Roundup: Media's Take

Feb 7, 2004

Mel Gibson's Insensitivity (At Best) About the Holocaust

Tim Rutten, writing in the LAT (Feb. 4, 2004):[Mel] Gibson has allowed himself to be characterized as a Catholic and has reinforced that impression by seeking the Vatican's approval of his film and then publicizing a purported papal endorsement. Reams of sympathetic publicity continue to describe Gibson as "a devout Catholic." In fact, he is not. Catholics belong

Feb 7, 2004

What the Boston Globe Found Out in 2000 About Bush's Military Record

Walter V. Robinson, writing in the Boston Globe (Feb. 5, 2004):A detailed Globe examination of the records in 2000 unearthed official reports by Bush's Guard commanders that they had not seen him for a year. There was also no evidence that Bush had done part of his Guard service in Alabama, as he has claimed. Bush's Guard appointment, made possible by family connections, was cut short when Bush was allowed to leave his Houston Guard unit ei

Feb 6, 2004

Is the Bird Virus Similar to the Virus that Caused the Flu Epidemic of 1918?

From NPR (Feb. 5, 2004): The flu epidemic of 1918 ranks with the Black Death of the Middle Ages as one of the deadliest contagions of all times. The virus swept across the Earth, killing an estimated 20 million people in little over a year. In the United States, more than half a million people died from the illness between September 1918 and June 1919. To this day, no one knows why the virus was s

Feb 6, 2004

Joshua Micah Marshall: Did the Bush Administration Create a New American Empire—Or Weaken the Old One?

Joshua Micah Marshall, writing in the New Yorker (Feb. 2, 2004): For leftist critics of America's role in the world, it has long been a baleful article of faith that the United States is an agent of “neo-imperialism,” exerting its power through global capital and through organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. After September 11th, a left-wing accusation became a right-wing aspiration: co

Feb 5, 2004

Party Bosses No Longer Pick Presidents ... Now It's Just a Handful of Voters in a Couple of Small States

Adam Clymer, writing in the NYT (Feb. 5, 2004): Democrats who once rebelled at having their presidential choices dictated by big-city bosses seem to have cheerfully handed over that power to small-town Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire. And this year New Hampshire may have subcontracted its role to Iowa. How else can John Kerry's five victories, with about two-fifths of the total vote on Tuesday, b

Feb 4, 2004

Why Is the Space Station a Flop?

William Broad, writing in the NYT (Feb. 3, 2004): In 1989, when the first President George Bush announced his plan to send American astronauts back to the Moon and on to Mars, he called the proposed space station"our critical next step in all our space endeavors." It would be a base in the weightlessness of space where big rockets would be assembled and blast off on voyages of exploration:"a new brid

Feb 4, 2004

First Ladies: They Need to Complement Their Husbands

Ginia Belafante, writing in the NYT (Feb. 1, 2004): Americans have historically maintained a high regard for complementarity in public marriages. The impish are better served by upright spouses than by charmingly impudent ones; the ponderous enlivened by the light of heart; the swaggeringly confident (Franklin Roosevelt) humanized by the sheepishly less self-assured (Eleanor). Mitigating Kennedy

Feb 3, 2004

Why Do So Many People Believe in So Many Conspiracies?

Darrin M. McMahon, writing in the Boston Globe (Feb. 1, 2004): HOWARD DEAN SPECULATES on National Public Radio that George W. Bush may have been warned of 9/11"ahead of time by the Saudis." University professors imply with an air of sophistication that the war in Iraq was a plot to fill contracts for Halliburton. Radio shock-jocks rant against the machinations of the Uni

Feb 3, 2004

Was Kerry Brainwashed About Iraq?

Editorial in the WSJ (Feb. 2, 2004): Was John Kerry brainwashed? That's what we've been wondering as the new Democratic frontrunner struggles to explain his off-again-on-again-off-again support for confronting Saddam Hussein. Some of our readers may recall that"brainwashing" is the word that turned the late George W. Romney into a footnote in American political history. In the sum

Jan 31, 2004

Candidates' Wives Didn't Use to Campaign This Early in the Election Year

Susan Baer, writing in the Balt Sun (Jan. 23, 2004):For all the changes that have revolutionized women's lives in the last half-century and recognized women as equal partners in marriages and in the workplace, any variation in the role of a presidential candidate's spouse, generally a wife, seems to set off its own sort of culture war. Lewis L. Gould, a historian of first ladies and professor emeritus at the University of Texas, says th

Jan 31, 2004

Why Palestinians May Not Favor a 2-State Solution

George Bisharat, a professor at the University of California's Hastings College of Law, writing in the LAT (Jan. 25, 2004):Although Israel has claimed that Palestinians willingly abandoned Palestine after being urged to leave in radio broadcasts by Arab leaders, a review of broadcast transcripts by Irish diplomat Erskine Childers in 1961 revealed that Palestinians were exhorted by Arab leaders to stay, not leave their homes. In fact, Yi

Jan 31, 2004

The Last Time Intelligence Was at the Center of a Presidential Election the Result Was Near-Disaster (You Do Remember the Cuban Missile Crisis, Don't You?)

James Burkee, writing in USA Today (Jan. 28, 2004):This isn't the first time intelligence information -- or the public's lack of it -- has played a significant role in a presidential election. During the 1960 campaign, Republican Richard Nixon's Democratic challengers -- Sens. Stuart Symington of Missouri, Lyndon Johnson of Texas and John Kennedy of Massachusetts -- all campaigned on the so-called missile gap, the Soviet Union's percei

Jan 31, 2004

Is Bush Counting on Fear to Win?

Elizabeth Bumiller, writing in the NYT (Jan. 25, 2004):Historically, Americans have not voted out the commander in chief in the middle of war, which helps explain, Democrats say, why Mr. Bush used the grand stage of the State of the Union speech to underline the threat. ("And it is tempting to believe that the danger is behind us. That hope is understandable, comforti

Jan 30, 2004

Frank Rich: McNamara Was the One of the Cool, Rational CEO Cabinet Secretaries (Like Cheney, Rumsfeld and O'Neill?)

Frank Rich, writing in the NYT (Jan. 25, 2004):Since its release, "The Fog of War" has generated plenty of debate on two fronts. Should Mr. McNamara, who freely admits to making errors about Vietnam but stops well short of outright contrition, rot in hell? The verdicts on his confessions in Mr. Morris's film range from mild praise (he's conceding fallibility, however bel

Jan 30, 2004

Churchill and Thatcher Were Thrown Out of Office ... How About Blair?

Patrick Tyler, writing in the NYT (Jan. 25, 2004):Since becoming prime minister in 1997, Tony Blair has proved the most successful and popular Labor leader of the last century, yet there are whispers in his own party that he could be out of office by Easter. "If Blair is out next week, there probably won't be any tears outside his family because it is a ruthless syst

Jan 30, 2004

Robert Kagan: Europe and the U.S. See the World in Vastly Different Ways

Robert Kagan, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, writing in the NYT (Jan. 24, 2004):A great philosophical schism has opened within the West, and instead of mutual indifference, mutual antagonism threatens to debilitate both sides of the trans-Atlantic community. Coming at a time in history when new dangers and crises are proliferating, this schism c

Jan 30, 2004

Why Is France So Upset About Muslim Head Scarves?

Guy Coq, author of a book about secularism in France, writing in the NYT (Jan. 30, 2004):With France on the verge of passing a law that would prevent Muslim girls from wearing their head scarves in class, Americans are asking why the French are so attached to secularism....The French word that is closest to secularism, laïcité, was invented in the late 19th century

Jan 30, 2004

Bush's State of the Union Address: A Speechwriter's Take (Positive)

Peter Robinson, a fellow at the Hoover Institution, served as chief speechwriter to Vice President Bush and special assistant and speechwriter to President Reagan. He is the author of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life (Regan, 2003). In the WSJ (Jan. 22, 2004): The White House communications director, Dan Bartlett, reported on Tuesday that by the time the president left to deliver his State

Jan 30, 2004

Democrats Are in Trouble Because They Seem Irreligious

Tony Quinn, co-editor of the California Target Book, a nonpartisan analysis of California legislative and congressional campaigns, writing in the LAT (Jan. 25, 2004):Not since the 1928 elections have the Republicans retained control of both Congress and the White House. Now that 76-year-old record may be about to fal

Jan 29, 2004

Why Does Dean Have More Delegates If Kerry Won Iowa and NH?

Brendan I. Koerner, writing in Slate (Jan. 28, 2004): Despite winning both the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, John Kerry trails Howard Dean on the delegate scorecard . How can Kerry have fewer delegates than the man he's twice trounced at the polls? The discrepancy is due to the early whims of some unpledged delegat