|
 s
the Gore campaign panicking because of the Bush comeback? Its latest move
— having its flacks say that Bush is too dumb to be president —
suggests that the answer is yes. The IQ issue was already out there, doing
whatever good it could do for Gore. By having his campaign raise it directly,
Gore runs the risk of looking petty and mean. Gore partisans might reasonably
argue that Bush went negative first by questioning Gore's honesty. But
fairly or unfairly, charges about opponents' honesty are common fare in
political campaigns; not so charges about opponents' intelligence.
Charging someone with stupidity is also dangerous when there's a risk
you might do something dumb yourself. Take Gore's ostentatious pronunciation
of the new Serbian leader's name in the last debate. We're reliably informed
that he got it wrong, saying KOSS-tu-nic-uh when he should have said kosh-TU-neets-uh.
At some point, Gov. Bush might want to remind Americans that all the great
and good said that Reagan was stupid, too, and he turned out to be a pretty
good president.
Gun Crimes
John McCain has cut ads for gun-control — er, excuse us, "gun safety"
— initiatives in Colorado and Oregon. Here's what he says: "I'm John
McCain with some straight talk. Convicted felons have been able to buy
and sell thousands of guns at gun shows because of a loophole in the law.
Many were later used in crimes. That's wrong." At most, three percent
of gun crimes involved guns purchased at gun shows (see here
for details). But perhaps McCain subscribes to the if-even-one-life-is-saved
theory. The loophole to which McCain refers isn't exactly a loophole.
Licensed dealers at gun shows have to perform background checks, same
as everywhere else; unlicensed dealers — i.e., people who sell guns
as a hobby rather than a business — don't have to perform them, just
as they don't if they sell guns to friends at their homes.
McCain says his views have "evolved." No kidding. The ads are financed
by soft money. Remind us again why Republicans passed up the opportunity
to run this guy for president?
Clymer Alert
Give this to Adam Clymer: He hasn't let all the publicity intimidate him
out of doing stories unfavorable to Republicans. He has a front-pager
in today's New York Times arguing that the Democrats' chances of
taking the House have risen since the summer (it is now said to be "clearly
in reach"). But he cites no national poll in which voters' inclination
to send a Republican to Congress has fallen. Nor does he cite polls from
particular races. Instead, he offers his political judgments, which is
fine except that his are so idiosyncratic. He thinks Democrats might pick
up a seat from the Republicans in Florida's eighth district — a district
that went for George Bush in 1992 and Bob Dole in 1996. Democrat Dennis
Moore, meanwhile, has supposedly "solidified his grip" in the third district
of Kansas. Actually, it's a dead-even race. Most Republican campaign-watchers
are actually feeling more confident about keeping the House than they
did at the start of summer. Clymer offers no reasons for them to go back
to being nervous.
Subliminal Headline Writing
The Washington Post has been criticized for putting a "(sic)" in
a quote by Governor Bush that confused "hone in" for "home in." It's a
common confusion, and The Weekly Standard rightly suggested that
the Post was just reaching for examples of Bush's alleged stupidity.
Yesterday, the Post's ombudsman discussed the offending "(sic)." On the
front page of the same newspaper was this headline: "Gore Homes In on
Gore's Credibility." Is that some editor's way of raising a middle finger
to the critics?
Speaking of Subtexts…
From The Economist's lead editorial: "Israel is a superior country
with superior people: its talents are above the ordinary. But it has to
abate its greed for other people's land."
The Poetry of Lying
Here's how the Washington Post on Sunday described Gore's now-famous
tall tale about his mother-in-law spending more money than he does for
his dog on the same medicine: "a style of storytelling not uncommon among
platform speakers, especially in the more poetical days of his father's
political career."
Al Gore, Artiste
Those who read Nicholas Lemann's profile of Gore for The New Yorker
won't want to miss these
pictures, drawn by the hand of Al himself and demonstrating a lively
primitivism.
|
