Like most (all?) of you, I woke up this morn to the news that former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto had been assassinated at a political rally. Like some (most?) of you, I had some knowledge of Bhutto and Pakistan but not enough to really understand the significance of this killing…what it means to Pakistan and, of course, what it means to the United States. It's tough to not look at every bit of news from the standpoint of immediate self-interest. There are times when I feel semi-uncomfortably like an actor friend of mine. If you told him that a volcano went off in Uruguay, all he could think about was, "Does that affect my career in any way?"
Anyway, I started hitting webpages where I thought I might find some explanation and quick analysis of what the assassination means to me and my country. What I found were a lot of theories about what it means to the Iowa Caucus. Apparently, it helps Hillary Clinton because it will send voters towards the candidate who seems more likely to use military force…unless, of course, they're afraid of a President who'll plunge us into another Iraq-like debacle, in which case it will send voters away from Hillary Clinton. On the Republican side, it will help Rudy Giuliani because voters will look to the man with experience in Crisis Management…unless, of course, those voters realize that Giuliani has no experience in foreign matters, in which case it will send voters away from Rudy Giuliani.
I love explanations that tell you everything you want to know…unless, of course, they don't tell you a damn thing.
But at least there also seems to be a consensus that, as David Gergen put it, "…Pakistan, like an immense number of other problems, will be awaiting our next president." And then he wrote something about how it will require extraordinary leadership in the Oval Office, like all the other decisions that go through that place don't.