* It’s at best an American anomaly that commonwealth/territory primaries and caucuses, in addition to having colonial vestiges–from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands to the Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa–can weigh in on presidential nominations. But it’s truly bizarre to have a say-so in actually nominating the person to run for president, but then not be able to vote for the person–in the general election–you just helped nominate.
* Leon Panetta has one of the most seriously important jobs in the world: U.S. secretary of defense. Prior to that, he carried the soberingly serious title of CIA director.
Could there be more incongruous jobs for someone who, as with a facial tic, has an acknowledged “involuntary” reflex–for, of all things, laughter? Arguably, out-of-context belly laughs, albeit friendly, are worse at the Pentagon than say, ill-timed tears are for Speaker John Boehner at the House of Representatives. Word is it “humanizes” Panetta, who is well liked, to those around him.
That’s not what I was thinking, however, when I saw a recent wire photo of Panetta and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul–in the aftermath of the alleged mass murder of 16 Afghani civilians, including nine children, by an American soldier. Panetta was the only one smiling.