Paul Begala

In fact the guy who wrote the Patriot Act, Jim Sensenbrenner, very conservative right-wing Republican from Wisconsin, Congress Sensenbrenner says that this is excessive and un-American.

There has got to be a less intrusive alternative than getting the data of every single cell phone call, both domestically and internationally.

We cannot simply have a one-part test, does this work? It must also be, is this consonant with our values as a free society?

I think there was very little framework under Bush. In fact, the guy who wrote the Patriot Act, Jim Sensenbrenner, very conservative right-wing Republican from Wisconsin, Congressman Sensenbrenner says that this is excessive and…

No is the short answer. No. I do want my government to protect us from terrorism. I do. But there has got to be a less intrusive alternative than getting the data of every single cell phone call, both domestically and internationally.

I have no doubt that Barack Obama would be appalled by this in the past. And I would like to know why he's doing it in the present.

I think this fight over gun safety is a direct frontal assault on a fixed position by the NRA.

That line especially was a shot at -- directly at Paul Ryan, who loves to talk about makers and takers.

He famously hosted Steven Spielberg and Daniel day-Lewis and the stars behind the movie 'Lincoln.' And that is the lesson of Lincoln, right? If you read in Lincoln's first inaugural, he talked about the appealing to federal angels of our…

The proposal. It's not the deal, it's the proposal. The Republicans have not come with a counter proposal.

If they cannot be entrusted with the full faith and credit of the United States, they should not have that leverage.

The Republicans can't take yes for an answer because they are not really fighting for lower taxes, they're fighting for the upper two percent of income earners and that's a losing proposition.

I think John Boehner got the better of the president frankly, speaker Boehner, in the last negotiations that they had in 2011.

They seem to be intent on falling on their sword for the 2 percent of the wealthiest Americans, many of whom themselves are happy to pay a slightly higher rate the way we did when President Clinton was president.

The American government has never defaulted on its debt. And now there are some, not the majority of Republicans even, but there are some on the extreme of the Republican Party, and they seem to be in control, who seem to want to default…

I think it's outrageous. I think this brinksmanship about the budget and even the fiscal cliff is all just fine. I don't want to go over the cliff. I think it would be irresponsible.

The Republicans can't take yes for an answer, because they are not really fighting for lower taxes. They're fighting for the upper 2 percent of income earners and that's a losing proposition.

The president has this crazy notion that he ran around the country, he got 51 percent of the vote and carried the majority of states and the vast majority of electoral votes on this agenda.

It's certainly acceptable to the majority of the American people.

Well, I don't want to ascribe any sort of dog whistle to it. He's just wrong. You know, he's flat-out wrong.

Well, he's got a hell of a lot more of a mandate than Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, doesn't he?

He's got a hell of a lot more of a mandate than Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan, doesn't he?

First of all, enthusiasm does matter. It really does. But arithmetic matters more. In other words, if you have fewer voters but they're really, really, really fired up, you still lose.

Without Ohio, it's almost impossible.

Romney has a much, much tougher map. If you begin, as you should, presuming he'll carry every state John McCain did, then he still needs Indiana, which he'll almost -- he's very strong in, very likely to win.