MICHAEL YON EMAILS:

Glenn,

Tonight, I read a detailed message on a private forum from a highly experienced combat writer. Unfortunately, due to the bylaws of that forum I cannot reprint it. What I can say is that it sounds like the US Marines are waging death and destruction on the Taliban in a way the Taliban are not used to. Average patrol finds 1 IED and kills 1 Taliban and they are going night and day.

I made these photos on those battlefields.

Thanks, Michael.

REPORT: Mercedes fast-tracks C-, E- and S-Class hybrids.

CLAIRE BERLINSKI: Why Egypt Matters To You. “The fact that we are supporting the Mubarak regime may not be immediately obvious to most Americans, but it is the central fact about America to every Egyptian alive–to 83 million people in the heart of the Middle East.”

THE ARAB STREET SAYS that Mubarak is going.

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY to my Australian readers.

IN THE MAIL: Underdogma: How America’s Enemies Use Our Love for the Underdog to Trash American Power.

HUBRIS: “The president’s friend and adviser Valerie Jarrett sometimes pointed out that not only had he never managed an operation, he’d never really had a nine-to-five job in his life. Obama didn’t know what he didn’t know, yet his self-confidence was so stratospheric that once, in the context of thinking about Emanuel’s replacement, he remarked in all seriousness, ‘You know, I’d make a good chief of staff.’”

UPDATE: Reader John Potter sees the Dunning-Kruger effect in action.

MICKEY KAUS: A SOTU TO SNOOZE TO: “Obama seemed to have contracted Reich’s Disease, the annoying affect of lecturing to his audience as if they were schoolchildren in the manner of former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. . . . It’s even worse for Obama to lecture than for other politicians to do it, since the reason he is unlikeable (to people like me) is that he seems stuck up.”

Plus this: “Civility is boring! Who knew? It was way more invigorating when people cheered and shouted ‘You Lie!’ Next time, rigorously separate the parties and give them cheerleaders with megaphones. Yes, boring SOTUs sometimes play well with the electorate. But what about the people who have to cover them?”

VERONIQUE DE RUGY: U.S. Manufacturing: Output vs. Jobs Since 1975.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Time To Get Real About Public-Sector Pensions.

HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY to my Indian readers.

CATO: Obama Supports Repealing 1099 Rule. “Now it’s the GOP’s job to get him legislation to repeal this provision tomorrow.”

FROM DUPNIK TO DUMPNIK: Pima County Republicans hope to ride Sheriff Dupnik out of town.

ANNOUNCING THE 2011 Toy Of The Year nominees.

REASON TV: iPhone and oBama: Two Expensive New Models.

FORGET HIGH-SPEED RAIL: We need a monorail! “But Main Street’s still all cracked and broken!” “Sorry, ma’am, the mob has spoken!” “What about us lazy slobs?” “You’ll all be given cushy jobs!” (Reposted — because it just fits so well.)

CIVIL RIGHTS PROGRESS: Michigan bill would allow concealed guns in more places.

YEAH, BUT THE NAME WAS SO DAMN COOL: The Air Force’s Unblinking ‘Gorgon Stare’ System Appears Half-Blind in Early Tests.

WHY THEY’D RATHER TALK ABOUT SARAH PALIN (CONT’D): Home prices fall in nearly all major cities, heightening fears of double dip.

MICHAEL BARONE: Old rules won’t determine GOP presidential candidate.

The weakest part of our political system, by a considerable margin, is the presidential nominating process. It tends to exclude from consideration those with the greatest experience in what is uniquely the president’s responsibility, foreign policy and military strategy.

It tends less strongly to exclude members of Congress, particularly House members but also senators, whose extensive voting records inevitably contain material that is politically damaging at some point in the process. The process has become so lengthy that candidates often come up with strategies and programs that are rendered obsolete by the time of the next presidential inauguration.

All that said, we are stuck with it — or stuck with the version of the schedule that the national Democratic and Republican parties, acting for once in concert, and the various state parties and state legislatures can agree on.

So it may be worthwhile, before trying to assess the chances of likely, putative and possible Republican candidates in the 2012 cycle, to dismiss some of the rules of thumb that have arisen over the years.

Read the whole thing.

EVEN THE FOLKS AT MSNBC not that hot on the SOTU.

UPDATE: The most offensive line in the State Of The Union.

Also: Obama Invents Bi-Angulation.

Plus, comments on Bachmann.

ANOTHER UPDATE: What Obama Didn’t Address.

Robert Scheer: “Platitudinous Hogwash.”

Also, “Sputnik Fail.”

Plus, Reason TV: Still Unfocused On Jobs.

MORE: “Countless” new jobs. “’Countless,’ as in: You won’t be able to count them, because they exist only in my imagination.”

MISS THE SOTU SPEECH? Here’s the Cliff Notes version: “He said something about salmon, said something else about Sputnik, and something else about something else, with lots of human props and less than riveting anecdotes along the way.”

CIVILITY: Rep. Loretta Sanchez sparks outrage from fellow Democrats with proposal to boot Gabrielle Giffords from Armed Services Committee.

Plus this: “‘From a woman who memorialized her cat, you’d think she’d show a little more compassion for a woman shot in the face,’ said one GOP aide, referring to Sanchez’s 2010 Christmas card that paid tribute to her late cat, Gretzky.”

DILBERT on tax policy.

THOUGHTS ON THE SOTU, and the Ryan response, from Ira Stoll.