One pitfall of political writing is that you eventually feel a bit like Bill Murray in “Groundhog Day,” waking over and over to the same morning and same old song.

But while Murray’s alarm clock played “I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher, I’m currently hearing three oldies in heavy rotation:

Will the President Dump His Veep?

Will a Third-Party Candidate Make Waves in 2012?

Will We See a Brokered Convention?

More than half a century ago, a U.S. president insisted it was nuts for any politician to target Social Security. In his words, “the federal government cannot avoid or escape responsibilities which the mass of the people firmly believe should be undertaken by it.” Therefore, “should any political party attempt to abolish Social Security ... you would not hear of that party again in our political history.” And those who want to abolish it “are stupid.”

Richard Nixon famously said that Republican presidential candidates should run to the right in the primaries, then to the center in the general election. But what happens if they tilt so far rightward that they wind up ceding the center?

The current crop of candidates is risking that result. President Barack Obama may be highly vulnerable in 2012, but if Rick Perry and his rivals don’t clamp down on the crazy talk, they may well blow it.

In dysfunctional Washington, this is what passes for a major achievement:

The Republicans snatch Uncle Sam and threaten to drive him over the cliff. In response, President Barack Obama agrees to pay a historic ransom. To please the hostage-takers, he ushers in a new era of fiscal austerity that will make it virtually impossible for the government to address what the American people want most.

Namely, jobs.