President Obama will reach out to the GOP on health care one more time. Either they play ball, or he will tell Senator Reid to proceed with the political 'nuclear option'. I tell you, folks, I'm as happy as I can be about all this. As the President says, this is what elections are for. The Democrats won in 2008. They want a more socialized health care system, so they are going to ram it through. This will give us the contrast we need as voters to decide what we want in November of this year.

The editors at The Wall St. Journal are, not surprisingly, very upset at the possible use of reconciliation to pass the Senate health reform bill, calling it an abuse of power. They also predict an electoral backlash.

Meet the House Democrats lining up to be part of Nancy Pelosi's health care by reconciliation (or any other method) suicide squad.

Niall Ferguson argues that empires do not necessarily decline slowly, but can sometimes collapse precipitously. He leaves such a collapse as an open possibility for our own empire, groaning under the weight of an enormous and growing debt.

Ralph Peters says Obama's penchant for backing leftists in Latin America, like the Kirchners in Argentina, is a betrayal of the movement for freedom and, in the Argentina case specifically, a betrayal of our best ally.

Tom Friedman, while adding his usual praise for the Chinese, also makes the case for lowering corporate taxes here in the U.S. in this piece.

Michael Barone examines Rick Perry's big primary win in Texas last night.

Irwin Stelzer examines the financial crisis in Greece. He predicts they will muddle through. Because I agree with Niall Ferguson's analysis of how human social and political systems work, I think a better possibility is a sudden collapse. I have no idea what will emerge on the other side of that collapse.