SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 7:31 P.M. ET:

ACHIN' AKIN – There is a death watch over Republican Congressman Todd Akin, the GOP Senate candidate from Missouri, after his outlandish comment, reported here, that women had a defense mechanism to prevent them from getting pregnant if they are raped.  The Republican Party has essentially disowned Akin, he apparently has been cut off from any funds from the national party, and a number of leading GOP figures, including Scott Brown, have asked him to leave the ticket.  For the record, he's saying he's staying in, but political observers see the vultures circling.  He's got to get out for the good of the party, or risk losing a seat that is considered an easy Republican pickup.

RED, OR ONLY A LITTLE PINK – President Obama said today that Syria's use of chemical weapons would constitute a "red line" for the United States, but he wasn't clear, as usual, about what crossing that red line would bring for the Syrian regime.  That is one of the problems with Obama's foreign policy.  He makes these vague threats, but no one is taking him seriously.  Vagueness can be instrumental in starting a war, or allowing nations to blunder into one.  Obama must put some teeth into his comments, or not make them at all.

MAJOR POLITICAL NEWS – It is announced in Hollywood that Jessica Alba will vote for Barack Obama.  This may well decide our presidential future.  It is the endorsement that many have been waiting for.  Now, I would appreciate it if readers would send e-mails telling me who Jessica Alba is.  All I know is that she's going to the convention in Charlotte, and will host a party.  Obama will undoubtedly refer to her as "my dear friend."

HELL TO PAY – There is fury in the liberal blogosphere tonight over the Newsweek cover captioned, "Hit the road, Barack," accompanied by the Niall Ferguson story we excerpted this morning attacking Obama on virtually every front.  Just the idea that Newsweek would print anything suggesting that Obama is anything less than saintly is apparently too much for a number of leftish pundits, including Paul Krugman, the insufferable Andrew Sullivan, and the ultra-pompous James Fallows, who actually took it upon himself to apologize for Harvard.  (Ferguson is a Harvard professor – or at least he was as of this afternoon.)  Ferguson, though, takes no prisoners.  After Krugman, king of the liberal economists, accused him of factual errors, Ferguson struck back with a devastating rebuttal, proving Krugman wrong.  The Ferguson response is here.  This is such fun.

August 20, 2012