On the Right

New York, April 4—The salient asset of television showman Phil Donahue is probably his personal amiability, but his usefulness is as a remarkably reliable index of what it is that people are concerned about. It would be useful to politicians and journalists alike to be able to read a daily Donahue Index giving the weight he attached to the problems of the day. Last week Phil Donahue was lecturing me about the hostages in Iran before an absorbed audience of several thousand women (and several million listeners); and, as I went on to three successive encounters the next day with business and academic audiences, verily it transpires that the hostages continue as a major preoccupation of the public. Which is why the time is overdue for the President of the United States to say that from this moment on, the survival of the hostages will cease to be the coordinating aim of American foreign policy.

Mr. Carter, to be sure, is not anxious to take on Phil Donahue. But Mr. Carter is the President of the United States, not the chairman of a Committee to Free the Hostages. The freedom of the hostages should be an incidental effect of our foreign policy, not its engine. The difference between the two positions is both central and comprehensive.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

New York, April 4—The salient asset of television showman Phil Donahue is probably his personal amiability, but his usefulness is as a remarkably reliable index of what it is that people are concerned about. It would be useful to politicians and journalists alike to be able to read a daily Donahue Index giving the weight he attached to the problems of the day. Last week Phil Donahue was lecturing me about the hostages in Iran before an absorbed audience of several thousand women (and several million listeners); and, as I went on to three successive encounters the next day with business and academic audiences, verily it transpires that the hostages continue as a major preoccupation of the public. Which is why the time is overdue for the President of the United States to say that from this moment on, the survival of the hostages will cease to be the coordinating aim of American foreign policy.

Mr. Carter, to be sure, is not anxious to take on Phil Donahue. But Mr. Carter is the President of the United States, not the chairman of a Committee to Free the Hostages. The freedom of the hostages should be an incidental effect of our foreign policy, not its engine. The difference between the two positions is both central and comprehensive.