SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:53 P.M. ET:

MAYBE MITT WAS RIGHT – Mitt Romney got a roasting last week, including some heat from this site, over indiscreet comments he made critical of British plans for the Olympics.  Now it turns out that the Brits themselves are conceding that things haven't exactly gone as planned.  There's been a massive breakdown in ticket distribution, with large numbers of empty seats plainly visible to TV viewers who'd been turned down when they'd try to buy seats themselves.  But Prime Minister Cameron assures us that the Olympic organizers will set things right.  Of course they only have two weeks to do so.  Then everyone goes home.

NBC RAPPED – NBC, whose coverage of the Olympics has generally been fine, thanks in large measure to the steady Bob Costas, is getting severe criticism for excluding a musical tribute to the victims of the London terror bombings of 2005, which killed 52 victims.  The tribute was part of the opening ceremonies, but NBC cut away for an interview with swimmer Michael Phelps.  The critics are correct.  The announcement of London getting the 2012 Olympics was made just hours before the bombings.  The two are linked in history.  The tribute should have been shown.

A CHALLENGING MAP – Fox News tonight had a "where it stands" report on the Electoral College, and who's leading three months before the election.  Both Karl Rove, the Republican commentator, and Joe Trippi, the Democrat, agreed that Obama had made gains in the EC in the past few weeks, making the challenge for Mitt Romney even more steep than it already was.  We should note, however, that polling has been sporadic, that some polls only surveyed adults or registered voters, rather than likelies, and that polls will change, of course, over time.  RealClearPolitics has Obama up ever so slightly in its national average of polls. 

VALUED ENDORSEMENT – Diplomacy prevents it from being called a formal endorsement, but Lech Walesa's effusive welcome for Mitt Romney in Poland today was an endorsement in everything but name, a signal to American voters who care about the future of the Polish-American relationship.  That relationship has been damaged by Barack "my heart belongs to Cairo" Obama, who canceled a promised missile shield for Poland (and the Czech Republic) as part of his "reset" of relations with Russia, which opposed the shield.  Romney will do better.

July 30, 2012