From Fareed Zakaria GPS. John Meacham pushes back against Peggy Noonan's "let's move forward" nonsense.

John Amato: Peggy Noonan sounds like she ate a few of those funny mushrooms about forty five minutes before she went on the set and everything just turned so damn mellow. Digby puts it best when she says:

If I had only been listening with half an ear I would have thought that I was hearing some very stoned woman having a stream of consciousness conversation with herself at a Grateful Dead concert. I half expected her to bring up the dolphins again. What in God's name is she smoking? And why is she on my TV?

I think I understand Glenn Beck now. He's channeling Peggy Noonan's schtick, but adds an eight-ball of coke to the emo-cocktail that takes his phony compassionate crying to a new level of absurdity. They think they will look more credible if they seem to care more than you or I in the fuzzy dice kind of way.

ZAKARIA: Let's talk about Obama and terror, because that's another part of this whole puzzle. You've had Dick Cheney giving a very unusual interview in which he says, effectively, Obama is weakening the country and setting up a scenario where, if there is by some chance another attack, it could be seen as Obama's fault.

You know, other Republicans saying that he should have kept in place all these provisions regarding torture, regarding whatever else, in order to fight the war more vigorously.

You've had a little bit of a controversy around all this, Peggy. You think that the memos about torture should have been released, but we should have moved on, or should never have been released?

NOONAN: Oh, it seems to me the world knows that things were done wrong. I think Obama has made it clear, coming forward, that his plans are to leave that old stuff behind.

There is always a temptation to focus on what the last administration in its mistakes did. I think the problems that are here, however, are so pressing, that sometimes you've just got to stop and say, "That was then. This is now. Move forward."

MEACHAM: Winston Churchill said that the British people can face any misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy, as long as they are convinced that those who are in charge of their affairs are not deceiving them, or not themselves dwelling in a fool's paradise.

The American people can do that, too. We can handle the truth. The covenant of modern democracies is, give it to us straight and we will do what it takes.

And as General Powell, I think, once memorably said, you know, we've gone abroad many times, and the only thing we've asked for is the ground in which to bury our dead.

I think that governments have to be responsible, because governments are us. I mean, otherwise, the entire idea of civic and republican -- lower case "r" -- virtue collapses. So...

ZAKARIA: So, you would be comfortable with investigations?

MEACHAM: Sure.

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From Fareed Zakaria GPS, Eliot Spitzer weighed in on the regulatory system that is in place overseeing Wall Street, the bonuses that have everyone outraged and what he thinks of the job President Obama is doing so far.

ZAKARIA: Was the regulation -- was the regulatory regime in place strong enough? And I'm thinking particularly of the New York Fed, which was headed by Tim Geithner, of the SEC?

Where do you see the flaw having been over the last few years?

SPITZER: Here's my answer to that. The regulatory system was structurally flawed, but that's not why this happened.

After the last round of scandals -- Enron, et al. -- we passed Sarbanes-Oxley. And we said, aha, we've solved the problem. Now we have another set of scandals.

There are enough laws, enough regulations on the books for smart, aggressive regulators and prosecutors to make all the cases. What was missing was judgment. And you can't legislate judgment. You can't regulate judgment. Either the people who are the regulators will walk into a bank and say "Your leverage is too great. We are going to take actions to pull it back," or "This type of investment is flawed," or they won't. You can't pass a law that says, you must use sound judgment.

Bubbles have been there through history, through over-regulation and under-regulation. This is a question of judgment and of failure of judgment.

When I was attorney general, people said, "Oh, you're using this crazy little statute," the Martin Act in New York, "to bring all these cases." The Martin Act had a simple anti-fraud provision. That's all we used.

The federal government has exponentially more regulatory power than we did. What was lacking was the judgment, the tenacity, the desire to rein in a financial system that was spiraling out of control.

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(h/t Heather)

Think the world is sick of George W. Bush? Look at Tom "Yeah, it's a flat world, but let's give 'em 6 more months in Iraq" Friedman advising both on Sunday's GPS with Fareed Zakaria and in his NY Times column that we throw away precedent and just get Barack Obama in office as quickly as possible...like by Thanksgiving.

It’s a huge moment for America and the global economy. I think we should seriously consider moving up the inauguration day. Because I don’t know that we have two months to have a political vacuum at this moment in this economic crisis. I mean, to Neil’s point, the financial system is the heart, it pumps blood to the industrial muscles of the economy. It’s not working. We’re supposed to sit around for two months and wait for the new administration to get in…because this administration has kind of checked out. They’re not going to do anything big. And so, I don’t think people have fully grasped the fact …I tell you, I go to restaurants now and look around, your point earlier….I wanna come up to people and say, “You shouldn’t be here. You should be home having tuna sandwiches. What are you doing here? Don’t you understand there is a storm coming?” Okay? And it hasn’t hit yet. And I believe the decisions made possibly in these next two months could determine the next four years. This administration could be over before it starts. Over in the sense that it will spend the next four years digging out of a hole that has been created right now that may be deeper and darker than anyone realizes.

Oh, to be on the forefront of media memes! It means never having to be right about anything you say and yet be considered A Very Serious Person. Bob Cesca:

Yes, Mr. Friedman. Good idea! Let's give the next president, you know, four days to hastily assemble his entire cabinet and staff in time to govern the world through the worst financial crisis since whenever... starting Thursday. Smart -- then again, it would certainly help the establishment press to build their "failed Obama presidency" narrative.

Or how about this: Why don't the very serious commentariat demand that our current president do his damn job for a change rather than running out the clock? Naturally, this won't happen because the current narrative is all about Clinton drama. And notice the end of the article -- Friedman closes with a quote about a potential Obama mistake. Very serious!

By the way, notice that Friedman is also channeling our favorite financial diva Suze Orman. Nag people about their spending! [..]

Eight month emergency fund, young people! Eat tuna! No mention whatsoever that the Iraq invasion and occupation, which Friedman vocally supported and endorsed, is helping to bankrupt America. We're still spending $10 billion a month over there, but eat tuna sandwiches, you lazy stupid young people!