For the Record

In Europe, Bush is up, and Gorby down. Survey of most prominent West European newspapers (Left, Right, and Center) following economic summit and Bush visit to Hungary and Poland indicates a waning of Europe’s infatuation with Mikhail Gorbachev. The cooling off on Gorbachev was evident during Gorbachev’s visit to Paris a fortnight earlier when the influential leftist Le Monde commented tartly that the French were “Gorby-philes,” not “Gorby-maniacs” like the West Germans. Last week Le Monde called Bush’s Iron Curtain visit “an incontestable success.” Holland’s conservative De Telegraaf praised U.S. arms-control initiatives “as realistic proposals more attractive than romantic Russian fantasies.” The Times of London was critical of Gorbachev’s grandstanding demand for greater East-West economic coordination. “A single realistic look around his [Gorbachev’s] present troubles should tell him that it cannot be.” . . . Back home, Andrei Sakharov has added to Gorbachev’s nationalities problem by urging a looser federation of the Soviet republics along lines now developing in the Baltic states. . . . Baltic nationalists point out that Article 72 of the current Soviet Constitution reads: “Each union republic shall retain the right freely to secede from the USSR.” . . . And should Vladimir Shcherbitsky, the iron-fisted Communist Party boss of the Ukraine, die (U.S. News reports he is desperately ill), it could spell more turmoil in that republic. . . . Former Reagan Treasury official Paul Craig Roberts suggests in Christian Science Monitor interview that U.S. should help the Soviets privatize because “we owe them a lot. They have proved conclusively that socialism does not work. No one can accuse them of halfhearted efforts or of failure to stay the course or go far enough.”

As Congress took off for August break, the nation seemed well satisfied with George Bush and his Republican Party. A N. Y. Times/CBS poll found 67 per cent of Americans approving Bush’s performance, with 48 per cent of blacks and 56 per cent of Democrats lined up behind the President. A Gallup found Republicans better able than Democrats to a) keep the country prosperous (51 to 31 per cent), b) maintain the peace (45 to 31 per cent), and c) handle major problems (33 to 27 per cent). . . . How come Bush is doing so well? Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, acknowledging that people seem to like Bush, says, “I don’t know whether it’s the puppies or the grandchildren.” . . . New York Times political reporter E. J. Dionne Jr. concludes that so far what he calls Mr. Bush’s “the deficit-made-me-not-do-it” (i.e., not spend more money) tactic seems to be working. . . . On the other hand, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), disappointed by drubbing the Administration took on defense matters in the House, says Bush leaves something to be desired as a leader. He points out that Congress “is not as cowed by Bush as they were by Reagan. They were always afraid that Reagan would go to the people.” . . . Prospects for some cuts in capital-gains tax when Congress gets back after Labor Day were enhanced in the House Democratic Caucus just before closing, where many Democrats (perhaps as many as ninety) indicated they might go along with GOP on this one. It was enough at any rate, say Evans & Novak, for Majority Leader Dick Gephardt to reverse field: capital gains will not be matter of party discipline.

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In Europe, Bush is up, and Gorby down. Survey of most prominent West European newspapers (Left, Right, and Center) following economic summit and Bush visit to Hungary and Poland indicates a waning of Europe’s infatuation with Mikhail Gorbachev. The cooling off on Gorbachev was evident during Gorbachev’s visit to Paris a fortnight earlier when the influential leftist Le Monde commented tartly that the French were “Gorby-philes,” not “Gorby-maniacs” like the West Germans. Last week Le Monde called Bush’s Iron Curtain visit “an incontestable success.” Holland’s conservative De Telegraaf praised U.S. arms-control initiatives “as realistic proposals more attractive than romantic Russian fantasies.” The Times of London was critical of Gorbachev’s grandstanding demand for greater East-West economic coordination. “A single realistic look around his [Gorbachev’s] present troubles should tell him that it cannot be.” . . . Back home, Andrei Sakharov has added to Gorbachev’s nationalities problem by urging a looser federation of the Soviet republics along lines now developing in the Baltic states. . . . Baltic nationalists point out that Article 72 of the current Soviet Constitution reads: “Each union republic shall retain the right freely to secede from the USSR.” . . . And should Vladimir Shcherbitsky, the iron-fisted Communist Party boss of the Ukraine, die (U.S. News reports he is desperately ill), it could spell more turmoil in that republic. . . . Former Reagan Treasury official Paul Craig Roberts suggests in Christian Science Monitor interview that U.S. should help the Soviets privatize because “we owe them a lot. They have proved conclusively that socialism does not work. No one can accuse them of halfhearted efforts or of failure to stay the course or go far enough.”

As Congress took off for August break, the nation seemed well satisfied with George Bush and his Republican Party. A N. Y. Times/CBS poll found 67 per cent of Americans approving Bush’s performance, with 48 per cent of blacks and 56 per cent of Democrats lined up behind the President. A Gallup found Republicans better able than Democrats to a) keep the country prosperous (51 to 31 per cent), b) maintain the peace (45 to 31 per cent), and c) handle major problems (33 to 27 per cent). . . . How come Bush is doing so well? Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine A. Ferraro, acknowledging that people seem to like Bush, says, “I don’t know whether it’s the puppies or the grandchildren.” . . . New York Times political reporter E. J. Dionne Jr. concludes that so far what he calls Mr. Bush’s “the deficit-made-me-not-do-it” (i.e., not spend more money) tactic seems to be working. . . . On the other hand, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.), disappointed by drubbing the Administration took on defense matters in the House, says Bush leaves something to be desired as a leader. He points out that Congress “is not as cowed by Bush as they were by Reagan. They were always afraid that Reagan would go to the people.” . . . Prospects for some cuts in capital-gains tax when Congress gets back after Labor Day were enhanced in the House Democratic Caucus just before closing, where many Democrats (perhaps as many as ninety) indicated they might go along with GOP on this one. It was enough at any rate, say Evans & Novak, for Majority Leader Dick Gephardt to reverse field: capital gains will not be matter of party discipline.