Krugman, as always, nails it:

So here’s the real tragedy of the botched bailout: Government officials, perhaps influenced by spending too much time with bankers, forgot that if you want to govern effectively you have retain the trust of the people. And by treating the financial industry — which got us into this mess in the first place — with kid gloves, they have squandered that trust.

Obama!

The man is a true diplomat who is going to change the way the world powers interact!

Leah Farrel:

Al-Qa'ida will continue to try to goad the US into staying involved in the conflict because the sustenance and empowerment the conflict gives al-Qa'ida far outweighs the benefits of a safe haven in Afghanistan. Until this is recognised, the strategies the US employs to protect itself from further attacks are likely to inspire more of them and, more importantly, sustain al-Qa'ida.

Marc Lynch at his FP blog:

It's worth walking through the connection once again, because how America responds to Ft. Hood really is important in the wider attempt to change the nature of its engagement with Muslim publics across the world.  Get the response right, as the administration thus far has done, and they show that things really have changed.  Get it wrong, as its critics demand, and the world could tumble back down into the 'clash of civilizations' trap which al-Qaeda so dearly wants and which the improved American approach of the last couple of years has increasingly denied it. 
 The grand strategy of al-Qaeda and its affiliated ideologues is, and has always been, to generate a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West which does not currently exist.  Their great challenge is that the vast majority of Muslims reject their theology, ideology, strategy and tactics.  That's especially true of American Muslims.  They therefore feel the need to change the environment in which Muslims live in order to change their calculations about the appropriateness of extremist identities and ideologies and actions.   
 Terrorism is a means towards that end.  The object is to create a violent, polarized environment in which Muslims are forced to embrace a narrow, extreme version of Muslim identity.   They want Muslims to accept a master narrative in which the Islamic umma is existentially threatened by Western aggression, and the only theologically and strategically appropriate individual response is to join the jihad in the path of god (as they have defined it). 

Can You Believe This?

Fort Hood, opened in September 1942 as America geared up for World War II, was named for Gen. John Bell Hood of the Confederacy.

We have a major army fort named for a Confederate general!  How offensive is that?   

Matt Yglesias:

The problem with the way we do things in our urban politics is that it is largely true that there’s no Democratic or Republican way to cope with municipal issues, but it’s not true that municipal governance is all about non-ideological managerial competence. Rather, our political parties are organized around systematic ideological disagreements about the most important issues in federal politics. But lots of issues that are extremely important in city politics aren’t that important in federal politics.

Prescience

Diane Arbus, 1962 photo.  She shows us in this posed picture the essence of the know-nothing, states rights, "give me my freedom" crowd.