Two Political Observations

1. The phony "balloon boy" story is getting far more play on the news networks than the Taliban/Al Qaeda advance on Pakistan's police and military facilities. Is anyone besides me concerned about the fact that end-of-days religious fanatics and terrorists now have a fighting chance of getting their hands on an arsenal of nuclear weapons? And how exactly is there a debate about whether or not we need to allocate more resources to this part of the world? There should be a thorough debate about how and where to deploy our country's blood and treasure, but it seems fairly clear that this region is an extremely high priority for national security.
2. Bill Thompson has climbed within eight points of Mike Bloomberg in the New York mayoral race despite being outspent 16-1 and now the Daily News is predicting one of the nation's biggest political upsets ever. When asked in a debate this week whether or not he would replace the incredibly effective and popular Police Commissioner Ray Kelly (annual murders will fall below 400 this year...they were at 1,800 when Giuliani took office), Thompson replied without hesitation, "Yes." When asked why, Thompson said, “I believe in bringing my own team to the table." Ah, yes...NY party hack machine politics. How I long for a return to those halcyon days!