LIGHTNING ROUND: WHY DOES ANYONE CARE WHAT DICK CHENEY THINKS?

• Whatever criticisms can be leveled at Barack Obama's national security speech today -- and there are plenty -- there's no question that he respected his audience's intelligence and dutifully explained why his administration was taking the steps it was taking. Unless you're William Kristol, or, say, one of the writers at The Corner who seem to believe that Obama was some amateur would-be leader with limited political experience talking vaguely and in a "pseudo-thoughtful" manner about subjects he knows nothing about. Dick Cheney, on the other hand, was a "grownup" and a "statesman" because he was able to reference 9/11 no less than 25 times while repeating the lie that there was an al-Qaeda/Iraq link and defending torture from "contrived indignation and phony moralizing."
• Beltway conventional wisdom watch: David Broder argues that Obama's reversal on several national security issues is the inevitable result of taking on the duties of commander-in-chief (and it's especially difficult for Democrats, Broder claims), while Howard Fineman believes the "grim realities" of being commander-in-chief have "forced" him to reverse himself on these issues. See also the unpersuasive "Obama got rolled by his generals" meme.
• It looks like Henry Waxman's speed reader bluff did the trick, with Republicans backing down from efforts to delay and amend the climate change bill to death, despite the noted danger of creating a "global warming Gestapo." Meanwhile, the House Education Committee is looking to stop subsidizing private student loans and the House GOP regretfully concedes that they have "no choice" but to convene a "bipartisan investigation" to investigate Nancy Pelosi.
• This massive Pew poll of political attitudes, identification and partisan trends over the past 22 years confirms what other polls have identified this year -- that the Republican coalition is shrinking, Democrats have gained modestly, and independents are filling the vacuum. On most of the specific issues polled, however, there's much more synergy between self-described Democrats and independents, than there is with with independents and Republicans.
• Remainders: Please make the "Biden is a gaffe machine" storyline go away; the RNC demonstrates the perils of quoting out of context; in a party full of broken records, Newt Gingrich is a corroded 78 that plays on one rusty, old, gramophone; and Cato engages in some amateur-hour political analysis.

--Mori Dinauer