By JAY AMBROSE, Scripps Howard News Service

Despite occasional talk of pragmatism -- of simply doing what works and is necessary -- the Obama administration has veered to the far left with a hang-the-expenses, collectivist agenda that will turn our society upside down while likely wrecking its economy, and here comes the big question.
Is America going to say yes?

Someone's knocking at the door, the young woman inside the apartment asks who's there, and a pleasant voice replies, "flowers." The woman is suspicious, and is then told "plumber," and later "candy-gram."

"That was pretty impressive, wasn't it?" asked President Obama. He was being interviewed by CNBC, had just dispatched a fly after first trying a negotiating technique called "shooing" and was clearly pleased with hand speed that could have made him a fast-draw hero in a Western movie. But no, PETA was not impressed.

Wondering whether "media demagogues" have something to do with it, New York Times columnist Frank Rich frets that right-wing anger is about to "spiral out of control," and, to help make his case, mentions two recent murders and cites some conservative commentary he finds over the top.

President Obama took his wife on a date in New York City, getting there and back via Air Force One, helicopters and a limousine, paying for this transportation with maybe $24,000 in taxpayer cash, and giving a vivid example of how he says one thing (it's time for sacrifice) and does another (indulges in a splurge).

It was made out to be like one of those action movies in which the bomb is ticking, millions of people are in danger of being blown to smithereens, and James Bond or some other hero has just seconds to deactivate this complicated apparatus.

Eternal vigilance -- that's the only answer I can think of in the fight against a certain style of extreme environmentalism that, first off, would mendaciously fill you with fear to win your support for a cause, and then turn around and do something worse. It would deny the enormous human costs of causes it endorses.

Sonia Sotomayor's racial stereotyping won't likely keep her off the Supreme Court, but it ought to be discussed and its rationale ought to be dismissed after a brief visit with Huckleberry Finn.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has figured out what to do when you get in deep political trouble at home. You dress up as Al Gore and go to China.

Barack Obama said he deliberated carefully in nominating federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to serve on the Supreme Court, and no doubt he did.