Real genius in D.C.: In Washington, the national pastime is not baseball but gotcha. And the more you try to do, the more likely you are to be gotten. | Susan Estrich/Rasmussen Reports

Health care changes should be more incremental: Most Americans don't want this health care legislation because they worry it will hurt their own coverage, raise their premiums and add to the deficit they and their children must pay for. | Jim Talent/Springfield News-Leader

Low-tax Texas beats big-government California: The nation's two most populous states have different approaches to government, with vastly different results. | Michael Barone/Rasmussen Reports

The courage of his convictions: Whether you like Barack Obama or not, you have to admit he does everything humanly possible to keep his promises. | Susan Estrich/Rasmussen Reports

Want a model for a group to mentor young African-American males? Look to St. Louis  Twenty-six years ago the Rev. C. Garnett Henning of St. Paul A.M. E. Church set up “a manhood, leadership and development group” that is still at work today. | George Curry, NNPA Columnist

Lt. gov. pick will tell a lot about state Democrats : Will Quinn take a leadership role? Will downstate get a nod? Will the person have budget experience? | Bloomington Pantagraph, editorial

Redevelopment bond numbers don't add up : The plan to help a Glen Carbon development looks like a windfall for the Legoland-plus development and a loss for the state and surrounding municipalities. | Belleville News Democrat, editorial

Illinois doesn't need a lieutenant governor - at least not one that has no ties to the gubernatorial candidate or government experience. | Eric Zorn, Chicago Tribune

Pat Robertson's canard about Haiti making a pact with the devil repeats a myth that Europeans have used to belittle the country. | Thomas Rogers, Salon

New chant of Iranian protesters is "Death to no one!": Thirty years after American hostages were taken, young Iranians are raising a gentle accusatory finger at their own parental generation. | Hamid Dabashi/CNN

In defense if the National Health Service. Criticism of the British health-care system is not only often mistaken, it blinds Americans to the faults within their own method of providing and paying for medical care. | The Economist

Tighter capital requirements. As consumers still clammer for access to credit and banks appear ready to pump up the bonuses again, governments have few options but to require a capital buffer that will protect against loss. | The Economist