Toasted

"You can't buy a toaster in America that has a one in five chance of exploding. But you can buy a mortgage that has a one in five chance of exploding, and they don't even have to tell you about it..." observes Elizabeth Warren in today's Huffington Post. "We have consumer protection for everything you touch, taste, smell, feel... But there is no equivalent for credit cards, for mortgages; there's nothing."

Warren ought to know, because she heads the Congressional Oversight Panel for the TARP program and has long advocated for stronger consumer protections. "I teach contract law at Harvard Law School, and I can't understand my own credit card," she adds. "No, I am not kidding you."

Nobel

"The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world. And who has done more than Barack Obama?"

THORBJOERN JAGLAND, chairman of the Nobel Committee

Optional

What don't the philistines get? After all is said and done, the public option is optional. "It doesn't involve a government takeover of the health-care system," explains E. J. Dionne Jr. in today's Washington Post. "The idea is that only consumers who want to enroll in a government-run health plan would do so. Anyone who preferred private insurance could get it."