Domino Theory (Don't Follow Leaders)

"This is a financial 9/11," writes Thomas Friedman, as one Wall Street institution after another tumbles.

Friedman is the sort of pundit who rarely means his metaphors, in the sense of thinking them through. Where figures of speech are concerned, he's like a running back who never saw a football he couldn't fumble.

In this instance, he puts words into the mouth of George W. Bush, having him say "I was wrong" about a war that Friedman himself supported at the only time it mattered. Of course, in Friedman's view, Bush was "wrong" only in that he "originally launched this war in pursuit of weapons of mass destruction."

There is probably a reason why his own web site uses quotation marks in describing him as a "foreign affairs" columnist.

How hard can it be to develop a metaphor to its obvious implications?

If this is our financial 9/11, pray tell, who brought down the towers?

It was the same leaders who now regard the American taxpayer as the "first responder," duty-bound to rush into the burning building as it collapses.