These people are the American political equivalent of suicide bombers! Democrats have discovered the efficacy of the use of zealots to inflict maximum damage without risking their core asset, the candidate.

Just as the suicide bombers of the Middle East are products of aspiration, not desperation, these American Kamikazes no doubt hold in their hearts the hope that if their candidate prevails, their reward awaits them.

Yet to be seen is how affirmatively their candidates have encouraged their acts of martyrdom.

I wonder if the equivalent of Saddam, who once established a program of sending stipends to the families of Palestinian martyrs, exists in America?

Is George Soros secretly subsidizing Ms. Powers’ family while she waits in Political Purgatory to see if her sacrifice for Obama will bear fruit? Do the Wal-Mart Waltons send gift cards to Bill Shaheen, to tide him and his Senate candidate wife over until Hillary leaves the Hill for 1600 Pennsylvania? And what glory awaits Geraldine, who has managed to blow herself up daily for the past week, wreaking untold damage to Obama by reminding all of white America that he is black?

It is noteworthy that none of the American Martyrs thus far have actually had to give up paying jobs for their seeming folly. All were “volunteers” in their respective campaigns.

Just as in Iraq and other hellholes where the tactic is used, our version of Jihad exempts the leadership from much danger. No one seems to be volunteering to give up a paid position to make one of these attacks; no consultants have lost their consultancy, no campaign managers their management.

As always, though, Americans have come up with an improved version of an old world idea. While the Middle East prototypes actually leave this plane of existence as a result of their last act, the American version merely retire temporarily from the field of battle, to await the results of their sacrifice.

All of this fits very nicely into the need to avoid negative campaigning, at all costs, while getting that negative message out.

The candidates, in fact, if they are adroit enough, can repudiate, denounce, reject or disavow the errant comments of their erstwhile supporters, reinforcing their images as leaders, conciliators and incredibly oblivious robots, when it comes to knowing what is going on in their campaigns.

Of course, this is all passé to Karl Rove and the boys. They have had Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly performing this function for years. Watch for Keith Olbermann to take a much larger role in upcoming days.

[The photos above are in the public domain. This larger one shows Chiran high school girls waving farewell with cherry blossom branches to a kamikaze suicide pilot taking-off. The pilot is Second Lieutenant Toshio Anazawa of Japanese Army Special Attack Unit (20th Shinbu party). The aircraft is Army Type 1 fighter "Hayabusa" III- type-Ko, which holds a 250kg bomb. It is departing towards Okinawa on April 12, 1945. The photo in the beginning of this post, also in public domain, shows Admiral Matome Ugaki with his Yokosuka D4Y3 posing before final Kamikaze attack off Okinawa in August 1945.]