Longevity for a columnist is a simple proposition: once you start, you — Charles Krauthammer

"Obama offered Muslims a careful admonition about womens rights, noting how denying women education impoverishes a country — balanced, of course, with this: "Issues of womens equality are by no means simply an issue for Islam." Example? "The struggle for womens equality continues in many aspects of American life." Well, yes. On the one hand, there certainly is some American university where the womens softball team has received insufficient Title IX funds — while, on the other hand, Saudi women showing ankle are beaten in the street, Afghan school girls have acid thrown in their faces, and Iranian women are publicly stoned to death for adultery. (Gays as well — but then again we have Prop 8.) We all have our shortcomings, our national foibles. Whos to judge?"

"Affluent enviros are all for wind farms, until one is proposed that might mar the serenity of a sail from the crew-necked precincts near Nantucket Sound. Then its clean energy for thee, not for me."

"The question of whether America is in decline cannot be answered yes or no. There is no yes or no. Both answers are wrong, because the assumption that somehow there exists some predetermined inevitable trajectory, the result of uncontrollable forces, is wrong. Nothing is inevitable. Nothing is written. For America today, decline is not a condition. Decline is a choice. Two decades into the unipolar world that came about with the fall of the Soviet Union, America is in the position of deciding whether to abdicate or retain its dominance. Decline — or continued ascendancy — is in our hands."

"In the course of his presidency, Obama has gone from an almost magical charismatic figure to an ordinary politician. Ordinary. Average. His approval ratings are roughly equal to what the last five presidents were at the same time in their first term. […] He will not be the great transformer he imagines himself to be. A president like others -- with successes and failures."

"What made Obama unique was that he was the ultimate charismatic politician -- the most unknown stranger ever to achieve the presidency in the United States. No one knew who he was, he came out of nowhere, he had this incredible persona that floated him above the fray, destroyed Hillary, took over the Democratic Party and became president. This is truly unprecedented: A young unknown with no history, no paper trail, no well-known associates, self-created."

"If Obama has his way, the change that is coming is a new America: "fair," leveled and social democratic. Obama didnt get elected to warranty your muffler. Hes here to warranty your life."