SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET: 

SICKENING – As many of you know by now, the Islamic State has issued a new video apparently showing the beheading of British citizen David Haines.  Prime Minister David Cameron called the beheading an act of "pure evil," which is true.  The question being asked is why IS is doing everything it can to provoke the civilized world.  It certainly can't welcome more air strikes.  Is it trying to lure ground troops, to inflict as many casualties as possible?  We await more reaction.  We also await decisions by many countries in the region on whether to join our fight against IS.  It should be an easy choice, but confidence in American resolve is low.  Thanks, Barack.

PERDUE PULLS AHEAD IN GEORGIA – One of the most critical Senate races is in Georgia, where Republicans have a chance of losing the seat held by the retiring Saxby Chambliss.  But it looks like the Republican side is firming up.  From The Hill:  "Republican David Perdue leads Democrat Michelle Nunn in a new independent survey of the Georgia Senate race, the second this week to give him the edge.   Perdue takes 45 percent to Nunn’s 41 percent, while libertarian Amanda Swafford takes 6 percent support and another 6 percent remain undecided in the new poll of likely voters, conducted for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Another poll out this week, from SurveyUSA, gave Perdue a 3-point lead. Most polling has shown the race tight, though Democrats remain optimistic Nunn can overcome the red lean of the state and Obama’s deep unpopularity there this fall."  The national trend is Republican.  I've become guardedly optimistic, which for me is a state of ecstasy.

SOCIAL NEWS – I knew you were waiting for this.  From The Politico:  "The love affair that gave new meaning to the Appalachian Trail has hit the skids.  GOP Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina announced on Friday that he and his Argentine fiancee, Maria Belen Chapur, were calling off their engagement and blamed his ongoing legal battles with his ex-wife for the breakup.  The revelation, which caught the political world off-guard, came some five years after Sanford, then South Carolina’s governor, revealed in a tearful press conference that he and Chapur had been having an affair.  The admission came after Sanford reappeared in public after vanishing for several days in June 2009. One of his aides told inquiring reporters that he was hiking the Appalachian Trail; he was actually in Argentina visiting Chapur."  This man used to be mentioned as a potential president.  If he were a Democrat, he still would be.

September 13, 2014