This morning I found a moment shared, incredibly, by Vladimir Putin and Abraham Lincoln. One of Lincoln’s tools of communication was to use illustrations from farming life in his speeches and commentary. He once referred to holding the leg of a hog as it was butchered and skinned. Imagine my surprise when, in today’s Wall Street Journal, I read that Vladimir Putin was asked about the quasi-fugitive Edward Snowden. Why, someone asked Putin, don’t you do more to address the issue of Snowden essentially hiding out in a Moscow airport? Putin replied that it would be like shearing a piglet–lots of noise with little to show for your effort.

Lincoln and Putin, hogs and piglets, skinning and screaming.

It’s like my dad once said–a blind pig finds an ear of corn every now and then. In this case, I think Putin may be the porker in question.