The Journalist and the Biographer
Issue 1 is, natch, the presidential race. Issue 2 is Edmund Morris'
controversial biography of Ronald Reagan. Other issues include Jesse Ventura's
no-holds-barred Playboy interview and Rudy Giuliani's campaign against
the "Sensation" art exhibit.
Most pundits think Al Gore is becoming desperate, and some say he's now the
underdog. (Gore himself tried to claim this mantle by imploring Larry King
Wednesday evening, "I think in many ways you ought to count me the underdog in
this race now. ... I think if you look at the most recent poll in New
Hampshire, you'll see it that way." Slate's Ballot Box
explains Gore's motivation.) Gore moved his campaign headquarters from
Washington, D.C., to Nashville, Tenn.; fired a pollster; challenged the
putative underdog, Bill Bradley, to a series of debates; had his campaign
manager, Tony Coelho, accused of past corruption by a federal agency; and
raised less money than Bradley last quarter (according to last week's FEC
disclosures). On CBS's Face the Nation , Gore says he will keep Coelho. He
also calls Bradley a quitter for resigning from the Senate and impugning the
party system in 1992, rather than supporting the Clinton-Gore ticket.
George Stephanopoulos (ABC's This Week ) says Gore had the worst week of any presidential
candidate since Gary Hart's quasi-Flytrap scandal broke in 1987. Many
commentators think moving his campaign to Nashville was meaningless--"You can
take your campaign out of K Street, but you can't take K Street out of your
campaign," wags Arianna Huffington (CNN's Late
Edition )--but some, such as Capital Gang's Al Hunt and Margaret Carlson, say it helped
Gore weed the non-loyalists from his campaign. Bradley's impressive fund
raising, says Paul Gigot (PBS's NewsHour With Jim Lehrer ), means that unlike Hart in
1984 and Paul Tsongas in 1992, he'll have the money to continue campaigning if
he does well in the New Hampshire primary. Skeptics--such as Bob Novak (CNN's
Capital Gang ), Bill Kristol ( This Week ), Mark Shields
( NewsHour ), and
Slate
editor Michael Kinsley
(Wednesday's Larry King Live )--say Gore is still the favorite and note
that he is far ahead in most national polls. Some attribute Gore's problems to
"Clinton fatigue," but Shields ( Newshour ) notes that Clinton's
approval rating is higher than Reagan's was in 1987. "Gore's [popularity]
problem would [still] be there if Clinton disappeared tomorrow," Sheilds
says.
Several pundits criticize George W. Bush for attacking the House
Republicans' plan to balance the budget by fudging with the benefits schedule
of the Earned Income Tax Credit. "George Bush sounds exactly like Bill
Clinton," laments Paul Gigot ( NewsHour ). On Capital Gang ,
Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calf., defends the House plan--even though he co-chairs
Bush's California campaign. Most pundits, however, think Bush's triangulation
is shrewd and helps flesh out his "compassionate conservatism" philosophy. EITC
wouldn't be an issue, notes Bob Novak ( Capital Gang ), "if [the House
Republicans] had cut the budget like they were supposed to. ... The Republicans
are so hooked into George W. Bush that he could dance naked through the streets
and they'd say, 'Well, he had a bad night.' " Several pundits--such as Shields
and Gigot ( NewsHour )--criticize Bush for hammering the House GOP but
not Pat Buchanan. George Stephanopoulos ( This Week ) says these two
positions show that Bush is more of a social conservative than an economic
one.
Critics continue to attack Edmund Morris' new book, Dutch: A Memoir of
Ronald Reagan (buy it here). For the first time since chattering about the book
began three weeks ago, many of those commenting on it have actually read it.
(
Slate's Culturebox
explains this phenomenon.) Journalist Lou Cannon says the book actually
"subtracts from our knowledge" of the former president. Historian Haynes
Johnson (like Cannon, appearing on Late Edition ), notes that the book
has only one mention of supply-side economics. Defending himself on NBC's
Meet the Press , Morris calls his conservative critics
"ideologues" and explains "the basic inability of the ideological mind--such as
George Will's or Bob Novak's--to comprehend that a great man can sometimes be
comically fallible in private." He continues: "I have no doubt whatsoever that
Reagan was a great man and a great president, but some of his conversation in
private was astonishingly banal." (This week Dinesh D'Souza and Alan Brinkley
discuss Dutch in
Slate's
Book Club.)
New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani defends his attempt to withdraw taxpayer
money from the "Sensation" art exhibit in Brooklyn. He appears on three Sunday
morning shows ( This Week , Meet the Press , and Fox News
Sunday )--none of which interviews a supporter of art subsidies. Meet
the Press flashes a New York Daily News poll showing that only 30% of New
Yorkers agree with Giuliani, while 60% agree with the museum. Meanwhile, a
poll of
visitors to the McLaughlin Group's Web site shows 85% support for
Giuliani and 15% for the museum. ... On Fox News Sunday , Elizabeth
Dole says she is the only GOP presidential candidate--and the only woman
ever--to lead a branch of the armed services (the Coast Guard, when she was
Reagan's Transportation Secretary).
Jesse Ventura's Original Sin On Meet the
Press , Tim Russert asks Gov. Jesse Ventura, I-Minn., about his explosive
interview in the November Playboy , in which he calls organized religion "a sham
and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers":
TR: "Do you believe that priests and nuns and rabbis and
ministers [in Minnesota] could be considered 'weak-minded people?' "
JV: "No, I don't--not necessarily. And being weak-minded is
not necessarily a detriment, Tim. It just means that you have a weakness and
therefore you go into organized religion to help strengthen yourself. That's
the context in which I talked about it, and for those people it's OK."
Asked by Russert whether he believes in God, Ventura replies immediately
that he does--although he belongs to no denomination. Asked, in separate
questions, whether he considers himself a Christian and whether he believes in
Christ's divinity, Ventura pauses each time but answers yes.
Later in the program, Russert interviews evangelical minister and former
football star Reggie White, author of the conservative-values book Fighting
the Good Fight (buy it here):
TR: "Are you 'weak-minded?' "
RW: "Well, I think that all of us end up being weak-minded
until we come to Christ. The Bible says, 'We are weak but He is strong.' ... I
think that anyone who lives any kind of way he wants to and do [ sic ]
anything he wants to is weak-minded."
Last Word
"Actors are trained not to focus too closely on their individual witnesses,
or spectators. ... What Reagan saw through his myopic eyes was a general blur
of smiling, affectionate faces--that's how he saw his family, that's how he saw
the American people, that's how he saw the world."
--Edmund Morris ( Meet the Press )
