There’s a lot of embarrassed muttering about a few news cycles’ worth of negativity, but Austin Bay has a different take on John Kerry:

In the spare space of 24 hours Kerry has resurrected the Vietnam Syndrome –at least his and the left wing of the Democratic Party’s Vietnam (loser’s) Syndrome. This is stupid but particularly stupid in the last week of a national election. Doubly stupid in the midst of a long, grinding war. Kerry is trapped, in an odd sort of amber. He’s stuck on stupid and stuck in the past simultaneously. John Kerry, the stegosaurus of American politics. (Okay, I’m unfair to stegosaurs, they had backbones and spikes on their tails– but the drawing at the link is cute.)

The Feiler Faster theory (hat tip to the inimitable Mickey Kaus) says that voters only start to pay attention toward the end of a campaign. Kerry is certainly an unpleasant reminder of Democrats at their most insular and self-righteous.
Is it the end of the campaign yet? Probably not.

During the Hezbollah-vs.-Israel war, I was surprised to discover that Israelis were required to have bomb shelters in their homes. Now I’m suitably alarmed but not surprised to read that wealthy Israelis are going all-out in their preparations for a nuclear attack by Iran:

AMID mounting fears that Iran is planning to obliterate their country, wealthy Israelis are shelling out on underground nuclear shelters in the gardens of their luxury homes.

The shelters, which cost at least £60,000 for a bargain-basement version, are built to withstand radioactive fallout, have fortified walls and doors and generate their own electricity and decontaminated air.

Predictably, the Goldbergs are trying to outdo the Finkelsteins:

“The shelter looks like a regular flat,” [Goldberg aka Rakib] said. “It is 2,000 square feet, with a living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, self-powered electricity.”

Rakib’s post-nuclear pad, which can accommodate more than 25 people for two weeks, cost about £250,000.

…

Leading the stampede to the nuclear bunker is [Finkelstein aka] Shari Arison, the country’s wealthiest woman, estimated to be worth about £2.7 billion. The Israeli media have reported that she has already made preparations for Armageddon by building two sophisticated underground structures. One is at her home in Tel Aviv, the other in the garden of her holiday villa in Bnei Zion village.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government’s got some ’splainin’ to do:

Seeking to allay public fears, the government insists that the population has little to fear. “We are aware of all these panicky people building atomic shelters. They’re wasting their money,” said a security source.

“Israel will not allow Iran to build an atomic bomb, and even if it did, the Iranians know very well that we’ll bomb them back to the Stone Age before they’ve launched a single missile.”

Oh, but I forgot. There’s nothing to worry about, according to Matthew Yglesias, who spends a lot of time writing about national-security policy, he says, “frequently criticizing the hawkish urge to blend disparate problems together into a unified ‘Islamofascist’ menace.”

So he ought to know: we’ve got nothing to worry about from Iran. Why, it’s not even a totalitarian state:

The Iranian regime, objectionable though it may be, is a run-of-the-mill authoritarian oligarchy with competing centers of power and some space for civil society.

Yes. And Ahmadinejad is just another “Muslim Behaving Badly.”

Tsk-tsk.

Joshua Muravchik tells his pals to chin up

[O]ur ideas have influenced the policies of President George W. Bush, as they did those of President Ronald Reagan. That does feel good. Our intellectual contributions helped to defeat communism in the last century and, God willing, they will help to defeat jihadism in this one. It also feels good to see that a number of young people and older converts are swelling our ranks.

dig deep into their resources

I am shocked to hear that some among us, wearying of these attacks, are sidling away from the neocon label. Where is the joie de combat? The essential tenets of neoconservatism—belief that world peace is indivisible, that ideas are powerful, that freedom and democracy are universally valid, and that evil exists and must be confronted—are as valid today as when we first began.

and prepare for continued battle:

That is why we must continue to fight. But we need to sharpen our game.

Learn from Our Mistakes.

Deploy More Than the Military.

Fix the Public Diplomacy Mess.

Prepare to Bomb Iran.

Recruit Joe Lieberman for 2008.

He’s scores points for being transparent—gotta give him that. Otherwise: arrogant much? Oy. Vey.
Read it here if you dare.