“The problem in Europe, for example, isn’t that their economies are struggling a bit. We’re talking about entire countries going broke and the euro possibly collapsing. The problem with Medicare isn’t that we need to nudge it into reform. Medicare is going broke, Social Security is already paying out more than it’s taking in and we’ve got (by some estimates) $100 trillion of entitlement and pension payments to make in the next generation that we can’t afford.

“In a typical year with voters facing typical problems, typical pols carry the day. But there is nothing typical about 9 percent unemployment, a roller coaster stock market and Iran on the cusp of going nuclear.

“And there is absolutely nothing ‘typical’ about Newt.”

– Michael Graham, writing in the Boston Herald