A Michelle Obama September surprise, destroy Hamas, deter its enablers, and other commentary

Conservative: A Michelle September Surprise?

Echoing our own Cindy Adams, Heather Higgins argues at RealClearPolitics that Democrats could indeed do a “switcheroo” to Michelle Obama, since “President Biden’s poll numbers seem set in quicksand.” She may hate politics, but the Biden years show “that when the media wants a president in place, a four-day workweek, consisting of one social obligation per day, and everything else delegated, will suffice. And that’s without a highly experienced First Gentleman.” If Biden drops out “a week or two after the convention,” the Democratic National Committee chooses the nominee. “Michelle — with her 91% popularity among Democrats and 68% nationally when she left the White House, and with the Obama fundraising and political network and job experience — can accede when pressed, for the good of the country, to graciously accept her grateful party’s nomination.”

From the right: Destroy Hamas, Deter Its Enablers

Commentary’s Seth Mandel offers some clarity to those treating the Gaza war as “retaliatory”: Fact is, “Israel is not trying to deter Hamas,” but “to destroy” it — a “rational response” to the group’s genocidal agenda. “Yet deterrence is still a very important part of Israel’s follow-through in Gaza”: It’s “aimed at the countries who enabled Hamas.” Like Egypt, which “has progressively slackened in its efforts to police the tunnel crossings” beneath Rafah. And “Qatar, whose many millions of dollars of investment into Hamas must be shown to be wasteful.” Iran needs to learn it’s not “cost-free to maintain a regional spoiler in Gaza.” Don’t forget the United Nations, whose “corruption must be broadcast to the world.” As Hamas is destroyed, “hopefully Hamas’s enablers will have earned the deterrence they so richly deserve.”

Culture critic: Politics Ruining Gen Z Dating

“Young singles today are facing a demographic disaster: while women have made a hard left turn in recent years, their male counterparts have taken a hard right one—with many refusing to date across party lines,” warns Rikki Schlott at The Free Press. “American women aged 18–30 are 30 percent more liberal than men their age,” and “a whopping 54 percent of women say they won’t date a conservative.” “As a result, the statistical odds of finding a Gen Z partner with compatible views is nosediving,” as you must “choose between feeling ideologically compromised or going without sex.” “Dating has always been hard. But added to the venom of modern politics, cancel culture, and the polarization of social media, it’s truly a disaster.”

Eye on Europe: Putin’s Covert War on Poland

Last spring, “Russian-dispatched spies were caught mapping out Polish seaports, placing cameras along railways and even surreptitiously placing tracking devices in military cargo,” notes Christopher P. Costa at The Hill of Putin’s resurrection of Cold War-style espionage. Polish authorities also accused nine foreigners “of spying for Russia and preparing sabotage operations to disrupt a logistical hub and the flow of war materiel into neighboring Ukraine.” Over the last seven years, “Polish counterintelligence arrested 46 individuals for spying against Poland at the behest of Russian and Belarusian intelligence services.” Beware: Sabotage operations in Poland could “escalate into a NATO-Russia shooting war,” or this resurrection of the “Cold War past may be a harbinger of more spy versus spy battles to come.”

Mideast watch: Has Joe Finally Seen the Light?

President Biden’s “reversion” to the Trump policy of not funding the UN Relief and Works Agency due to its complicity in Hamas terror is “the latest in a series of [Biden] U-turns on the Middle East,” observes David Schenker at The Wall Street Journal. Team Biden also designated the Houthis a terrorist group, having removed a similar designation by Team Trump. Likewise, the Bidenites abandoned Trump’s sanctions on Iran but now are reportedly rethinking after an Iran-backed militia killed three US soldiers in Jordan. Biden’s “return to Trump-era policies comes after three years of trial and mostly error,” but “may suggest a new, comprehensive understanding of the Iran problem.” Given “Iran’s fears of escalation,” he may have “latitude to act more boldly.”

— Compiled by The Post Editorial Board