SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:02 P.M. ET:

CLINTONISM – As the Dems prepare to meet in Charlotte this week, there is heavy buzz about the fact that 1) Bill Clinton will place Obama's name in nomination and 2) his wife is somewhere in the Far East, staying as distant from the spectacle as she can.  It's widely reported that Bill Clinton and Barack Obama despise each other, but that Obama realizes he needs Clinton because the presidential race is so close.  And Clinton wants to set his wife up for the 2016 election campaign, her last chance to be president.  Clinton would want Obama to win only because Obama would have to leave office after two terms.  By contrast, if Romney wins, he could run again in 2016.  But Bill's appearance isn't about Obama.  It's about Hillary. 

FINALLY – The senior commander for Special Operations forces in Afghanistan has stopped training for all new Afghan recruits until the 27,000-plus troops working with his unit can be investigated for possible ties with terrorist groups.  This comes after a number of attacks on NATO troops, including many Americans, by presumably "friendly" Afghan soldiers and policemen.  It's hard to see, though, how we can make any security progress when the strategic genius in the White House has given the enemy a timetable detailing when our troops will withdraw.  Why would any Afghan have any loyalty to NATO when they know NATO will soon be gone.  And who will remain?  The Taliban, that's who.  Weren't those the people we went into Afghanistan to defeat?

OUTRAGEOUS – The New York State attorney general, one Eric T. Schneiderman, has filed subpoenas against a number of private-equity firms, seeking information on their tax practices.  Among the firms is, surprise, Bain Capital, which was founded by Mitt Romney.  I'm shocked, shocked, that a highly partisan Democratic attorney general would investigate Romney's firm in the middle of an election campaign.  Schneiderman slipped into office on the coattails of Governor Andrew Cuomo.  He's known as a hot leftist, and it's impossible to believe that this subpoena dump is coincidental.  I suspect it won't go far, but the Dem publicity machine may well try to label Bain as "under investigation."  Real class.

September 1,  2012