OUT On The Porch

It’s an old expression. When someone has trouble doing more than one thing at a time, it was said that they couldn’t “walk and chew gum” at the same time.

It could also refer to the attitude of the rest of the world about this country during our national elections. While they don’t use that old American phrase, they do believe that our attention turns inward and we become so absorbed by our internal election wars that we cannot do anything decisive on the world stage until after the election season.

During the Cold War and the years that followed, the American election seasons were times for various people around the world to make their moves, while our attention was elsewhere. Whatever their scheme, they believed that if they scheduled it during our national elections, the chances were good that our attention would be elsewhere and our response would be muted or non-existent.

Then in May, 2004, Al Qaeda bombed the trains in Madrid, just before the Spanish elections, and seemed to change the outcome. Political observers have disagreed about whether it had an effect, but it seems clear that the party leading before the bombing lost the election. The real point is whether Al Qaeda believes it affected the election. If they do, there will be more attacks preceding elections in countries perceived by Al Qaeda to be enemies.

So things may get worse before they get better.

To paraphrase another old expression: fasten your seat belts; it’s going to be bumpy ride.