CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: And in that sense, his second term is the opposite of a normal second term. A normal second term president is reelected. he can ignore the polls to a large extent. In the first two years he has a mandate, a bit of a wind at his back and he legislates, he tries to enact his agenda. He understands that he is going to lose a lot s

GEORGE WILL: The president is rather enjoying this. And if the emblematic statement of the first Obama term was 'a crisis is a terrible thing to waste,' this term, defined after just 9 months is 'a crisis is a beautiful thing to create.' To understand his behavior in early October, you have to understand the disaster in September, when he suffered

RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, evidence that what I said yesterday is actually the case. I think the Democrats are losing this. And isn't it true out there that Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul were caught on an open mic actually discussing amongst themselves that they're winning, that we are winning? This is Wednesday night in Paducah, Kentucky, on WP

SEN. TED CRUZ: "It has been several days since I have been to the floor of the Senate and yet I feel I have been here in absentia because so many Democrats have invoked my name as the root of all evil in the world. And, indeed, the same Majority Leader that gave an ode to civility just a few days ago was describing me and anyone who might agree tha

CHUCK TODD: NBC NEWS: Jay, you guys used a lot of hostage metaphors. Has there ever been a hostage negotiation situation where the people doing the negotiation have refused to accept any hostages being released? The reason I say that is, you can put some people back to work today. You can save the government some money today by signing these piecem

PRESIDENT OBAMA: If Speaker Boehner will simply allow that vote to take place, we could end the shutdown -- a whole bunch of families, not just here in Washington, but all across the country, will have the certainty that a paycheck will be coming and they'll be able to make their mortgage, they'll be able to pay their expenses, and they will be abl

Via Chicago Tonight, October 3, 2013: After an unsuccessful meeting of the minds, the federal government is still shut down. Neither side is willing to negotiate leaving nearly 800,000 federal employees furloughed. Who is going to blink first? And what will the political price be for

MSNBC's Chris Hayes looks at what, if anything, the Republican Party is fighting for.

Daily Show: Could there be a higher octane fuel for the Fox News false outrage exploitation engine than wheelchair-bound World War II veterans?

SEN. HARRY REID: Mr. President, following the suggestion in the prayer of Admiral Black, I want to take a few minutes to talk about Senate decorum, Senate procedure. This is constructive criticism for the entire Senate and self-criticism for me. Mr. President, I think we've all here in the Senate kind of lost the aura of Robert Byrd, who was such a

Steve Hayes, Jason Riley, and A.B. Stoddard discuss who will take the blame for shutting down parts of the federal government.

"Deliver us, Lord, from government by crisis." Rachel Maddow reports on how the Senate chaplain has been using his opening prayer to stand up against the behavior of members of Congress.

REP. JOHN BOEHNER: Good morning, everyone. When we have a crisis like we are in the middle of this week, the American people expect their leaders to sit down and try to resolve their differences. I was at the White House the other night listening to the president explain some twenty times why he wasn't going to negotiate. I listened to the Majority

O'REILLY: For [senate majority leader] Harry [Reid], it's all about power. For the American left in general, it is all about their vision of social justice and income equality. It matters not to the left if healthcare actually declines, because doctors opt out, if full-time jobs decline because companies want fewer workers on the payroll that they

MSNBC: President Obama has repeatedly said before and during government shutdown that he refuses to negotiate further with the Republicans. But is there any risk in that strategy for the president? And is the GOP's strategy any better? David Axelrod joins the conversation.