Imagine the storm of controversy we’d be experiencing now if it had been a Democrat who’d coarsened American political rhetoric like this. But, because Trump is Republican, you can rest assured the establishment media will paper over what may well be the lowest point in the 2012 campaign.

Congress consists of clueless nabobs
Who dictate the issues to us voting slobs.
But they just don’t get it.
We don’t care about the deficit —
What we want to hear about is jobs, jobs, jobs!

Most Republican brainiacs fear that potent GOP talking points about high gas prices, health care quagmires and stubborn unemployment will evaporate in the face of Obama’s fundraising and political talent and the advantages of incumbency. Running for President often means giving up your day job, and it always means unrelenting (and possibly life-changing) scrubbing from political opponents and the media. The pending decisions of Daniels and Huckabee will tell us a lot about whether the Republican Party truly thinks Obama can be toppled.

— Mark Halperin, writing in Time magazine.

This provision makes clear that both the monies our nation owes to bondholders, and the sums promised in legislation to those receiving pensions set by law from the federal government, must be paid regardless of the political whims of the current congressional majority. All obligations that the nation has undertaken by drawing on its credit must at all times be rendered current.

— Garrett Epps, writing in the Atlantic, making the case that the debt limit set by Congress violates the 14th Amendment, which directs that “the validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned.“

Since Mr. Obama can’t make an affirmative case for his re-election, he has decided to try convincing voters that Republicans are monstrous. As a result, America is likely to see the most negative re-election campaign ever mounted by a sitting president.

— Karl Rove, arguing that President Obama is running a negative reelection campaign in his weekly WSJ column.

Yes: Karl Rove! Architect of what has almost universally, and with virtually no dissent, been described as the most negative reelection campaign ever mounted by a sitting president. Now, I don’t think negativity was the problem with Bush’s reelection campaign, but Rove’s vapors here are pretty comic. If ever there was a president who lacked popular support and had to disqualify his opponent through personal attacks in order to win, it was George W. Bush in 2004.

— Jonathan Chait, writing in the New Republic.

55%

Of Americans describe the U.S. economy as being in a recession or depression, even as the Federal Reserve reports that “the economic recovery is proceeding at a moderate pace,” according to a new Gallup Poll. Another 16% of Americans say the economy is “slowing down,” and 27% believe it is growing.

47%

Of Americans now have an unfavorable image of the Tea Party movement, the highest since it emerged on the national scene, according to Gallup. While 60% of Republicans view the Tea Party favorably, 24% have an unfavorable opinion.

That’s just code for saying he got into law school because he’s black. This is an ugly strain of racism that’s running through this whole thing.

— Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer, on The CBS Evening News last night blasting Donald Trump’s recent suggestion that President Obama might not have had the grades to get into Harvard Law School.

I’ve come to New Hampshire today because I’m very concerned. I want to see the original long-form certificate of Donald Trump’s Republican registration.

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the New York Times.

O, how our political process has been debased
By the spectacle of the birth certificate chase.
O, how GOP leaders’ hearts must slump
As they witness the rise of Donald Trump
And watch the lunatic fringe become their new base.