QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:50 A.M. ET:  From Fred Barnes at the Wall Street Journal, on Obama's contempt for public opinion:

President Reagan had a sign on his desk that said, "It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you don't care who gets the credit." If President Obama had a sign, it would say, "It's amazing how much you can accomplish if you don't care what the public thinks."

Washington has never been held in lower esteem by Americans than it is today. Yet those in control of Washington—President Obama and congressional Democrats—are bent on enacting a series of sweeping domestic policy changes this year that have one thing in common: They are unpopular, in whole or in part.

This is unprecedented and a bit weird too. A revival of civility and an end to the ugly political polarization in Washington—goals stressed by Mr. Obama in his presidential campaign and again last Saturday in a speech at the University of Michigan—won't be furthered by passage of an unpopular agenda. A more likely result is years of partisan resentment and bitter fighting over efforts by Republicans to repeal the unwanted policies.

COMMENT:  Absolutely true.  The Dems know they have only from now to election day in November to get through their program.  That's six months.  After that, a coalition of Republicans and I-want-to-survive Democrats will probably make it impossible to enact most of the liberal agenda, a phenomenon that also occurred after the 1938 midterms, hampering enactment of FDR's domestic program.

May 6, 2010