4.18.00
The DLC's Other Candidate

4.17.00
Out of Gas

4.13.00
Charity Case

4.11.00
NYPD Black & Blue

4.10.00
Davis for Mayor

4.07.00
Marching In Place

4.06.00
Gassed Out

4.05.00
Santorum vs. Klink

4.04.00
Uncivil Commission

4.03.00
Alien Nation

s George W. Bush becoming a New Democrat? "On a series of major issues, Bush has embraced the exact position taken by the [Democratic Leadership Council] and its congressional allies, while Gore has either kept his distance or actively opposed the DLC stance," writes Ron Brownstein in the Los Angeles Times.

On health care, Bush and the DLC support tax credits to help the uninsured purchase coverage; Gore has criticized this approach. On Medicare, Bush and the DLC support providing the elderly with a fixed amount of money to buy insurance; Gore says this would lead to better insurance for the well-off, and prefers to throw an additional $400 billion into the current system. Bush and the DLC support partial privatization of Social Security with individual retirement accounts; Gore would sink general-revenue dollars into the current system. Bush and the DLC support giving states more control over how they spend federal dollars earmarked for education in exchange for more accountability; Gore would withhold federal funds from states if they refuse to enact specific reforms.

Brownstein notes that the DLC is closer to Gore than Bush on many issues, including abortion, gun control, school choice, and tax cuts. "But disagreements between Bush and an organization so intimately linked to the Clinton administration are hardly surprising. It's more revealing that Bush and the DLC agree so much," he writes.

He also quotes Gore advisor Elaine Kamarck on how economic prosperity has made it possible for the vice president to avoid a DLC-driven agenda of entitlement reform: "The only reason these ideas got as far as they did is because people thought we had to do something," she says. "We don't have to do something anymore." Does this mean Gore would be a do-nothing president?

Wargames
Japan will require special export licenses for Sony's PlayStation2, a video game machine expected to arrive in American stores this fall. Its ability to process sharp images quickly gives it potential military applications, especially for missile-guidance systems, reported a Japanese newspaper on Sunday.

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