Leftist writer: We can't speculate on who bombed London

Leftists seem eager to believe the worst about Bush, Republicans and the American military mere seconds after the first bit of information becomes available. But when it comes to four near-simultaneous bombs in London--three of them in the subways--the leading lights of the Left caution that we don't want to rush to any conclusions about who did it. In fact, we shouldn't even speculate.

No one demonstrates this curiously selective restraint better than uber-leftist Eric Alterman, who writes:

We don’t have remotely enough information about what took place in London or who did it to engage in sensible speculation about why it happened or what ought to be done as a result. Speed is the enemy of sensibility in such situations. (So let's all try to resist the urge to exploit the tragedy to demonstrate how right we were about everything in the first place and just show some respect and compassion for its victims.)

One can understand Alterman writing that even though Islamic terrorists were probably responsible for the bombings, it would be equally wrong for mobs to harm innocent Muslims. But what he writes--and presumably believes (though one often wonders about the loonier Leftist writers)--is that it would be foolhardy even to engage in speculation about who was behind the bombings.

Given examples like this from top opinion-making Leftists, Al Qaida must be delighted at the prospect of American voters eventually electing a Democrat as president.