SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 9:36 P.M. ET:

UNBELIEVABLE – Usually, political campaigning is suspended on September 11th.  But what was Bill Clinton, a former president, doing today?  He was campaigning for Barack Obama in Florida.  Indeed, CNN cut away from its programming to show almost an entire Clinton speech in Miami.  It was like another universe.  I'm sure 9-11 families were appreciative.

MOVIN' ON – Those who understand still commemorate December 7th, the date of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and that occurred almost 71 years ago.  But now, only eleven years after the 9-11 attacks, there are those who want to "move on," which seems to be the motto of a certain political class.   Led by an AP story this morning, some journalists wondered out loud whether it was time to "move forward," and away from the attacks.  Funny, I thought the threat of Islamic extremism was still out there, and dangerous.  Maybe, like Rick in "Casablanca," I was misinformed.

OUTRAGEOUS – You know by now that the United States Embassy was attacked in Cairo today, September 11th.  The American flag was torn down and shredded before cameras.  The "protesters" claimed that they're upset over a film, critical of Islam, being made by some obscure American pastor.  And what was the American reply to the violence?  Our Cairo embassy condemned, not the attack, not the shredding of our flag, but the people who are making the film, completely ignoring our tradition of freedom of speech.  As one pundit said, there's nothing wrong with the U.S. government disassociating itself from an anti-Islamic movie, but a little backbone wouldn't hurt either.  We defend our Constitution first, even if we disagree with some of the expression it protects.  Shame on the Obama administration.  I'm sure we'll be saying that again.

STARTLING – Bob Woodward has a new book out about the Obama administration called "The Price of Politics."  The news here is Woodward's harsh judgment about President Obama's leadership capabilities.  Woodward focuses on the 2010 debt crisis.  “Look, it’s quite obvious that Obama has a distance from these people,” Woodward said of the debt ceiling negotiations. “He doesn’t spend the time. He hasn’t built the relationships, and those human relationships matter."  Yeah, give this man a second term.  He certainly knows how to be president, doesn't he?  When you've even lost Woodward...

September 11, 2012