Am I paranoid?

This may be way too big a stretch, but it is also a measure of how cynical and suspicious I have become about big money, politics, bigotry and Republican mendacity.

After the attacks on our embassies in Egypt and Libya -- and now this morning in Yemen -- I found myself spontaneously thinking:   did somebody with money put this mysterious, anonymous anti-Islam filmmaker up to making this film?   Or at least knew about it and slyly put out the sneak scenes that went viral on the internet?

And did it in order to stir up the Muslim world and create a situation for Obama to have to deal with in the middle of the campaign -- knowing that a terrorist attack in the fall would likely give the election to the Republicans?

Did the Romney team know it was going to happen and was ready with its critical response -- but got the timing off?

Probably not.   But that's the depth of mistrust and cynicism I have come to in this money-slimed bloodbath of politics.

Of course, it was also 9/11 and there may have been some planned, coordinated effort to make a show of anti-Americanism on their part without any help from us.

What we do know is that Romney and Ryan lost not a minute in trying to politicize the anit-American feeling and blame Obama, which we know is true and is pretty low-down politics.   It has long been a gentleman's agreement that politics stops at our borders;  we do not politicize events like this but present a united front to the world.

They have violated that -- and it may just backfire on them, because it has been an occasion for Romney/Ryan to display their inexperience and lack of wisdom in dealing with world events.

Ralph