Roundup: Media's Take

March 15, 2004

Putin Whets His Appetite for an Authoritarian Banquet

Crystia Freeland, writing for the Financial Times (London) (March 13, 2004)According to a popular Russian saying,"eating increases the appetite". This aphorism is being often applied these days to President Vladimir Putin, who faces tomorrow's ballot more like a monarch approaching a coronation than an incumbent facing the polls. In 1999, when Mr Putin emerged as the Yeltsin clan's chosen successor, he was a relatively obscure

March 12, 2004

Is Kerry Hamlet or Truman?

Daniel Henninger, in the WSJ (March 12, 2004): John Kerry entered the U.S. Senate in 1985, and for 18 years built the record that is now the basis for calling him either complex and nuanced or inconsistent and opportunistic. Most famously, Mr. Kerry voted for the Iraq war resolution, but criticizes nearly every action Mr. Bush has taken on Iraq. He voted for the Patriot Act but says John

March 12, 2004

Military Families Are Breaking with Tradition and Making History By Opposing the War in Iraq

Paula Span, in the Washington Post (March 11, 2004): The number of military families that oppose Operation Iraqi Freedom, though never measured, is probably small. But a nascent antiwar movement has begun to find a toehold among parents, spouses and other relatives of active-duty, reserve and National Guard troops. A group called Military Families Speak Out -- which will figure prominently in marches and vigils at Dover Air Force Base, Walter Reed Arm

March 11, 2004

Why Hasn't There Been a Woman on a Major-Party Ticket Since Ferraro?

Eric Black, in the Star Tribune (March 11, 2004): Twenty years ago this summer, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale chose Rep. Geraldine Ferraro of New York as his running mate, which made her the first woman ever on a major party ticket. At a reunion Wednesday morning, Mondale and Ferraro reminisced about their history-making 1984 partnership, then joined several analysts of gender politics

March 10, 2004

It Would Be a Mistake to Assume That Russia Is a Spent Force

Jonathan Freedland, writing for the Guardian (London) (March 10, 2004)Perhaps we shouldn't read too much into the slogans emblazoned on high-street leisurewear, but the social historians of the future might unearth some interesting nuggets if they try. The FCUK brand will tell its own story of loosening mores and the enduring British tradition of sniggering at rude words. Duffer will intrigu

March 10, 2004

Republicans Are Trying to Turn Kerry into Dukakis

Kenneth S. Baer, author of Reinventing Democrats: The Politics of Liberalism from Reagan to Clinton and a speechwriter for Al Gore; in Newsday (New York) (March 7, 2004)Listening to Republicans crow over the past few weeks, you would have thought that the 1990s never happened.Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour called the presumptive Democratic nominee a"taller, leaner version of Ted Kennedy." Pat Buchanan charged that h

March 10, 2004

With so Many Artistic Geniuses Among Us, Why Is Most of Their Work so Disposable?

Patrick J. Kiger, writing for the Los Angeles Times (March 7, 2004)English writer W. Somerset Maugham published a 1949 essay in which he pondered whether Dostoevski or El Greco was the greater artistic genius. He reluctantly came down on the side of El Greco after deciding that 16th century Spain was a more fertile environment for the flowering of inspiration than czarist Russia. One can only speculate about the precise number of

March 10, 2004

Free Trade? America Benefits, but Doesn't Seem to Realize It

Jagdish Bhagwati, writing for the Guardian (London) (March 8, 2004)A free trader's work is never done, especially in the United States. The historians of free trade in Great Britain since the repeal of the corn laws in mid-19th century have argued that politicians in strong economies embrace free trade because they expect their countries to win in the Darwinian struggle in the marketplace.

March 10, 2004

We Were Divided by the Mexican War, too

Mark Trahant, in the Seattle Times (Feb. 22, 2004): It's about a war president who went too far. He divided the country between those who favored military engagement and those who thought the president had been dishonest about his very reason for war. One member of Congress was particularly troubled. The Illinois member, soon to become a Republican, rose on the House floor to express h

March 10, 2004

Robert Samuelson: Can the U.S. Afford to Run a Welfare State?

Robert J. Samuelson, in Wash Post (March 5, 2004):One great project of the late 20th century was the construction of vast welfare states in wealthy nations to protect people against the insecurities of the business cycle and the injustices of unfettered capitalism. One great question of the early 21st century is whether these welfare states, facing massive commitments to aging populations, will themselves create new insecurities and in

March 10, 2004

Is He Presidential (And What in Heck Does THAT Mean)?

Delia M. Rios, for the Newhouse News Service (March 5, 2004):Is he "presidential" or isn't he? In important ways, the campaign for the White House -- the debates, the ads, the machinations of the Republican and Democratic parties, the millions of dollars -- all come down to that question....Only 42 men have held the nation's highest office. To be mentioned in the same company as the four enshrined on Mount Rushmore -- Washington

March 10, 2004

Impeach the Governor of Connecticut? Don't Do It!

Ross H. Garber, counsel to the office of the governor of Connecticut, in the Hartford Currant (March 7, 2004): The legislature's Select Committee of Inquiry bears a weighty and historic constitutional responsibility. No governor or any other official has ever been impeached in Connecticut. Indeed, impeachment of a sitting governor is an

March 9, 2004

Charlie Cook: Nader Could Cost the Demopcrats the Election in 2004 (As He Did in 2000)

Charlie Cook, in the NYT (March 9, 2004) After the initial stir, Ralph Nader's entry into the presidential campaign has been widely dismissed as the folly of an over-the-hill egomaniac. While Mr. Nader's critics might be right about his character, a look at the current polls and the election results from 2000 show that his independent candidacy cannot be ignored. And while I agree

March 9, 2004

Howard Fineman: This Election All the Rules of History Are Being Broken

Howard Fineman, in Newsweek (March 5, 2004): It was Henry Ford who said “history is bunk” as he was busy reinventing American industry a century ago. Well, Ford is the man to see about this presidential campaign. So far, patterns of the past haven't predicted a thing, and it's going to remain that way right up to Election Day. For, based on history, neither George W. Bush nor John F. Kerry has a chance.   Let's look at the patterns that have been s

March 9, 2004

The Unnoticed Tradition: Veeps Almost Never Are Drawn from the Ranks of State Officials

Attoney Joshua Spivak, in the Washington Post (March 6, 2004): Now that Sen. John Kerry has locked up the Democratic presidential nomination, the question turns to his selection of a running mate. Among the names being discussed are Dick Gephardt, John Edwards and Tom Vilsack -- a congressman, a senator and a governor. Do those job descriptions affect their chances? Maybe. While

March 6, 2004

John Kerry: Why He Hates Agent Orange

Jamie Reno , Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas; With T. Trent Gegax, in Newsweek (March 8, 2004): The swift boats, like the one John Kerry captained, were sitting ducks. Hiding in the dense jungle along the riverbanks of the Mekong Delta, the Viet Cong could open up on the Americans with machine guns, mortars and rockets--and vanish before the Americans could effectively shoot back. So the U.S. military adjusted, dropping tons of herbicide on the foliage to strip t

March 5, 2004

Sri Lanka: Why It's a Mess Again

Dave Kopel, Paul Gallant & Joanne D. Eisen, in National Review (March 3, 2004): Sri Lanka is technically in a state of civil war. It is just barely held together by a tenuous ceasefire that is splintering day by day, threatening to dash the hopes of a country that yearns for peace. Last month, Presid

March 5, 2004

Why the Karbala Bombings During Ashoura So Shocked the Shia of Iraq

Paul Vallely, in the London Independent (March 3, 2004):IT IS as if bombs had been placed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Good Friday - with a few more for good measure at the Vatican and in Canterbury Cathedral. Yet even that comparison fails to convey the outrageous and sacrilegious impact of the blasts that killed scores of Iraqi Shia worshippers yesterday as they celebrated Ashoura, their most holy ritual of th

March 5, 2004

John Kerry: What His Record Says About Him

Gail Russell Chaddock, in the Christian Science Monitor (March 3, 2004):In high-profile probes, he's built a record that some see as grandstanding, others as boring in on core questions. One criticism of John Kerry's early Senate investigations was that, in his own words, they "looked at strange and nefarious types that people did not take seriously." On Oct. 24, 1991, that rap ended. On the other side of the witness ta

March 5, 2004

Bush and Kerry Offer the American People the Starkest Contrast Since Hoover and FDR

Liz Marlantes, Noel Paul, and Sara B. Miller, writing for the Christian Science Monitor (Boston, MA) (March 4, 2004)Kerry and Bush will bring different styles, ideologies, and issues to a divisive race. With the matchup between Sen. John Kerry and President Bush now assured, the stage is set for what observers believe could rank among the most classic - and potentially divisive - confrontations in dec