The Daily Top Five: Jan. 24, 2007

1. AirCongress.com has a number of links to reaction from the State of the Union. While I admit that President Bush's speech was not a great SOTU speech, I do think it was his best. I think that Sen. Jim Webb did a OK job, not great, not bad. Some of his language was more appropriate for his novels as opposed to speeches, but it was not bad. However, predictably, liberal bloggers were calling Webb's speech a "pounding." I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Philip Mella has a moderate take down of Webb's speech.

2. Why is the View still on the air? Allahpundit, over at Hot Air has Rosie O'Donnell calling for impeachment, like she is the first to ever think of it. Then Joy Behar exhibits a complete lack of understanding of the Constitution and the separation of powers.

3. James Joyner from Outside the Beltway is covering the Scooter Libby trial. Here is his report on today's testimony. This link points to some of the inane things that go on during a trial, two lawyer stipulating that a particular date falls on a particular day of the week.

4. In most public surveys, health care typically ranks behind only terrorism and the war in Iraq as issue most Americans are concerned about. Eric Cohen and Yuval Levin have a lenghty discussion of the three largest health care issues, all misread by the political leadership:

Three different "crises," then, each of a different weight and character. The crisis of the uninsured, while surely a serious challenge, has often been overstated, especially on the Left, in an effort to promote more radical reforms than are necessary. The crisis of insured middle-class families has been misdiagnosed both by the Right, which sees it purely as a function of economic inefficiency, and by the Left, which sees it as an indictment of free-market medicine. And the crisis of Medicare has been vastly understated by everyone, in an effort to avoid taking the painful measures necessary to prevent catastrophe. In each case, a clearer understanding may help point the way to more reasonable reforms.

Take the time to read the whole thing.

5. John Kerry is not "in."