Posted Sunday, November 22,  12:23 AM CST,  1:23 AM EST, 0623 GMT.

Top editorial and op-ed commentaries in the Sunday editions of the leading U. S. newspapers:

1) In the New York Times, Thomas Friedman fears that American power and prosperity may be squandered in the 21st century due to bad governance. He cites a laundry list of factors that have pushed the system “into the realm of paralysis. To get anything big done now, we have to generate so many compromises — couched in 1,000-plus-page bills — with so many different interest groups that the solutions are totally suboptimal. We just get the sum of all interest groups…. The standard answer is that we need better leaders. The real answer is that we need better citizens. We need citizens who will convey to their leaders that they are ready to sacrifice, even pay, yes, higher taxes, and will not punish politicians who ask them to do the hard things.”

2) In the NYT, Maureen Dowd considers the strengths and weaknesses of Sarah Palin.  “The conservative celebrity clearly hasn’t boned up on anything, except her own endless odyssey of self-discovery.” Nevertheless, John McCain’s 2008 running mate may possess some strengths that Barack Obama lacks. “He’s a highly intelligent man with a highly functioning West Wing, and he’s likable, but he’s not connecting on the gut level that could help him succeed…. Like Reagan, Obama is a detached loner with a strong, savvy wife. But unlike Reagan, he doesn’t have the acting skills to project concern about what’s happening to people.”

3) In the Washington Post, Kathleen Parker also takes Palin as her subject. She questions whether there is cause to take umbrage at the Newsweek magazine cover featuring the former Alaska governor. “Originally taken for Runner’s World magazine to go with a profile of the former governor, an avid runner, the picture couldn’t be any more flattering or wholesomely all-American if Norman Rockwell had painted it. In a word, the photo is fantastic…. Would we show a man similarly posed? Only if he positioned himself that way — and looked as good.”

4) In the WP, David Broder questions whether the Democrats have given a sufficient account of how they will pay for their health-care reform bill. According to Broder, the CBO report on the Senate bill suggests “the promised budget savings may not materialize. If you read deep enough, you will find that under the Senate bill, ‘federal outlays for health care would increase during the 2010-2019 period’ — not decline. The gross increase would be almost $1 trillion — $848 billion, to be exact, mainly to subsidize the uninsured. The net increase would be $160 billion…. The challenge to Congress — and to Obama — remains the same: Make the promised savings real, and don’t pass along unfunded programs to our children and grandchildren.”