SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:31 P.M. ET:

A NEW SARAH?  – Sarah Palin sounded a new theme in Iowa today.  Well, actually, it was the old Sarah, the Sarah who was so successful as governor of Alaska.  She took on both parties in her speech today, but seemed to train her heaviest guns on "crony capitalism," the rackets that occur in big business.  She basically called for an end to corporate welfare, bailouts, and the corporate income tax.  In effect, she was telling corporations that the government would get off their back...but they had to make it on their own.  It was Palin's independence that established her star in the first place.  Sadly, though, it's largely been thrown away in the quest for celebrity.  I'm not sure she can get the polish back.

NEW TERROR WARNING – The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security have issued a new warning about Al Qaeda's interest in using small planes loaded with explosives to carry out attacks in the United States.  While there is apparently no detailed, credible threat at the moment, the new alert follows on other, similar alerts over the years.  Just after 9/11 the federal government grounded crop-dusting planes, believing Al Qaeda was interested in using them for an attack.  A small plane loaded with explosives could, of course, do devastating damage, especially if it were crashed into a loaded airliner on a runway, a train, a bus, or a school.  Some snicker at such concerns...until there's an attack.

OBAMA'S STRATEGY – According to The New York Times and other sources, the president's new economic strategy, just evolving, consists of showing contempt for Congress and enacting as many things on his own as the law allows.  In effect, he'll be running against the "do-nothing Congress," the phrase Harry Truman used in his 1948 election campaign.  Of course, one problem is that Obama isn't Truman, and the Senate is still controlled by Democrats.  Another problem is that Obama hasn't really proposed anything yet that could actually work.  A third problem is that Americans, according to polls, don't believe he's really capable of salvaging the economy.  Other than those problems, he's got it made. 

September 3, 2011