to pass both the payroll tax holiday extension and a desperately needed unemployment insurance payment extension before the January 1 deadline.
This month Obama poll watchers got some good news, and some bad news. This was capped off by the Washington punditocracy making a stupid comparison between polling for Obama and Carter.
One month out, I have no idea what will happen in Iowa. Neither does anyone else, really. But I certainly can see the possibility of a big Ron Paul surge, especially if he places either first or second in Iowa. That alone would shake the race up considerably.
Sadly, there was a swarm of Democrats behaving badly this week. There were so many, in fact, that we had to leave out a few minor ones (at the state level).
Back in Newt's heyday, Doonesbury portrayed Gingrich as a lit bomb with a short fuse. Right and Left seem to be in agreement on his resemblance to trinitrotoluene (or "Newtroglycerine"?). Which leaves only one key question: When will this "Newtsplosion" take place?
Just because the modern "War on Christmas" may not exist does not mean such a war never existed in America. The subject of Christmas was indeed at the heart of a previous bitter political dispute, but you've got to go pretty far back to find it. All the way back to the Puritans.
It seems to me that the person who was largest on the world's stage this year was the chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. With the strongest economy in Europe, Germany's got the most to lose if the common euro currency falls apart.
To mark the milestone of the last American troops to leave Iraq, I'd like to take a wider view and look at the entire region, post-Saddam and post-Arab Spring.
"OK, big guy, you keep putting it off, but we have got to get to the Washington naughty/nice list. It's almost time to load the sleigh, and we've got to issue orders to the Toy Room."
This year we turn to the Democrats to find the winner of Destined For Political Stardom. If Elizabeth Warren manages to wrest Teddy Kennedy's old Senate seat away from the Republican usurper, she will indeed be on the road to Democratic stardom.
