Mind Their Manners
            

            Margo,

            Forbes could have used the toothpaste several decades ago. Though I am
confident a good plastic surgeon could help now. (Insert jokes about
personality surgeons here.)

            Looks ... I'm more interested in manners. And it's here that you, dear
Prudie, could provide some real insight into the campaign. Which of the
candidates has the best manners? And does it matter? We are, after all,
obsessed with authenticity this year--the real person. At least, that's what
the pundits and the newsmagazines blare. But it's the fake stuff that interests
me more, and here I am talking about such things as etiquette and decency. I
want a president who is true to other people more than he is true to himself.
I'll let you weigh in first on this one, because of your expertise on the
subject.

            As far as Bush malapropisms go--or as Jacob Weisberg calls them,
"Bushisms"--I have a dandy from an interview that I had with the good governor
of the second largest state (which if it were a nation, would be the
11 th largest economy in the world). I asked him about the efforts of
Southern Baptists to convert Jews, and he responded: "I mean, that's the
Southern Baptists. But I don't think that this is a government function." And
on that note--where my questions to presidential contenders really do make me
look like an obsessive on the subject of Yidden--I leave it to you. I'll try to
file my next entry from the debate.

            Catching rays for you,
Frank