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AT OUR LATEST ANGEL'S CORNER:  READERS BLOG ABOUT THAT LIGHT-BULB LAW (YOU WILL BUY WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO BUY); RICK PERRY; THE DECLINE OF JOURNALISM; OUR DWINDLING DEFENSE; AND THE PRESIDENT.  NEW ANGEL'S CORNER TONIGHT.

JULY 20,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE:

THE PERRY PUSH – From what I can see, there appears to be a very well orchestrated campaign to build excitement for Texas Governor's Rick Perry's entry into the presidential race.  Today the story is that his wife is pushing him to get in.  When the wife endorses the plunge, you may be sure that the plunge will soon follow.  Frankly, I like the way Perry is building his entry.  He's created buzz, which has the effect of expanding excitement...and smoking out the journalistic enemies who will attack him.  Already The New York Times is at work, having published two hit pieces.  But now Perry's people can see where the liberal press is going, and head them off at the pass.  The GOP isn't exactly known as the party of excitement, so any drum-beating is welcome.  We're getting some drum-beating.

SO WHO'LL NOTICE? – The Postmaster General says we may soon lose Saturday delivery because of Postal Service deficits and falling volume, and may have only three-day-a-week service within 15 years.  Now, I like the friendly postman, and the mail has often brought me great delights, as well as credit-card bills.  But I suspect the Postal Service will go the way of the horse and buggy at some point.  Electronic mail, speedy express services, and the general preference of online retailers for UPS and other private companies, are causing massive changes in the letter and package delivery industry.  But, ah, how some of us will miss those old handwritten letters, the kind we got during our school years from girlfriends or boyfriends, or those we thought were girlfriends and boyfriends.  What e-mail can compare?

MICHELE FIRES BACK – Michele Bachmann has now released a letter from the attending physician of Congress attesting to her good health and asserting that she has her migraines under control.  The fact that she released the letter indicates that Bachmann understands that this issue won't go away.  She is soaring in the polls, and may well benefit from a sympathy vote from those who sense, correctly, that she's the target of a campaign launched by anonymous sources to discredit her by raising health questions.   Her strongest argument is the intensity with which she's waging her campaign, with no interruptions, and no medical crises.  There are some former staffers, who apparently don't care for her, who seem to be at the heart of the whispering campaign.  If she rises further in the polls, you may be sure that the usual journalistic suspects will be dispatching reporters to go through her garbage, as they did Sarah's, to see if there's anything medically devastating.  Kind of makes you lose faith in democracy sometimes, doesn't it?

ROMNEY EDGES OBAMA IN RASMUSSEN POLL – A new Rasmussen poll has Mitt Romney defeating Barack Obama among likely voters, 43-42.  But a generic Republican leads Obama by six points, meaning Romney doesn't do as well as no-name.  A PPP poll has Romney and Obama dead even, with Obama defeating Bachmann by only seven points.  Rick Perry did not figure in these polls, but, given political conditions, we have to believe he'll do well very quickly.  The PPP poll has Sarah Palin 16 points behind Obama, a hint that maybe this isn't her year.  Still, don't underestimate the president.  He is a superb campaigner, and a deceptive chap who will try to convince us he's really an American patriot, and slightly right-of-center at that.  Some will buy the package, as too many did in 2008.  Republicans must operate on all cylinders, and, as we've advocated here before, must develop a strategy for dealing with a hostile press, which will try to save its hero.

July 20, 2011    Permalink 

GENTLEMEN, DON'T START YOUR ENGINES – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:  Because we are affected by them every day, gasoline prices can have a serious effect on how we perceive the economy, and how we feel about political leaders.  Gasoline prices are headed up again, not good news for the president:

Drivers are paying more for gas again.

Agencies that track gas prices showed the price rising in the past week both nationally and in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

AAA said there was a 5-cent-a-gallon increase in the past week for regular gas nationally, up to $3.68.

In New Hampshire, AAA reported the price at $3.71 yesterday, up 4 cents from a week ago. In Massachusetts, AAA had the price of gas at $3.77, up 5 cents from last week.

AAA said the prices are back where they were a month ago in New Hampshire. They are $1.05 cents higher than a year ago, up from $2.66. Prices are up 3 cents from a month ago in Massachusetts, up $1.07 from last year.

The prices are still below the record highs of $4.04 for New Hampshire and $4.09 for Massachusetts, set three years ago this month, AAA reported.

Drivers in Hawaii, Alaska and Connecticut are now paying more than $4 per gallon.

AAA, in an analysis of gas prices on Monday, said crude oil prices were being affected "by debt concerns and continued gridlock in Washington surrounding talks to raise the U.S. debt limit."

COMMENT:  This is one of the issues that sank Carter in 1980.  If the economy is weak, unemployment high, and gas prices at painful levels, Obama will have a hard time explaining himself to the 2012 electorate.

July 20, 2011       Permalink

ANOTHER BURSTING BUBBLE – AT 10:02 A.M. ET:  The high-tech bubble burst in the 90s.  The housing bubble is continuing to burst.  And now Michael Barone, superlative political observer, looks for another bubble to pop.  Frankly, it's long overdue.

It's the education bubble.  Vastly overpriced college "educations," sought after fanatically by a student and parent population whipped up by warnings that you'd better get in, get that degree, and get out, and write the checks, or your life is over.  Not so fast, professor.  From the Washington Examiner:

...some people see signs that another bubble is bursting. They call it the higher education bubble.

For years government has assumed it's a good thing to go to college. College graduates tend to earn more money than non-college graduates.

Politicians of both parties have called for giving everybody a chance to go to college, just as they called for giving everybody a chance to buy a home.

So government has been subsidizing higher education with low-interest college loans, Pell Grants and cheap tuitions at state colleges and universities.

The predictable result is that higher-education costs have risen much faster than inflation, much faster than personal incomes, much faster than the economy over the past 40 years.

Moreover, you can't get out of paying off those college loans, even by going through bankruptcy. At least with a home mortgage you can walk away and let the bank foreclose and not owe any more money.

And...

...what have institutions of higher learning accomplished with their vast increases in revenues? The answer in all too many cases is administrative bloat.

Take the California State University system, the second tier in that state's public higher education. Between 1975 and 2008 the number of faculty rose by 3 percent, to 12,019 positions. During those same years the number of administrators rose 221 percent, to 12,183. That's right: There are more administrators than teachers at Cal State now.

These people get paid to "liaise" and "facilitate" and produce reports on diversity. How that benefits Cal State students or California taxpayers is unclear.

It is often said that American colleges and universities are the best in the world. That's undoubtedly true in the hard sciences.

But in the humanities and to a lesser extent in the social sciences there's a lot of garbage. Is a degree in Religious and Women's Studies worth $100,000 in student loan debt? Probably not.

And...

Now consumers seem to be reading the cues in the marketplace.

An increasing number of students are spending their first two years after high school in low-cost community colleges and then transferring to four-year schools.

A recent New York Times story reported that out-of-staters are flocking to low-tuition North Dakota State in frigid Fargo.

Politicians, including President Obama, still give lip service to the notion that everyone should go to college and can profit from it. And many college and university administrators may assume that the gravy train will go on forever.

But that's what Las Vegas real estate developers and home builders thought in 2006. My sense is that once again, well-intentioned public policy and greedy providers have produced a bubble that is about to burst.

COMMENT:  Excellent and perceptive column.  I spoke last year with a leading educator, someone whose name many of you would know immediately, who was speaking about the same thing.  He described the tuition increase at his alma mater, from his student days to the present, pointing out that it was vastly greater than the rate of inflation.  He told me about a niece who attends a "prestigious" college...who is home more than she's in school. 

Bubble about to burst, but the colleges will fight fiercely, invoking the battle cry, "It's for the children."  Yeah, right.

July 20, 2011      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:41 A.M. ET:

From the Jerusalem Post:   When the severed head of a wolf wrapped in women's lingerie turned up near the city of Tabouk in northern Saudi Arabia this week, authorities knew they had another case of witchcraft on their hands, a capital offence in the ultra-conservative desert kingdom.  Agents of the country’s Anti-Witchcraft Unit were quickly dispatched and set about trying to break the spell that used the beast’s head.  Saudi Arabia takes witchcraft so seriously that it has banned the Harry Potter series by British writer J.K. Rowling, rife with tales of sorcery and magic. It set up the Anti-Witchcraft Unit in May 2009 and placed it under the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPV), Saudi Arabia's religious police.

Why not?  We all know the old severed-head-wrapped-in-women's-lingerie gambit.  And America – this is gross negligence – doesn't have its own Anti-Witchcraft Unit to deal with it, another result of irresponsible cuts to the defense budget.  We'd better hustle and catch up.  And what a TV series that unit would make.  Theme music already written:  "It's Witchcraft," sung by Johnny Mathis.

OBAMA IN TROUBLE IN MICHIGAN – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Winning industrial Michigan in next year's election is close to a necessity for President Obama if he plans to keep his current residence and phone number.  But he is currently behind Mitt Romney in that state.  From The Hill: 

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads President Obama in Michigan, according to a new poll.

Romney, whose father was governor of the Wolverine State, leads Obama in a head-to-head matchup by 46 percent to 42 percent, within the survey's four-point margin of error.

Michigan is likely a must-win for Obama. He took 57 percent of the vote there in the 2008 presidential race after Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) gave up on the state and pulled out resources a month before the election. But a brutal local economy has hurt Obama with Independents: in the poll, he trails Romney 42 percent to 31 percent with that key group.

Another worrying trend for the president: Detroit, the anchor of any Democratic coalition in the state, has continued to hemorrhage people, losing a quarter of its population since 2000. The state's African-American population has also dropped significantly.

The poll of 600 likely voters was conducted from July 9 to July 11 by the Lansing-based EPIC/MRA.

COMMENT:  True, the name Romney is familiar in Michigan.  Mitt's father not only was governor, but had been CEO of the now-defunct American Motors Corporation.  I suspect, though, that any solid Republican can do well in the state because of its economic condition and the failure of Democrats to help much.

Consider a Perry-Rubio ticket.  Texas Governor Rick Perry can go to Michigan with his superb record of job creation in Texas, a record bound to impress a state with severe unemployment.  If his running mate is Marco Rubio of Florida, that state can be sewn up for the GOP, and it is the largest of the swing states.  Not a bad start for the GOP.  Perry-Rubio is starting to sound awfully good.

July 20, 2011       Permalink 

MICHELE UNDER SCRUTINY – AT 8:40 A.M. ET:  We don't do "predictions" here, and you should be skeptical of writers who say things like, "As I predicted six months ago..."  If you read that, go back and look at the totality of the writer's predictions.  I'll bet you'll find he got one out of fifteen right...the one he now brings up. 

And so it wasn't difficult for us to say yesterday that the issue of Michele Bachmann's migraines would resurface.  I can't claim a great prediction.  Anyone who's studied the history of political campaigns knows that health questions about a candidate are brought up again and again, sometimes by opponents, usually by opponents' surrogates.  In 1956, Adlai Stevenson, the Democratic nominee for president, himself brought up the issue of President Eisenhower's recent heart attack, although Eisenhower was clearly functioning in the presidency.  We noted yesterday that in 1972, Senator Tom Eagleton of Missouri had to leave the Democratic ticket led by George McGovern over questions about electro-shock therapy.  And, lowest of the low, rumors were circulated during the 2008 campaign that John McCain might have been psychologically incapable of being president because of the damage done by the torture he endured as a POW in North Vietnam.

Now we have The Politico, in its lead story this morning, piling on about Michele Bachmann's migraines.  While the Politico still does some useful reporting, it is a liberal site, and is drifting further left.  You will probably see it quoted less here in the future.  Today's piece on Bachmann is particularly vile, as it hints that she may be psychiatrically impaired by migraines, and the drugs used to treat them.  While there are some self-serving comments by the writer that attempt to be "fair," the piece is filled with conjecture and with provocative quotes from experts, none of whom have actually examined Ms. Bachmann.

It is clear that Bachmann did have some severe bouts with migraine, the way the rest of us may have had other illnesses.  She must deal with the issue directly, and discuss legitimate medical questions put to her.  The issue will not go away.  But I hope we may be spared the amateur reporting present at The Politico this morning.  Other news organizations, to their credit, have had certified physicians doing medical stories.  Physicians have told me, and many laymen know intuitively, that any true examination of a person's medical condition starts with a good history.  We do not have that good history on Bachmann, and I would want it studied by qualified physicians, not political reporters.  It is not enough to "report" on medical episodes that may well have occurred before the individual received proper treatment.

Bachmann is in the crosshairs.  Only she can defend herself.  She does it brilliantly, yesterday pointing out that she's maintained a grueling campaign schedule without missing a minute.  Her detractors will try to bring her down on this issue.  I hope, assuming her report on her medical condition is honest, that they flop, and that there's a backlash.

July 20, 2011      Permalink

JULY 19,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE: 

CHRISTIE TRAVELING – Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, having told one visiting delegation after another that he won't run for president next year, is suddenly off to make an appearance in Iowa, leading to speculation that maybe the governor has heard the call, or at least heard that a call is waiting for him.  A word of caution is required.  Republicans adore Christie because he's blunt-spoken and has taken on the entrenched liberal interests.  You want to cheer him.  You want to chant, "Run, Chris, run!"  But we're in the NY/NJ television market here, and we see him all the time.  He has the personality of a governor, not a president.  That confrontational style makes you applaud for the first ten minutes.  Then you yawn.  He might make a good president.  I don't think he can get there.

OBAMA DISSES CLINTON-SIGNED MARRIAGE LAW – President Obama has thrown his support to a Democratic effort in Congress to overturn the Defense of Marriage Law, signed by President Clinton.  It shows how far the Dems have drifted on this issue.  The law defines marriage as between a man and a woman.  The Obama Justice Department has already said it won't enforce the law because they believe it is unconstitutional.  A congressional overturn in the near future, though, is highly unlikely, as Republicans control the House, and they favor the Clinton-signed legislation. 

BARBARISM – The supreme court of Iran has refused to stop the planned execution of a man sentenced to death for being a Christian and advocating Christianity.  This court operates within a regime that will soon have nuclear weapons and intercontinental missiles, a regime whose president denies the Holocaust.  Yet, we have lost any sense of urgency in dealing with the Iranian government, although it is supplying weapons to forces in Iraq and Afghanistan that are killing American soldiers.  There were plenty of American "sophisticates" who, before World War II, refused to see Japan or Germany as enemies.  I'm afraid we're seeing that same psychology today.

MICHELE ADVANCES – We've reported today on Michele Bachmann's latest problem, a charge by anonymous former staffers that she gets migraines that interfere with her work.  She answered that charge vigorously, although probably didn't put the issue to bed.  At the same time, a new national poll has her leading in the race for the GOP presidential nomination, while another has her in second place and gaining.  She's clearly become a phenomenon, in some respects this year's Sarah Palin, although, of course, Palin never ran for president.

July 19, 2011      Permalink

BACHMANN REPLIES – AT 3:52 P.M. ET:  Michele Bachmann has rapidly and properly replied to a story circulating that she suffers stress-related issues that have impacted her ability to work.  (Please see the post just below).   Her written statement:

"Like nearly 30 million other Americans, I experience migraines that are easily controlled with medication. I am a wife, a mother, a lawyer who worked her way through law school, a former state senator who achieved the repeal of a harmful piece of education policy in Minnesota, and a congresswoman who has worked tirelessly fighting against the expansion of government and wasteful spending. Since entering the campaign, I have maintained a full schedule between my duties as a congresswoman and as a presidential candidate traveling across the nation to meet with voters in the key, early primary and caucus states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. I have prescribed medication that I take whenever symptoms arise and they keep the migraines under control. Let me be abundantly clear - my ability to function effectively has never been impeded by migraines and will not affect my ability to serve as Commander in Chief.

"The many questions I have received on this subject have allowed me to discuss this important condition that impacts individuals in nearly one in four households. However, as a presidential candidate and office holder, I am focused on performing my job, which has never been more important given the state of our economy and the millions of Americans that are out of work. While I appreciate the concern for me and my health, the greater concern should be the debate that is occurring in Washington over whether or not we will increase our debt, spending and taxes."

COMMENT:  Well said, but the issue won't go away.  The same biased press that refused to ask Barack Obama a single question about his health, the same press that looked the other way when Obama, when running for president, released only a laughable summary of his medical status, will pursue the Bachmann story further in a naked attempt to Palinize her.  I can just see the grim-faced panels on CNN as they "analyze" Bachmann's mental state. 

On another note, I may have been a bit unclear in saying, below, that Bachmann has to deal with this immediately.  A physician-reader has taken me to task believing that I meant she had to deal with the migraines.  No, I meant that she has to deal with the political fallout from the issue.  I would never presume to make a medical assessment.  I was not sufficiently precise, and the fault is mine.

July 19, 2011      Permalink

THIS COULD BE PAINFUL – AT 10:44 A.M. ET:  Since late last night a story has been circulating about the medical condition of Michele Bachmann.  It was published on, ironically, the Daily Caller, a conservative site:

In late July 2010, Rep. Michele Bachmann’s then-communications director, Dave Dziok, told his boss that he planned to take a new job with the public relations firm Edelman.

Dziok had worked for Bachmann for two and a half years, a relatively long period by the standards of her office, and was leaving on good terms.

Staff turnover can frustrate any employer, but Bachmann responded more dramatically. Dziok’s departure triggered a debilitating medical episode that landed the congresswoman in urgent care.

“Within 24 hours she was in the hospital,” a former aide says.

Bachmann was admitted to a Washington, D.C. hospital on Friday, July 30, and released that same day. She flew home to Minnesota to recuperate, missing a scheduled campaign event with Sen. Roy Blunt.

And...

It was, according to three people who have worked closely with Bachmann, not an isolated event.

The Minnesota Republican frequently suffers from stress-induced medical episodes that she has characterized as severe headaches. These episodes, say witnesses, occur once a week on average and can “incapacitate” her for days at time. On at least three occasions, Bachmann has landed in the hospital as a result.

COMMENT:  This is serious, potentially disqualifying stuff.  Bachmann must deal with it immediately, real fast.  If she tries to ignore it, it will come back later. 

Is the story true, partially true, completely true?  If the story if completely true, and she suffers from stress-related incidents that incapacite her, she is finished as a candidate for president.  But it may be only partially true.  She may, for example, be particularly cautious about headaches, and seek medical attention.

Or, the story can be wildly exaggerated, the vindictive work of disgruntled former staffers. 

Whatever the truth, Bachmann must handle the story as potentially fatal.  I want to see her in front of microphones.

We recall that, in 1972, Senator George McGovern, the Democratic candidate for president, selected Senator Tom Eagleton of Missouri as his running mate.  As the campaign got started, it was revealed that Eagleton had gone through electro-shock therapy for a mental issue.  He had to leave the campaign, and was replaced by R. Sargent Shriver.  But the episode essentially finished McGovern, for it was felt that it reflected on his judgment.

We'll be following this.

July 19, 2011     Permalink 

WARNINGS INCREASE FOR REPUBLICANS – AT 9:43 A.M. ET:   There are increasing warnings to Republicans from some of the party's smartest supporters that they must get their act together and come to some agreement with Obama on the debt crisis.  Otherwise, these advisers fear, Republicans will be blamed for any government shutdown, with possibly devastating political results in 2012.

We've issued the same warnings here.  And now the financial columnist, Spengler (a pen name), whom I've met a number of times, puts the issue in perspective:

President Barack Obama's best hope of re-election lies in provoking Republicans to force the United States into technical default, engineering a brief but severe financial crisis in order to appear as crisis-manager-in-chief. The Tea Party movement may be marching into a political ambush, in which Obama will be able to portray the born-again budget-cutters as irresponsible fanatics who threaten to tip America into a new depression. The now unpopular president then would assume the role of national savior in time of crisis.

That's dead on.  That's the way these boys work, and naive tea partiers may force the GOP into just such a situation.

The liberal punditeska heaps contempt on the Tea Party as a bunch of dumb yahoos. If they're so dumb, though, why are they so powerful? The fact that a ragtag army of political amateurs could overturn the status quo in the 2010 elections shows that their unifying issue has legs: people don't want to pay taxes to cover budget deficits that pay outsized benefits for other people. That's why Republicans are crushing the public-employee unions in Wisconsin, Minnesota, New Jersey, and other fiscal battlefields, and why smart Democrats like New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo have been born again as fiscal conservatives.

But the Tea Partiers remain amateurs, after all, and vulnerable to a sucker punch. They don't seem to understand that the separation of powers is designed to slow the pace of change. A Republican administration, moreover, can't govern on the Tea Party program. It is a protest movement, and a valid one, but not a governing coalition. If the Tea Party expends all its ammunition in the debt-ceiling showdown with the President, it may take the Republicans down with it. The winning strategy is to keep the blame for failure on Obama through November 2012.

COMMENT:  Wise thinking from a very solid and knowledgeable writer.  Part of governing is having the right ideas.  The other part is knowing how to put them into practice.  It's that second part that requires skillful and experienced political operators.  There's nothing shameful about the word "politician."  It's shameful when people on our side are incompetent politicians.  There's big punishment for that. 

July 19, 2011      Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 9:24 A.M. ET:

From London's left-wing Independent:  Young women across Russia have been called on to show their support for Vladimir Putin in an unusual way: by ripping off their clothes. The unexpected campaign has been launched by a group calling itself the Putin Army, which posted a slick video online at the weekend featuring a trio of young women announcing a competition.  "I'm just crazy about a man who changed our country," says a voiceover, as we see "Diana" walking through Moscow...Diana meets two nubile friends sunbathing by the riverbank, and they daub "I'll tear [clothes off] for Putin" onto skimpy T-shirts in red paint. The video ends as they rip the T-shirts off. They ask other "young, smart and beautiful" girls to "tear off something for Putin" and post a video of it online. The best entrant will win an iPad.

It's hilarious that the prize for this debauchery is that quintessential capitalist innovation, the iPad.  And no, I don't think the gimmick will work here.  I can't see anyone starting a campaign to "take it off for Tim Pawlenty."  If I'm wrong, let me know. 

ANYONE IN WASHINGTON INTERESTED? – AT 9:13 A.M. ET:  Reuters is one of the few news organizations that has shown an interest in this critically important story:

(Reuters) - Iran is installing new uranium enrichment machines to speed progress in its nuclear program, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday, a development that may increase Western concern about Tehran's aims.

May?  MAY?

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast appeared to confirm a Reuters story last week that Iran was installing two newer and more advanced models of the centrifuges used to refine uranium for large-scale testing at a research site.

If Iran eventually succeeds in introducing the more modern centrifuges for production, it could significantly shorten the time needed to stockpile material which can have civilian as well as military purposes, if processed much further.

"By installing the new centrifuges progress is being made with more speed and better quality," Mehmanparast said, adding the move showed Iran was being successful in its "peaceful nuclear activity."

COMMENT:  They are going for a bomb.  Otherwise, why are so many of their nuke facilities underground, in hardened sites?  You don't do that if you're just building nuclear plants to recharge iPods.  And yet, we've taken our eye off the ball.  Iran hardly rates mention these days, and its internal revolution, which our president tried to ignore for days when it broke out in 2009, is off the front pages.

We will be reminded later, and it will be too late. 

July 19, 2011       Permalink

NEW AL QAEDA TACTICS – AT 8:49 A.M. ET:  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the post-bin Laden leadership of Al Qaeda is focusing on new targets:

WASHINGTON—Al Qaeda is expected to shift strategy under new leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, placing a higher priority on attacking the U.S. and Western targets overseas, where plots are easier to execute than on the U.S. homeland, say U.S. officials.

This broader attack strategy advocated by Mr. Zawahiri better aligns the goals of al Qaeda's leaders in Pakistan and affiliates, particularly in Yemen, which are increasingly becoming the group's frontline operators.

The modus operandi of al Qaeda's branch in Yemen is to conduct any type of attack possible, whether or not it will have a spectacular result, U.S. officials say.

As a result, the U.S. may have to alter its approach to counterterrorism operations, especially if al Qaeda's Yemen and North African branches try to seek out U.S. or other Western targets in Europe or Africa. Such attacks would be reminiscent of al Qaeda's first U.S. attack—the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania for which Mr. Zawahiri has been indicted.

"I would not be surprised to see potentially 1990s-style attacks at the U.S. embassies and consulates overseas whether it's in Pakistan or Africa or possibly even Afghanistan," said Seth Jones, a political scientist at Rand Corp., who is writing a book on al Qaeda.

He added that he would expect al Qaeda to target military, diplomatic or other U.S. government institutions overseas.

COMMENT:  Obviously, it's a relief if Al Qaeda is taking its focus off the American homeland, and probably a tribute to the measures put in place by President Bush.  But American targets overseas will be under greater pressure.  I fear a repeat of the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, which killed 242 U.S. Marines.  We have to be on guard, and that may mean greater reinforcement and security for our embassies and intallations.  At a time of budget cutting, what are the chances of getting that? 

July 19, 2011    Permalink