SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

SOBER – From the Washington Times:  "The Pentagon on Wednesday made the sobering prediction that more towns in Syria and Iraq will fall to the Islamic State in the coming weeks, and that air power alone is not going to be enough to prevent the fall of the Syrian city of Kobani near the Turkish border.  It also raised the prospect of Islamic State terrorists marching on Baghdad, a fear that lawmakers and former top military officials say can only be addressed by ground forces."  Interesting that the assessment came from the Pentagon, not the White House.  I wonder if it had White House approval.  I get the sense that it's now every man for himself in the administration.  No one wants to be blamed for the impending disaster in Syria and Iraq. 

THE ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET SPEAKS – From The Politico:  "Former President Jimmy Carter is criticizing President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, saying he has shifting policies and waited too long to take action against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.  In an interviewed published Tuesday in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, the 39th president said the Obama administration, by not acting sooner, allowed ISIL to build up its strength."  We eagerly awaited this military briefing from the admiral.  You think he means it?  Or is he only saying these things because Obama never calls him?

NANCY WHO? – From National Journal:  "House Republicans have surprising new company in attacking Nancy Pelosi: her fellow House Democrats.  Three Democrats running in GOP-leaning House districts have used late-stage television ads in a bid to distance themselves from the liberal leader of Democrats' House caucus—the same caucus they're fighting to join in 2015.  'Here's what I believe: Congress is broken,' says Gwen Graham, one of the Democratic Party's top recruits, in a recent TV ad as a photo of Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner flashes on the screen. 'Both parties—Republican and Democrat—are to blame. And both need new leaders in Washington.'"  They're running from Obama.  They're running from Pelosi.  Soon they'll be embracing photos of FDR and Harry Truman.

MASSACHUSETTS? – From NRO:  "Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley may be seeing another election slipping away from her. The state attorney general, who lost to Republican Scott Brown in Massachusetts’s 2010 special Senate election, is trailing her opponent by her largest margin yet in the latest poll.  Republican businessman Charlie Baker leads Coakley by six percentage points among likely voters, according to a new Emerson College/WGBH poll. The survey shows Coakley under 40 percent in the deep-blue state, garnering just 39 percent to Baker’s 45 percent."  Even Massachusetts grows up.

October 8, 2014