SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 8:35 P.M. ET:

BACHMANN STRUGGLES – The informed buzz across the internet is that Michele Bachmann has failed in her struggle to get back into the GOP presidential race, and has had a very bad week.  Bachmann was rising after a win in the Iowa straw poll, but fell back badly when Rick Perry entered the race.  They appeal to the same constituency, and Bachmann votes floated to Perry.  She tried to attack him in debate this week, but blundered badly afterward by suggesting that a particular vaccine, an issue in Perry's health-care record, might cause mental problems.   One of the basic rules of politics is that you don't give medical advice.  Bachmann, grilled by Jay Leno (it's come to that) could not get out of the hole.  She gets another chance in this week's GOP debate.

HOLLYWOOD MYTHOLOGY – One of the great myths about Hollywood – I saw it firsthand – is that it's a modern, cutting-edge industry.  It is not.  It is out-of-date, lagging, and refuses to learn much that is new.  Thus, we are about to be treated to a remake of "Straw Dogs," a Sam Peckinpah film of decades ago.  Now it will be set in Mississippi, which will be portrayed horribly.  No one is defending Mississippi's role during the civil rights era.  But the state has changed, has many, many black officeholders, and is not the state of yore.  But Hollywood, stuck as it is in the 1960s, refuses to accept it.  Like many on the left, the Hollywood establishment is comfortable in its bigotry, while denouncing bigotry in others.

IT'S ABOUT TIME – British Prime Minister David Cameron is launching a GREAT campaign to put the word "great" back in Great Britain.  He will market his country abroad as a great place to visit and invest in.  It's about time.  There are two Britains, the Britain of Winston Churchill and the Britain of the pathetic welfare state.  I think Cameron admires the Churchill version.  For years Britain has buckled under the weight of its irresponsible left and its dumbed down multiculturalism.  Celebrating GREAT Britain is a great idea, especially if the British educational system can be bothered to teach British kids the wonderful things about their history.  We might even try it here.

KINGMAKER? – New York real estate mogul Donald Trump is emerging as something of a kingmaker in the GOP.  He had dinner last week with Rick Perry, whom he later called Jim Perry, and breaks bread this week with Mitt Romney.  Trump's support can be important because a political figure doesn't want Trump opposing him.  Trump can be persuasive in denouncing the flaws and weaknesses in a candidate.  He has a famous name, and he's been successful.  He also appears on Fox News regularly, and he comes prepared.  It would be great if Trump took on the lame Republican Party in New York and tried to rebuild it.  It needs work.

September 17, 2011