SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:25 P.M. ET:  

BRITAIN VOTES – Britain voted in municipal elections today, and early returns match the predictions – a major victory for Labour.   Of course, these elections are not for the House of Commons, but for local offices, but they do indicate dissatisfaction with the odd conservative/liberal coalition government of David Cameron.  The most important election is for mayor of London, pitting conservative incumbent Boris Johnson against the former mayor, Ken Livingstone, known as "Red Ken" for his leftist leanings.  Livingstone is also a committed Islamist.  Johnson is expected to be re-elected, making him a major national conservative figure.

RUSSIA THREATENS – Obama was caught on an open microphone recently, projecting weakness, when he told Russian President Medvedev that he could be more "flexible" in policies toward Moscow when (if) re-elected.  That didn't seem to impress Russia's top military guy, Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov, who is now threatening to strike NATO missile-defense sites in Eastern Europe before they are ready if the U.S. goes ahead with plans to deploy defensive missiles.  Another famous Obama foreign-policy moment.

SERVICE INDUSTRIES SLOWING – A new economic report just released by the Institute for Supply Management says the modest growth in America's service sector is slowing, and that consumer confidence is weakening.  Both trends signal a cooling economy.  As we noted earlier today, financial observers are awaiting, with some apprehension, tomorrow's report on job creation in April.

WHOOPS – A bit of bother, as the Brits say.  NATO will be holding a major meeting in the president's home city of Chicago later this month, but apparently some of our European friends haven't hit the reference books.  A NATO video about the meeting informs us that Chicago is the capital of Illinois.  As Lincoln might have reminded the gents, it's actually Springfield.  The video also says that President Obama wanted to have the meeting in the city he grew up in.  Uh, would that be Honolulu?  Jakarta, Indonesia?  It certainly wasn't Chicago.  I hope NATO is better at identifying hostile targets. 

May 3, 2012