Trump Will ‘Probably’ Run as Independent If He Doesn't Win GOP Nomination  —  Donald Trump will “probably” run as an independent candidate for U.S. President in 2012 if he does not receive the Republican party's nomination, he told the Wall Street Journal in a video interview on Monday.

Trump courts black backlash  —  Donald Trump's strategy of spurring interest in his presidential campaign by flirting with discredited theories about President Barack Obama's birthplace is stirring a growing backlash among prominent African-Americans, who are protective of the first black president and …

With Friends Like These, Who Needs the Enema Man?  —  The Post says that Obama is going to more or less endorse Bowles-Simpson in his Wednesday talk.  —  Sigh.  —  Now, I know that Bowles and Simpson are Serious People, who say things like this: … (I think the enema man is Eminem.)

I Want To Play Poker Against President Obama  —  Democratic partisans, like all partisans, generally overestimate the possibilities of winning better policy outcomes by simply having their leaders adopt more strident positions.  That said, it really seems to be the case that the Obama administration is horrendously weak at negotiating:

Obama prevents budget cuts to favorite programs  —  WASHINGTON - A close look at the government shutdown-dodging agreement to cut federal spending by $38 billion reveals that lawmakers significantly eased the fiscal pain by pruning money left over from previous years, using accounting sleight …

Civil War still divides Americans  —  Washington (CNN) - It has been 150 years since the Civil War began with the first shots at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, and in some respects views of the Confederacy and the role that slavery played in the events of 1861 still divide the public, according to a new national poll.