SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:05 P.M. ET:

THEY'RE BACK – Can the academic left leave anything alone?  We now have a professor named Paul Achter from the University of Richmond pronouncing that the uniforms worn by American Olympians in the opening ceremonies were too militaristic.  Really?  Achter says, "Designed by Ralph Lauren, Team USA's 2012 opening ceremony uniforms feature berets and navy, brass-buttoned, double-breasted blazers for the men that -- even without chevrons, medals or epaulettes -- draw clear inspiration from the dress uniforms of the U.S. Army and Navy."  This professor will never be a fashion designer.  The Olympic uniforms bear almost no resemblance to American military uniforms.  And if they did, so what?  Achter will get extra credit in the leftist promotion book, but he needs an eye exam.

LIKABILITY – We may not like it, but likability is a major, often a decisive, factor in politics.  The likability factor is now being discussed almost daily in the liberal press as a major liability for Mitt Romney, and the probable reason he isn't forging ahead of Obama.  As the Washington Post points out, Romney leads in Obama in public confidence in major issues like the economy, but trails in that personal connection with voters that often decides a vote.  Now, it is true that Romney hasn't begun his major campaign push, but I'm afraid the analyses are correct.  He will have to emphasize the personal in his campaign, bring out the human side that's there, and avoid gaffes like saying, as he did during the primaries, that his wife drives "a couple of Cadillacs."  He apparently is a decent man, and we've got to see it.

WELL, I GUESS IT'S PROGRESS – Saudi Arabia actually allowed women athletes to go to the London Olympics and to march in the opening parade.  Boy, what progress.  Maybe they'll soon give women the keys to cars.  But my friend Jim Hoft, at Gateway Pundit, noted, after applying his eagle eye, that the Saudi women had to march behind the men, wearing their black hijabs.  Ralph Lauren they were not.  However, the Saudis allowed the women to show their faces.  In Saudi Arabia that's known as the Marilyn Monroe look.

July 28, 2012