Paul Begala

The important thing is the big bill has passed. The president will sign it. That's the house. The house has been built, right? The structure is there. We're now going to argue over the furniture.

Not even close. They would have lost the House if they had failed here.

I think moderates look at those people, and they are repulsed. And I think then the base looks at the fact that they lost.

The Republicans have, and I think Paone was right in that piece, they have every right. They'll offer unlimited amendments, and the Democrats have to bat 1,000. They have to beat every single Republican amendment.

I was please -- and I know his families and friends are pleased to hear his doctors say that the pace of his work is not what has caused this.

He does. He works his tail off.

He's been to Haiti five times, twice after the earthquake, three before. He's been to Kosovo, he's been to Colombia, he's been to Peru.

I think this president can find his populist voice in those reform issues, where he's very comfortable. And he's authentic about it.

Democrats say, Democrats -- and this is where Barack Obama is an authentic populist, in taking on what he sees as a corrupt establishment in Washington.

Scott Brown, I think, won -- and he said so -- mostly because he was an outsider criticizing the establishment.

This president still has to raise taxes. He's going to roll back the Bush taxes, he has gigantic tax increases of the (INAUDIBLE) health care.

I think, his story is America's story in the best sort of sense of American populism, where we lift folks up, instead of just sort of reserving power for the moneyed elite.

The Democrats have got to decide whether they're more likely to lose their seat -- because it's the jobs issue that will drive this -- will they lose their job if they don't pass health insurance reform, or are they more likely to lose…

You show your character in defeat sometimes a lot more than you do in victory.

I wish it had been four or five days ago, but that's not that important.

I do have some quibbles with it when I get to in just a minute.

For example, people even like evolution or gravity or photosynthesis or any of the stuff that Republicans are afraid off, come on over to the Democratic Party.

God bless the Republicans. They seem to have ceded the center of the national debate to the Democratic Party.

I think this is great. I think the Republicans should go back to the Dark Ages. And don't stop there. Go all the way to the Stone Age.

The Democratic Party has a wide diversity of opinion like the Republican Party used to. This is a different Republican Party now. It's all about purity, it's all about rigidity.

When she steps in to this race on behalf of this Conservative Party candidate against a Republican, then she's not acting as an entrepreneur. She's acting as -- she was the vice-presidential candidate of her party.

There are two kinds of political parties, those who seek out converts and those that hunt down heretics. Well, Ronald Reagan was a leader for Republicans who sought out converts, the Reagan Democrats. Sarah Palin seems to be one who wants…

Most voters, most citizens are a lot more interested in results than in process.

I want to know who is visiting the Supreme Court. I do. I want to know who is visiting the Congress.

It's hard to draw the line. As long as it's this kind of social stuff, though, if they're bowling or playing on Sasha and Malia's swing set, or something, I don't think voters care.