■ Okay, now that CBS has canceled the Reagan movie, can we do something about Dan Rather?
■ America was evidently hard at work this summer, producing the fastest economic growth the country has seen in any three months since 1984. The economy grew at an annualized rate of 7.2 percent. Most economists expect job growth to resume in short order. President Bush is of course ascribing strong growth to his tax cuts. The real value (and test) of those tax cuts, however, will come in future years, as they increase the economy’s long-term growth. The Democrats are flummoxed. Dick Gephardt says that the economy will still hurt Bush in 2004: “I just think the likelihood— I can’t prove this in any way—is that people are going to have uncertainty, not reassurance, about where the economy is headed.” He is whistling in the light. The president, already in decent shape to win re-election, has just seen his chances improve. He may not repeat Ronald Reagan’s 1984 performance by winning 49 states and 59 percent of the vote. But the conditions are falling into place for an even more substantial achievement next year: a Republican realignment.
Comments