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Commentaries for the Week of February 25, 2002 |
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Week of 08/05/2002
Week of 05/20/2002
Week of 05/13/2002
Week of 04/22/2002
Week of 04/08/2002
Week of 04/01/2002
Week of 03/25/2002
Week of 03/18/2002
Week of 03/04/2002
Let Doyle be Doyle
Week of 02/25/2002
Put Rhinos in Rochester
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Recently I talked about George W. Bush’s standing in the polls. Actually, soaring’s more like it: at or above 80 percent approval for the last five months. If you’re a Republican, so far, so good -- but what’s it mean for this year’s election? Hard to say -- but not now hard to read. If Election Day were now, GOPers would be riding high.
Last April, Democrats had a 36-33 percent lead in party identification, according to the Battleground Poll. Republicans now lead, 40-35. Three years ago, the poll asked Americans who could best keep us prosperous. The GOP fronted by six points. Now it’s 17. Democrats once had an 18-point led on improving education. The GOP now leads by 7.
Try this on: Who can best handle a terrorist threat? Republicans, 60-15. Foreign affairs: Republicans, 57 to 26 percent. A similar Pew Research Center poll asked about checking terrorism at home: Voters chose the GOP, 48-18. Finally, check the Clintonometer. Who best represents your views on family, morality, responsibility, and honesty? Republicans, 5 to 1. Thanks, Bill. We needed that.
None of this guarantees an ‘02 GOP sweep. It does suggest that the out party may not gain. Politics, it is said, should stop at the water’s edge. This year, U.S. politics involve the world.
For a moment, recall 1954’s film “On the Waterfront.” Director: Elia Kazan. Star: Marlon Brando. Enduring line: “I could’a been somebody. I could’a been a contender.” So it is this year among Democrats for Governor.
The incumbent, Republican George Pataki, will surely be renominated. His opponent: Two contenders and would-be somebodies Andrew Cuomo and Carl McCall. Cuomo was a Bill Clinton Cabinet Secretary. He is also Mario’s son. Pataki thinks that a curse, noting the mess he inherited from Cuomo pere. McCall saves his vitriol for Cuomo fils. “My experience,” says the state comptroller, “shows the kind of Governor I would be.”
Recently, daddy dearest entered the fray. There he went again -- never meeting an attack he didn’t like. First, he scorched McCall. “I don’t think a resume of a lot of political jobs is going to win the governor’s job.” Cuomo forgot to mention his own job-filled resume. Then, he inferred he was responsible for much of McCall’s career.
Cuomo picked McCall, now attacks him. What does that say about the former Governor? Second, does he really think the legendary Cuomo meanness will rescue his son? One reason Pataki pants to run against Cuomo Jr. is the state’s abiding animus toward his father. Something for daddy to remember as his son tries to be more than a contender.
Remember when Colin Powell was the Presidential flavor of the month. Liberals liked how he embodied diversity. Conservatives liked his skill abroad. A proverb says, “Be careful what you wish for.” We should be grateful we never got Colin Powell.
Powell has long backed abortion on demand. He also blasts his own party’s opposition to preferential treatment. Powell wants to end discrimination against minorities by expanding it against whites. Now he’s again dividing America. How? Trashing the GOP for promoting morality among youth.
Appearing on MTV, Powell was recently asked about the Catholic Church’s opposition to condom use. The Secretary of State answered: “I encourage their use among young people who are sexually active.” He continued, “It’s important to forget about taboos, forget about conservative ideas with respect to what you shouldn’t tell young people.”
My response? MTV embodies trash on parade: Powell gives it legitimacy. The Pope and President Bush promote abstinence: Powell thinks it passe. Powell is trashing conservatives who forge the GOP base: Brilliant. Finally, think about what he’s saying: It’s OK for kids to be tramps. Just make sure our tramps are safe.
Colin, we hardly knew ye. Actually, we’re coming to -- and grateful we didn’t get what many yearned for not so long ago.
Today let’s talk of buzz. Not the bumble bee’s. The tangible, oft inexplicable interest caused by a person or event. Take the Super Bowl. You don’t have to know football from bocce ball. If buzz is first minister, the Super Bowl is king.
By contrast, if soccer were a bee, its stinger would be kaput. Name the last time you heard soccer talk around the water cooler; goals, not touchdowns, dominating a bar; MLS, not NFL, kibitzing at school. It doesn’t happen. No buzz.
Baseball buzzes: Tradition sells. Hockey doesn’t -- except north of the border. Too bad: The sport links poetry and panache. Britney Spears flaunts buzz: What an awful mirror of our cesspool culture. Amy Grant doesn’t, but should: What a voice. Sadly, Madonna’s buzz fills a bee hive. Antipodal is bluegrass, which doesn’t buzz outside of devotees. Too quaint and decent for our slime-obsessed age.
Buzz demands hope, flash, exposure, and a modicum of talent. Historian Steven Ambrose has it. Authors you’ve never heard of don’t. Dennis Miller has it. Better men, and announcers, don’t.
Justice Potter Stewart said of pornography, “I can’t define it. But I know it when I see it.” This week look around. The same is true of buzz.
”One who loves you,” said Bob Hope’s wife Delores, “is worth ten who hate you.” Richard Nixon, on the other hand, said, “Fear is what moves people, not love. It’s not what they teach in Sunday school, but it’s true.” So who’s in the driver’s seat, and where’s he going? In the end, what matters? Love that moves mountains? Or hate that kills?
Last September, hate landed a fist-round knockout. Four planes acting as guided missiles. Thousands died -- for what? To pacify barbarians for whom life is fear -- of vision, kindness, exposure to a wider world. How could love compete? Quite quickly, as it happened.
Since September 11, America has been reborn. For now e pluribus unum -- out of many, one. Pettiness seems, well, even smaller than usual. We’ve relearned what Faulkner called “the old verities of the heart.” The blood that flowed was not black or white -- but red, white, and blue. Pray God we will never forget how our heroes died, and why.
They died for freedom -- of speech, press, religion -- freedom to petition, assemble, and redress. As much as anything, so that we could love -- our country, spouse, kids, lives. One who loves you? Ten who hate you? The former packs more punch.
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