Michelle Malkin - To mark Labor Day 2010, President Obama will join hands with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in Milwaukee and pose as champions of the working class. Bad move. Trumka's organizing record is a shameful reminder of the union movement's violent and corrupt foundations.

Georgie Anne Geyer - WASHINGTON -- You have to wonder exactly what you're supposed to say in a week like this one, as President Obama officially declared the end to the U.S. war in Iraq and most Americans breathed a tempered sigh of relief.

Ann Coulter - The nonsense about President Obama being a Muslim has got to stop. I rise to defend him from this absurd accusation by pointing out that he is obviously an atheist.

The Week - In Vanity Fair's new issue, Michael J. Gross takes a hard look at Palin's "surreal new world." Here are some of his must-read revelations

The Week - President Obama reportedly is considering a second stimulus depending more heavily on tax cuts than the first. Will that save the economic recovery?

The Atlantic Wire - Christina Romer, one of President Obama's top economic advisers, gave a dispiriting speech on the economy Wednesday at the National Press Club. Romer is leaving the administration this month and in her farewell remarks she cast doubt about the likelihood of a robust economic recovery.

The Atlantic Wire - Daniel Henninger on 'If Saddam Had Stayed' The Wall Street Journal columnist looks back from the president's recent Iraq speech to one he made in 2002, then a state senator, in which he called the potential conflict a "dumb war." Back then, Obama argued that Saddam Hussein was a bloody dictator, but one that could be contained and did not pose an immediate threat to the U.S. Henninger then asks: what would the world look like if Obama's "'smarter' view had prevailed?" In answer, he paints a dark scenario in which Saddam moved to join Iran and North Korea in developing nuclear weapons, thereby "incentivizing Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Sudan" to pursue them as well. By deposing Saddam, Henninger writes, the U.S. took out at least one of the "nuclear-obsessed madmen off the table and gave the world more margin to deal with the threat that remains."

The Atlantic Wire - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have agreed to begin direct peace talks, providing a small but promising first step in President Barack Obama's U.S.-hosted peace efforts. Israel-Palestine peace, which has eluded countless world leaders and seven U.S. presidents, faces several daunting challenges, chief among them the controversial and ongoing Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The U.S. State Department will host today's direct talks. What can Netanyahu and Abbas accomplish?

The Week - America's political class is consumed with the debate over whether to bomb Iran -- as if doing so were necessary, or even sensible.

Cynthia Tucker - WASHINGTON -- Glenn Beck is a talented huckster, a shrewd survivor who may be in the middle of another self-reinvention. This time, he seems bent on remaking himself as one of the oldest of the stock all-American characters: the Elmer Gantry-like preacher-performer.

The Upshot - An Arizona man is in trouble with his homeowners' association over flying the Gadsden flag, which features a coiled rattlesnake and the words "Don't Tread on Me." The flag has been adopted by members of the tea party movement for its association with the American Revolution, but Andy McDonel tells the New York Times that [...]

Politico - Opinion: Historical forces, electoral precedents and political realities are working in Boxer's favor.

The Atlantic Wire - A gunman named James Jay Lee has taken a small number of hostages at the headquarters of the Discovery Channel in the DC suburb of Silver Spring, Maryland. Lee, who police say may have explosives, has long protested the Discovery Channel building and has posted a crazed, rambling Internet "manifesto", calling the human species the "most destructive, filthy, pollutive creatures around" and insisting that the Discovery Channel air his views. Though Lee is clearly sick, and though the hostage crisis is still ongoing as of this writing, bloggers and partisan commentators have not hesitated in using this incident to score political points. Whether liberal or conservative, the bloggers argue that Lee represents the opposite end of the political spectrum and is thus the responsibility of that bloggers' ideological opponents.

The Atlantic Wire - Like it or not, the will-she-or-won't-she whispers about whether Sarah Palin will throw her hat in the ring for a 2012 presidential bid won't end until she states verbatim, "I'm not running." Until then, even the slightest suspicions of her political ambitions will set off speculation. One of the larger such hints is her recent decision to be the keynote speaker at the Iowa Republican Party's Ronald Reagan Dinner. Not only because Iowa plays a unique role in kick-starting the presidential primaries, but because--according to recent polls--Palin clearly needs to bolster her image and credibility in order to have a shot at becoming the Republican nominee. Here's what pundits are saying about her latest turn in Iowa:

The Atlantic Wire - Direct Israel-Palestine peace talks begin today, hosted by President Barack Obama at the White House. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas both join Obama to commence what will be the ninth round of U.S.-led Israel-Palestine peace talks over 31 years. Jordan’s King Abdullah and Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak will also be present. The process begins inauspiciously, with Palestinian group Hamas claiming the murders of four Israeli civilians, one of whom was pregnant, and Israeli settlers continuing the construction of West Bank settlements despite a U.S.-backed settlement freeze. Here's what observers have to say about Obama's approach at one of the longest running and most stubborn problems in U.S. foreign policy.

The Atlantic Wire - In one of the biggest political upsets of the year, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski has been unseated by her Republican primary opponent. Murkowski conceded to Joe Miller, a conservative lawyer and relative unknown, after trailing him by some 1,600 votes. Miller depicted Murkowski as insufficiently conservative and vowed to rein in Washington excess. Though he enjoyed the support of the Tea Party Express and Sarah Palin, few predicted he could unseat an establishment GOP incumbent. So how did Miller pull off the upset?

The Atlantic Wire - President Barack Obama addressed the country on national television Tuesday night to mark the formal end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq. Though 50,000 troops remain in the country, this long-sought moment, which Obama made a central plank of his presidential campaign, is widely seen as a welcome end to the seven-year conflict that has killed 4,400 Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis. Here's what pundits have to say about Obama's speech and his handling of the ongoing problems of Iraq.

Politico - Opinion: We can't allow deep benefit cuts, including a steep rise in the retirement age.

Politico - Opinion: Obama may not know it, but the new U.S. initiative could destroy the Palestinian cause.

The Week - Liberals hoped the Tea Party insurgency would split the GOP, says David Weigel at Slate. Instead, the conservative rebels are figuring out how to win

Michelle Malkin - An indignant President Obama complained last week, "I can't spend all of my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead." Fine. How about plastering a copy of his presidential oath of office there instead? The kowtowing commander-in-chief is in dire need of a daily reminder that his job is to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States" — not international law or global diktats.

AFP - In a fresh blow to President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies, a new opinion poll shows his Republican critics have an unprecedented 10-point edge just over two months before key elections.

"We will meet our deadline for withdrawal of combat troops from Iraq." The fixation with meeting our own deadline, necessitated by domestic politics, reveals a particularly -- even for America --- myopic view of the world.

Here is the bad news. No one cares about our deadline. The world -- and particularly the Muslim majority world -- is looking for results. What does that mean? People I asked in various Muslim majority countries in the Middle East and the Gulf replied that it means a stable, safe Iraq, with a viable government, where people feel safe to pursue their livelihoods, go to school, get married -- in short, lead their lives.

No one I spoke to could care less about whether or not the U.S. Meets its deadline for withdrawal. But, then again, no one I spoke to is voting in the mid-term election. This is not a question of whether or not life under Saddam was "better" or "worse". The problem is that we invaded -- we broke it, we bought it. (While in the United States, we tend to refer to the Iraq War, elsewhere it is called the Iraq invasion.) Our self-imposed "deadline" is irrelevant in this scenario. It is as if a student who flunked all his courses, but arrived at school on time every day demanded a diploma.

President Obama certainly did not create this dilemma. But world opinion may not grant him the luxury of exiting it. It is doubtful that anyone can predict how long it would take, and how many troops or troops of whatever description would be required to deliver a stable, safe Iraq. But what kind of country are we that we invade another sovereign nation, and then leave it in chaos because our "deadline" has arrived?

President Obama may be able to finesse this situation with clever definitions of combat troops and other types of personnel. Indeed the argument could be made that we needed more engineers, teachers, doctors, and nurses all along. Maybe if the Iraqi people had electricity, running water, schools, and hospitals, there would be less strife anyway.

But, the United States cannot have it both ways. A country that meets its own deadline, while leaving chaos in its wake cannot expect to command undiminished respect on the world stage.

The Christian Science Monitor - A few months ago, I sat with some friends in a pizza place in Chapel Hill, N.C., engaged in my own version of a “beer summit.� A successful Connecticut entrepreneur, a Wall Street executive, and a retired senior bank officer pummeled me with questions about my support of President Obama. Politically outnumbered, I ended up playing defense most of the night.