On the Scene

Washington, D.C.

STANDING on a platform on the White House South Lawn September 7, President Clinton ceremoniously accepted from Vice President Gore the 168-page Report of the National Performance Review. Mr. Gore had been working on it for six months. Behind the two men were stacks of government rules and regulations. They were piled on fork lifts that had been wheeled onto the lawn for the occasion. “If you want to know why government doesn’t work,” Mr. Gore told the President, “look behind you.” The President, saying this is “one report that will not gather dust in a warehouse,” told the audience the report was “actually fun to read.” It was all impossibly hokey, but Mr. Clinton was right about one thing. Mr. Gore and his team had produced a report that is, if not fun to read, at least lucid and interesting. It is also hard to disagree with and, considering its subject matter, the more remarkable for having come from a Democratic Administration.

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Brit Hume

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Washington, D.C.

STANDING on a platform on the White House South Lawn September 7, President Clinton ceremoniously accepted from Vice President Gore the 168-page Report of the National Performance Review. Mr. Gore had been working on it for six months. Behind the two men were stacks of government rules and regulations. They were piled on fork lifts that had been wheeled onto the lawn for the occasion. “If you want to know why government doesn’t work,” Mr. Gore told the President, “look behind you.” The President, saying this is “one report that will not gather dust in a warehouse,” told the audience the report was “actually fun to read.” It was all impossibly hokey, but Mr. Clinton was right about one thing. Mr. Gore and his team had produced a report that is, if not fun to read, at least lucid and interesting. It is also hard to disagree with and, considering its subject matter, the more remarkable for having come from a Democratic Administration.