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

TOO DARNED HOT – We're having another mini heat wave in New York, with temperatures tonight expected to reach 93 degrees.  Global warming, no doubt.  Al Gore was spotted at a local beach selling parasols and wearing a sandwich sign saying, THE END IS NIGH.  But wait, wait.  The forecast for Friday shows a high of 77 degrees.  Will readers please write me explaining how global warming is causing this, too.  Thank you.

DESPICABLE – No man did more in office for national defense than Dick Cheney.  But now Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is smearing Cheney by claiming that the former defense secretary and vice president is opposing cuts to the defense budget only to help Halliburton, his former employer.  Never mind that Cheney was a defense stalwart long before his association with Halliburton.  Reasonable and honest observers note that if many of the defense cuts now scheduled for January aren't stopped by Congress, there will be severe damage done to national security and equally severe damage done to employment in America.  But Dems are threatening to let the cuts go through unless Republicans agree to Democratic tax-increase proposals.  Nothing like a sense of responsibility.

SPECTACULAR MITT – By virtually all accounts, Mitt Romney did spectacularly well in Pennsylvania today, slamming back at Obama's bizarre ridicule of successful Americans.  However, even the conservative Washington Times conceded that the Dems also were on their game, flooding Pennsylvania airwaves with anti-Romney ads on the same day.  It's now generally conceded that these ads have had a serious effect on Romney's image, and that Romney has not done anywhere near enough to counter them.  But Mitt certainly got going today.  More needed, and fast.

INDIES THUMBS DOWN ON OBAMACARE – The latest Rasmussen poll on Obamacare shows that independents are still rejecting Obamacare, even after the Supreme Court decision:   "The latest polling by Rasmussen Reports shows that independents think Obamacare would raise (53 percent), rather than lower (16 percent), health costs. They think it would reduce (50 percent), rather than improve (13 percent), the quality of health care. They think it would raise (56 percent), rather than lower (13 percent), the deficit. And they think it would be bad (50 percent), rather than good (29 percent), for the country. Not surprisingly, by a 13-point margin (51 to 38 percent), they think Obamacare should be repealed."  Not exactly a vote of confidence.

July 17,  2012