Free Republic

Wall Street economists I speak to feel pretty confi dent that -- for all the news about housing prices falling, gas prices rising and the stock market zig-zagging and a possible downgrade of US -- the chances of a "double dip" recession are pretty remote. After all, companies are still profitable two years after the financial collapse, and judging by the job listings even at banking basket-case Citigroup, people are finding work on Wall Street. But that doesn't mean the broader economy, defined by how many people are working, is getting noticeably better anytime soon. In fact, don't expect any...

It was the picture worth a thousand words. The emblematic political ancestor of the connection between the Ground Zero Mosque and the economy that is now wreaking havoc in the 2010 campaign. In the middle of the 1972 presidential campaign that featured President Richard Nixon versus the Democrats' Senator George McGovern, all of a sudden Americans were talking about something else. A photograph. Actress Jane Fonda, already well on her way to transforming her image from glamorous movie star to left-wing radical activist, was visiting Hanoi that July, only days after the very liberal, anti-war McGovern claimed the Democratic presidential...

As our loyal readers know, Lynn Sweet is not just the Washington bureau chief for the Chicago Sun-Times; she also pens the Daily FLOTUS column at Politics Daily. As the president's press conference came to an end Wednesday night, Lynn asked the president what the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates said about the state of race relations in the country. One cable news anchor called it the most important moment of the evening, and The Capitolist agrees. See it below . . .