SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:19 P.M. ET:

BACHMANN WINS – Michele Bachmann has won the Iowa straw poll.  Ridiculous Ron Paul came in second, proving only his ability to bring out his claque on command.  Now that the poll is over, it will be quickly forgotten.  It is only a straw poll, not a true, secret-ballot primary election.  Sarah Palin is tooling around Iowa, getting plenty of publicity, and Rick Perry, who announced for president today, visits Iowa tomorrow.

PERRY IS IN – Rick Perry announced for president in South Carolina today, making a perfectly respectable statement before an enthusiastic audience.  If he had any dream, however, of stealing thunder from the Iowa straw poll, that dream was frustrated, however,  The poll got plenty of publicity.  What will now get plenty of publicity is Perry's record as governor of Texas – he is the nation's longest serving governor – which will come under intense scrutiny from a mainstream media determined to derail him.  There will be another candidates' debate next month, in which Perry will have to take part.  We should know by then whether he's gaining serious traction, or will be a flameout.

BRATTON RESISTED – We reported that the British government is asking advice from Bill Bratton, who's headed police departments in Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, and is given heavy credit for breaking the back of crime in New York City.  But now there is resistance in Britain even to listening to what Bratton has to say.  The prissies complain that in America, the police use force, contrary to British doctrine, and that Britain must not change.  Some of the strongest objections to Bratton are coming from police figures themselves, apparently resentful of the American outsider, and thoroughly indoctrinated in the politically correct doctrines of the British left.

THE INEVITABLE LEFT – Germany is commemorating the sad 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall.  The mayor of Berlin denounced a new trend on the German left – actually defending the wall and trying to explain that the Russians had good reason to build it.  I am always stunned by the almost religious nature of the European left, which never bends in its devotion to old Moscow.  Ron Paul will probably rush over to praise Russia for building the wall in response to American imperialism.

August 13, 2011