“But encouraging responsible civic behavior was not the mission of the hyperventilating liberals this August. Instead, they aimed to impose a social cost and scrutiny on conservatives who protest that they had never previously imposed on protesters closer to their own political persuasion. The high-profile throttling of people like Bert Stead and Bob MacGuffie, who merely spoke out or organized friends to do the same, was meant to send a message. Free-market grandmas around the country were meant to look at Stead and MacGuffie and wonder if they wanted to turn themselves into piñatas for the MSNBC hosts or should keep quiet instead. Pro-life moms attending town hall meetings, perhaps for the first time in their lives, were meant to recoil at the label of ‘racist’ or ‘terrorist’ and wonder whether staying at home with the kids might be a better course of action…

Indeed, judging by the tea party protests of last spring, the health care protests of August, and protests planned for September and beyond, with enthusiasm seemingly uncurbed, the wrath of Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and the ‘un-American’ insults of Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and their caucus are being laughed off.”

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“One veteran GOP official puts it bluntly: ‘The image of a bunch of white guys booing an African-American president is about as bad as it gets.’…

Longtime GOP strategist John Weaver said the Wilson incident isn’t a ‘huge deal’ by itself, but ‘taken together with what’s happened over the last eight years, it’s symptomatic of what our problem is.’

‘We do have structural, demographic issues we’re not addressing,’ he said. ‘But we also have tone problems. We could have the best policy ideas in the world, but we can’t get anybody to buy them if our salespeople are angry. Nobody wants to hang out with a bunch of cranks.'”

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“Last night was uncomfortable, especially how about if you’re a parent and you had your children in school this week, the president’s speech to the kids, just as I said, it was to set up last night’s speech. We’re being told and kids are being told to look up to this man. It was an awful speech. He was petulant; he was childish; he was a community organizer and agitator; he lied; he was divisive; he attacked me; he attacked Sarah Palin; he attacked conservative Republicans in Congress who dare to challenge government-run health care. He continued to attack tens of millions of Americans who spent the summer attending town hall meetings. It was crude. It was disgusting. The most crude and disgusting performance by any president I have seen.”