Alec Baldwin has said that he will leave the United States if George W. Bush wins the election. Look for a surge of single-issue voting in the Hamptons.
The RATS story—the flap over the split-second flash of four letters during a Republican campaign commercial—was a piece of silly-season filler, more appropriate to mid July than September. The Democrats, echoed by the New York Times, charged that it was subliminal advertising, a new low in campaign technique. But since admen know that subliminal advertising does not work, why would the GOP try it? The fleeting word is actually GRATS—the spot knocks bureaucrats. The story was broken by Fox in late August; only when the Gore campaign pushed it on the Times, which put it on the front page, did it gain national traction. The Bush campaign rightly feels aggrieved. But it might reflect that these stormlets blow up most easily in vacuums. If they had pulled out of their postconvention doldrums—if they had all along had an agenda more compelling than compassionate conservatism—we might all have been discussing that, rather than unpleasant rodents.
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