Point for Palin

By Jack Kelly:

The Obama administration has a playbook, too. It's "Rules for Radicals," written in 1971 by Chicago Marxist Saul Alinsky, the godfather of community organizing.

Mr. Obama's aides have faithfully followed those rules, in particular his rule number 13 under tactics: "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it. Don't try to attack abstract corporations or bureaucracies. Identify a responsible individual. Ignore attempts to shift or spread the blame."

The main job of the community organizer, Mr. Alinsky said, is to bait an opponent into reacting.

"The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength," Mr. Alinsky wrote.

Following Mr. Alinsky's tactics has worked well for Mr. Obama. But unfortunately for him, Sarah Palin — arguably the principal target of rule number 13 — has read the book, too.

Continue reading.

Axelrod Cashes In on Change
by Rowan Scarborough

Barack Obama's chief White House adviser is collecting millions of dollars from his former public relations firms as they sign lucrative contracts with coalitions recently created to push the president's agenda.

After arriving at the White House as top political guru, David Axelrod filed a required financial disclosure form that shows he will receive $3 million in installments over the next five years in a buyout with AKP&D Message and Media, and Ask Public Strategies.

The bottom line: Axelrod is essentially on his old firms' payrolls as he sits in the Oval Office as the closest confidant to the president. Advocacy groups know that when they are hiring AKP or Ask Public they are helping those companies stay profitable and make good on the $3 million. Continue reading here.

Arthur C. Brooks: Why Obama’s Approval Ratings Are Sinking - WSJ.com

Americans will put up with a lot. But not with someone who imperils their future.

The Panel

What death by bureaucratic fiat might look like.
Andrew Klavan: Death Panels are Inevitable Once Government Takes over Health Care - WSJ.com

It is very difficult to imagine the country making those decisions just through the normal political channels. And that's part of why you have to have some independent group that can give you guidance.
—President Barack Obama in a New York Times interview on how costly medical decisions should be made.

The people behind the long table do not know what they've become. The drug of power has been sugared over in their mouths with a flavoring of righteousness. Someone has to make these decisions, they tell their friends at dinner parties. It's all very difficult for us. But you can see it in their eyes: It isn't really difficult at all. It feels good to them to be the ones who decide. Read more.

The Public Option Goes Over

The big fight over ObamaCare is far from finished.

Obama Concedes on Public Option, but Maintains Goal of Single-Payer System
WSJ.com

So it looks as if the public option has been sent to the death panel—so to speak. Over the weekend President Obama and other White House officials throttled back their demands for a new health-care entitlement program that looked like Medicare for the middle class. Liberals are in a furor and more than a few conservatives are popping champagne corks. But dumping one of the most radical and destructive features of ObamaCare is best viewed as a tactical political retreat, not a surrender.

IT'S ALL A DEATH PANEL:

THE TRUTH ABOUT OBAMACARE
By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Washington is all atwitter about "death panels": President Obama derides the idea that his health-care reform calls for them; the Senate is stripping "end of life" counseling language from its bill -- and last Friday the voice of the liberal establishment, The New York Times, ran a Page One story "rebutting" the rumor that ObamaCare would create such boards to decide when to pull the plug on elderly patients.

But all those protests miss the fundamental truth of the "death panel" charge.

Even without a federal board voting on whom to kill, ObamaCare will ration care extensively, leading to the same result. This follows inevitably from central features of the president's plan.

Specifically, his decisions to (1) pay for reform with vast cuts in the Medicare budget and (2) grant insurance coverage to 50 million new people, vastly boosting demand without increasing the supply of doctors, nurses or other care providers.

Whether or not he admits it even to himself, Obama's talk of cutting "inefficiencies" and reducing costs translates to less .....

Highlighting a Hidden Health Agenda

CNSNews.com - Before he took office, Barack Obama told CNN he’d use a Blackberry to stay in touch with average Americans. “If I’m doing something stupid, somebody in Chicago can send me an e-mail and say, ‘What are you doing?’” Obama explained.

But some six months into his administration, many Americans are wondering just how much criticism Obama wants to hear.

Top Senate Republican Fears FCC's 'Diversity' Chief May Use 'Back Door' to Regulate Talk Radio

CNSNews.com-In a letter sent last week to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Sen. Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) said he is concerned that the FCC's new "diversity" director, Mark Lloyd, may seek to regulate talk radio through the "back door."