I don’t want to go out and campaign for candidates, I don’t want to be viewed as a perpetual money-raiser. I don’t want to be on these talk shows, giving my opinion, second-guessing the current president. I think it’s bad for the country, frankly, to have a former president criticize his successor.

— Former President George W. Bush on C-SPAN, saying he’s not interested in raising money or campaigning anymore. He then noted the irony: “In spite of the fact that I’m now on TV, I don’t want to be on TV.”

$100

The cost of a copy of President Obama’s birth records under a change in privacy laws Hawaii lawmakers are considering that would allow anyone to get a copy of the certificate in a move “that backers hope will finally dispel claims he was born elsewhere,” the Honolulu Star Advertiser reports.

In sales, one must cater to one’s market.
In politics, it’s dangerous to stick to a template.
First he’s a socialist,
But now he’s a centrist —
If nothing else, Obama remains a moving target.

6

Number of years Pensito Review has been publishing. Thanks to all our readers.

We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue. And then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

— George Orwell, from his essay, “In Front of Your Nose.”

77%

Number of people who felt “more optimistic” after watching Pres. Obama’s 2011 State of the Union address, according to a CNN poll. Only 19% said it made them “more pessimistic.” Coincidentally, 19% of those polled were Republicans.

We all know Fox News and Glenn Beck are crazies,
Going around comparing liberals with Nazis.
Yeah, they’ve crossed the line,
And today in the Times
Murdoch caught hell from 400 rabbis.

That was a tough speech to have to sit through and kind of try to stomach because the president is so off-base in his ideas. And his theme last night in the State of the Union was the ‘WTF,’ you know, ‘Winning the Future.’ And I thought, ‘OK, that acronym, spot on.’ There were a lot of ‘WTF’ moments throughout that speech.

— Celebtician Sarah Palin, in an interview on Fox News, on President Obama’s State of the Union address.

Do Republicans have a push-back strategy? Not yet. The GOP is offering nothing on the public’s Issue One (jobs), while Obama is calling for spending on construction, education and energy. Republicans won in November by critiquing Democrats on Issue Two (the deficit), but Obama has laid a trap. Now that the GOP is running the House, it must deliver the superlean budget it promised without angering Tea Party passionistas who reject compromise with the White House. Obama is using his renewed strength to box the Republicans in.

— Mark Halperin, in Time magazine.

47%

Share of Americans who have a favorable than unfavorable (43%) opinion of the Republican Party for the first time since 2005. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party’s image is about equally positive (46%) and negative (47%), but is improved from last year.