Joe Biden says the Obama team didn’t really know what they were doing but that the stimulus is working. Or, it’s going to work. Or, something. “Vice President Joe Biden said the Obama administration ‘misread how bad the economy was’ but stands by its stimulus package and believes the plan will create more jobs as the pace of its spending picks up.”(And these are the people who want to run health care.)

John Boehner gets in a dig on the stimulus bill: “This was supposed to be about jobs, jobs, and jobs. And the fact is it turned into nothing more than spending, spending, and more spending on a lot of big government bureaucracy.”

And on healthcare: “The president says the problem with our health care system is we spend too much as a nation on health care. So how do you spend another trillion to $2 trillion in order to spend less? And we’re going to tax the American people, raise our taxes once again, at a time when the economy’s not doing well. If we’re trying to create jobs in America, you can’t do it by imposing more taxes on a big government-run health care plan.”

A smart take by Kevin Hassett: “Obama and his team seem sharply opposed to the view that creative destruction is a valuable economic force. They seem happy with what might be called destructive destruction – the obliteration of value and wealth without any resulting positive change.”

Karl Rove on Sarah Palin: “So now the expectations are going to be she’s going to be fully available, she’s going to be able to come to the lower 48, and she’s going to be able to do whatever people ask her to do, and that’s going to be a problem. . .  Again, she said she wanted to lead effective change outside of government. Well, now we’re — now people are going to be saying, ‘What is it that you mean by that? And how are you — demonstrated effective leadership for change around America?’ . . .It is not clear what her strategy here is by exiting the governorship 2.5 years through the term and putting herself on the national stage that she may not yet be prepared to operate in.”

The Wall Street Journal editors have it right, I think: “Whether she will be up to [the task of national leadership] in two years, or six or 10, will depend on whether she’s willing to do the hard policy work that can add substance to her natural political talents.”

Or maybe longer, mulls Fred Barnes. He observes, “Even a super-abundance of charisma cannot make up for her shortcomings in experience and knowledge.” But he offers: “A term in the House and another in the Senate — nothing would do more to groom her for the White House than this and transform her into the best Republican candidate for the presidency in, say, 2020, when she’d be 56.”

Further reason to question why we are bailing out failing car companies: “The Toyota Camry is more American than the Ford F-150, at least according to Cars.com’s annual American-Made Index. The findings further muddy the Buy American debate that rages across the country. Toyota Motor Corp. also is the most American car company, according to the rankings of the index in terms of U.S. content in its cars and trucks.”

An invaluable guide to cap-and-trade with a list of 50 of some of the eye-popping awful provisions.

Mary Anastasia O’Grady on Honduras: “Mr. Zelaya’s violations of the rule of law in recent months were numerous. But the tipping point came 10 days ago, when he led a violent mob that stormed a military base to seize and distribute Venezuelan-printed ballots for an illegal referendum. . . Reason has gone AWOL in places like Turtle Bay and Foggy Bottom. Ruling the debate on Mr. Zelaya’s behavior is Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez, who is now the reigning international authority on ‘democracy.'”