SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:51 P.M. ET:

EGYPT VOTES – Those two words – Egypt votes – should probably elicit laughter, for the Arab spring has become a joke.  But Egyptians are going to the polls this weekend to decide between two candidates for president, an Islamist with a pretty bad record, and a former hack of the Mubarak regime.  Root for the hack.  At least he's not anti-American.  The original dream of the Arab Springers, a liberal democracy, is gone.  The new Parliament has been abolished by Egypt's high court on ground that it was improperly elected. No one knows if the generals who are back in power will even honor the presidential election and cede authority.  And there is no definition of what the new president can actually do.  Happy days are here again.

WEREN'T THEY JUST FRIENDS? – The voters of France recently went to the polls and solidly elected a Socialist government, which lives in the usual socialist fantasy world.  Now even Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is attacking the management of the economy of France, which supposedly is now (after a number of unfortunate wars) presumably an ally of Germany.  A split could truly wreck the European Union.  Merkel warned that the policies of new French President Hollande could bring the sovereign debt crisis to France itself.  Tension is reported to be running very high in Europe and Britain, with a sense of impending economic doom.  President Obama doesn't seem very concerned.  He recently blamed Europe for many of his economic woes.  If he can convince Americans that it's all Europe's fault then, hey, he might just squeeze by in November.

SICKENING – Former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, commenting on the minor incident yesterday when a reporter for the conservative Daily Caller site presumably "interrupted" President Obama during a news conference,  claims that there has been a decline in civility in dealing with the White House because some conservatives don't think an African American should be president.  That is disgraceful, and of course Donaldson, who was famous for his rudeness toward President Reagan, presented no evidence.  The Daily Caller reporter, Neil Munro, is being widely defended by conservatives who point out that the real rudeness was in Obama not taking any questions after presenting his new, controversial, and possibly illegal immigration plan.

June 16, 2012