William Katz: Urgent Agenda
SNIPPETS, our daily collection of short items and comments, is here.
---------------------------------------------
BARACK OBAMA'S FIRST HUNDRED DAYS is on hiatus until after the conventions. We've gone through the first 50 days. The conventions and the launch of the fall campaign will provide new material, new absurdities, and allow us to finish the first 100 days just before the election.
An archive containing the first 50 days is here.
---------------------------------------------
Our next subscription drive will be in October. However, readers are invited to subscribe at any time. Subscriptions are voluntary, but are critical to keeping us going. Subscribe in the right-hand column.
--------------------------------------------
We have a remarkable week coming up - The GOP convention, and the challenge of handling a major Gulf hurricane. The key: How John McCain and Sarah Palin accept their party's nominations while showing leadership in Hurricane Gustav. We'll be blogging all week.
SUNDAY, AUGUST 31, 2008
STUNNER: A NEW CNN POLL JUST OUT, AND TAKEN OVER THE LAST THREE DAYS, SHOWS OBAMA WITH ONLY A ONE-POINT LEAD. THE BOUNCE HAS STOPPED AND THE BALL IS ROLLING DOWN THE HILL.
PALIN POWER
Posted at 11:42 p.m. ET
We're back now after visiting West Point for the season-closing concert of the U.S. Military Academy Concert Band, and the Jazz Knights. You haven't lived until you've heard the Concert Band play the "1812 Overture" with live Army cannon providing the effects, and fireworks bursting overhead. We've gone every year for years, and you never tire of the performance.
Earlier in the evening I was able to listen to part of the John Batchelor Show on ABC radio. He interviewed Mona Charen and John Fund, who are covering the Republican convention. Two points from those interviews:
- Sarah Palin has electrified the Republican Party, and money is pouring in. Even conservative giant James Dobson, who has millions of listeners to his radio program, has now endorsed McCain, an endorsement he'd previously withheld. Aside from money, the new enthusiasm for the McCain ticket should bring in voters who might have stayed home. That could translate into important percentage points at the polls.
- Second point. John Fund articulated what many of us feel when he said that Barack Obama is the most non-transparent and secretive candidate we've had since Richard M. Nixon. Charles Krauthammer said something similar earlier in the week when he described Obama as "the stranger." And Fund pointed out what we've been stressing here - that the mainstream media simply will not ask the questions of Obama that it asks others routinely. He noted that John McCain has released thousands of pages of medical records, but that Barack Obama has released precisely one.
The major network anchors are now rushing to the Gulf Coast to cover the storm. Not to worry. Even if they try to avoid the GOP convention, they can't. McCain is handling the situation with sensitivity and competence, and that may do him more goods than a lot of ribbons and balloons.
August 31, 2008. Permalink 
DUMMIES WE
Posted at 2:37 pm. ET
Dean Barnett has an excellent piece in The Weekly Standard, examining how the Democrats are likely to assault Sarah Palin. Very perceptive, I think:
In 1981, former Harry Truman consigliere and LBJ Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford memorably labeled the new Republican sheriff in town an "amiable dunce." At the time, Clifford was the living embodiment of the Washington establishment, and his glib analysis showed that while you can find the occasional memorable phrase on the D.C. cocktail circuit, facile conclusions delight the crowd more than serious inquiry.
And...
However obtuse, Clifford's summation of Reagan sat on the cutting edge of a new school of political partisanship. Starting with Gerald Ford, the inside-the-beltway class and its amplifiers in the media have routinely decided that Republicans who seek national office are dullards. Literally every Republican candidate for president since 1980 has had his intellect belittled.
That is correct. It's remarkable that many Democrats still refer to Reagan as "stupid," and regard the current president, who reads widely, as intellectually stunted. He is not. This really began, though, not with Ford, but with Eisenhower, one of the most thoughtful men ever to hold the presidency. Democrats sneered at him as a simpleton and an "Army man."
Of course, no such scrutiny greets Democratic candidates. Barack Obama can't make it through a 30 second extemporaneous statement on his campaign bus without a profusion of "ums" and "ahs." And yet Obama's stumbling diction has yet to interest his worshippers in the press the way that George H.W. Bush's periodic wrestling matches with the English language did.
But, dearies, our Barack is simply searching for the precise word, the way a true intellect would. Don't you understand that?
Because it's difficult to argue that Barack Obama has more experience or has achieved greater accomplishments than Palin, the Democrats are left to fall back on their old Obama standby--Judgment. As Judgment is applied in the Obama context, it means Obama can serve as president because he's extremely intelligent.
And went to the right schools, too, not like that Alaska person.
So in order to bring down Palin, her malefactors on the left will have to argue a lack of "readiness," which with the thinly credentialed Obama on the other ticket can only serve as a shorthand for lack of intelligence. Chances are, ink-stained wretches are plumbing Palin's every past public utterance desperately seeking the evidence that proves she too is an amiable dunce. Of course, any misstatement on the campaign trail will serve as prima facie proof of her dim intellect.
And...
In spite of her many and notable self-made successes, an entire intellectual industry has already sprouted up with the sole intention of proving that she's a moron. The left wants to Quayle-ize her, and their efforts to do so won't be half-hearted.
I'm afraid that's correct. But there's good news...
She controls how the American people will come to view her much more than they do. There's a reason her excellent speech on Friday set off such a firestorm of rage and irrational hissy-fits on the left. Speaking directly to the American people, Palin cut an attractive and intelligent figure. Regardless of the left's anger, the American people will believe their own eyes rather than a frustrated blogger's or haughty anchorman's blustery "analysis."
When Clark Clifford toured the D.C. cocktail party circuit with his "amiable dunce" assessment of Ronald Reagan, most of the assembled sippers agreed. History proved them wrong. But that's not what really has the left rattled as they set off in pursuit of Sarah Palin. The American people knew Ronald Reagan was no dunce long before the Clark Cliffords of Washington admitted as much.
Well said. Read the piece.
August 31, 2008. Permalink
TRACKERS
Posted at 1:49 p.m. ET
Both trackers for Sunday are now out, and both show a slight erosion in support for Obama.
As reported earlier, Rasmussen has Obama up three points. He had him up four yesterday.
Gallup has Obama up six. He was up eight yesterday.
It's clear that whatever bounce Obama received from his convention has stopped bouncing.
But let me point out that Obama is still ahead. Although he received less-than-expected momentum from his convention, he didn't lose anything there either. Those of us supporting McCain should be sobered by the fact that McCain has rarely been ahead in this race, and then only by a point or two.
It remains to be seen whether McCain will improve his standing at this week's GOP convention, which may be modified because of Hurricane Gustav.
It's also clear that the initial reaction to Sarah Palin has been very positive, especially among conservatives. Look for Democrats, probably led by some leftist feminists, to mount a full-scale attack against her. The press will help out, with enthusiasm. It will get ugly. Obama is not a "new" kind of politician. In fact, he's standard issue, with a silver tongue. The Chicago machine did not teach him how to wage a fair fight.
The election is still more than two months away. Everything can change.
August 31, 2008. Permalink
POLITICAL UPDATE AT 12:26 P.M. ET: From The Politico: Democrats have come up with a new line of attack line against John McCain's running mate Sarah Palin, saying she's another Dick Cheney. Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) described Palin as a member of the "flat-earth caucus," who McCain picked purely to please the conservative base.
COMMENT: Real imaginative, especially having John Kerry carry the ball. Is the Democratic death wish, previously demonstrated by Kerry's own nomination, coming back? Apparently so.
BULLETIN, AT 9:37 A.M. ET: First tracker is out. Rasmussen has Obama up three. Yesterday Ras had him up four. The one-point difference is not critical. The key point is that the Obama convention bounce has apparently been stopped, possibly by the naming of Sarah Palin. Rasmussen notes that this is the same lead Obama had going into his convention.
And Rasmussen reports the following: "There have been significant changes in perception of John McCain in the two days of polling since he named Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Since then, 49% of Republicans voice a Very Favorable opinion of McCain. That’s up six percentage points from 43% just before the announcement. Also, 64% of unaffiliated voters now give positive reviews to McCain, up ten points since naming his running mate."
STORM UPDATE, 8:54 A.M. ET: Would you please read this, from the AP: "NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- As dawn broke Sunday over a city under siege, bumper-to-bumper traffic was reported in nearly every direction as residents heeded orders to flee an only partially rebuilt New Orleans."
Really? Every direction? Don't you usually head out of the city when fleeing? Does anyone read AP stories before they're put on the wire?
We'll check and tell you which way the traffic is going. Shouldn't take much.
THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Posted at 8:47 a.m. ET
"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain." Wasn't that the line from "The Wizard of Oz?"
Apparently, the Obama campaign has learned it well. Have you noticed that virtually everything the opposition brings up is called a "distraction" by the Obama camp? Rev. Wright? Distraction. Bill Ayers? Distraction. Connection to a Chicago criminal? Distraction.
Now we have the mother of all distractions. Behold:
WASHINGTON, Pa. — Republican John McCain showed off his vice presidential running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, in this key battleground state Saturday as Democratic rival Barack Obama's campaign aired a new TV ad urging voters not be distracted by McCain putting a woman on the GOP ticket.
Nothing to see, folks. Nothing to see. Move along, please. Pay no attention to that woman on the ticket.
Obama and running mate Joe Biden, meanwhile, stumped in Ohio Saturday. At the same time, their campaign unveiled a 30-second national TV ad that says McCain's selection of Palin should not obscure the fact that McCain candidacy represents a continuation of President Bush's policies.
"So, while this may be his running mate," an announcer says with a photo of Palin on the screen, "America knows this is McCain's agenda." The visual then switches to a shot of McCain and Bush. "We can't afford four more years of the same."
Fellas, this is getting tiresome. George Bush isn't on the ballot.
What is remarkable about this ad, and other aspects of the Obama campaign, is the contempt that is shown for the American people. Don't the Obamacans realize that people know that McCain is very much his own man? Don't they realize that Americans know, especially after her Friday speech, that Sarah Palin isn't running to advance the Bush administration?
Simply calling Palin another distraction reveals a campaign that is tired and stale. And why shouldn't it be? The Obama campaign is remarkably lacking in substance or originality. The Palin pick caught them off guard. They responded with a patronizing cliché. You know, they could lose this.
August 31, 2008. Permalink
THE AGONY OF THE MEDIA
Posted at 7:46 a.m. ET
Decisions, decisions. What to do, what to do?
I feel the media's pain as it decides which is more important this week, the hurricane or the convention. Just the anguish in their hearts moves me. Do read the report of their suffering at The Politico:
On Saturday evening, CNN broadcast Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s campaign appearance on an Ohio football field, with the live feed taking up roughly three-quarters of viewers’ television screens.
But it was the more ominous, unfolding news story taking up the remaining sliver that’s more likely on the minds of media executives and top editors: the path of Hurricane Gustav.
When asked about the focus of his network’s coverage this week, David Bohrman, CNN’s senior vice president for programming, had more questions than answers: “Is it a hurricane? Is it the convention? Or is it a blend of the two?”
Either way, the storm is already having an impact on news organizations still moving sizeable teams from Denver to St. Paul, Minn.
Anderson Cooper, whose television breakthrough occurred while covering Hurricane Katrina three years ago, is CNN’s first big star to change flight plans from St. Paul to New Orleans. Bohrman said he’s coordinating CNN’s convention coverage with the expectation that Cooper will not be in the Twin Cities on Monday.
Believe me, this is complete dry rot. Remember something called World War II? There was a war in Europe, and there was a war in the Pacific. And there was war at hundreds of spots in between.
And, amazing, the whole war got covered.
News organizations have the resources, either individually or through pools, to cover both stories. But I do suspect (why is this?) that some news outlets look forward to minimizing or even blotting out the Republican convention. For them, this really is the perfect storm. Okay, that's terribly harsh. But we now know that a number of "journalists" stood and applauded Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Denver Thursday night. That is outrageously unprofessional behavior. So excuse me if I attribute less-than-professional motives to some other journalists. They embarrass my profession.
The Republicans may modify or even put off their convention. McCain is now surrounded by first-class strategists, and they have the ability to turn this sad disruption into an advantage. Yes, that's political calculation in the face of tragedy, but that is what strategists are paid to do. Even if the midst of major war, elections are held and strategists plan.
So watch what the candidates do this week if the hurricane hits hard. And watch how the news media handle the balance between Republicans and weather.
August 31, 2008. Permalink
SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 2008
UPDATE AT 11:56 P.M. ET: We're calling this an update rather than a bulletin because I have questions about the methodology, and it's a report from Zogby, which has an unsteady history. Zogby is reporting at this hour that John McCain's naming of Sarah Palin has shattered the bump that Obama received from his convention. Zogby has McCain/Palin ahead of Obama/Biden, 47-45. Let us hope it's true, or at least that we're heading in the right direction. Still, a tough fight ahead.
BULLETIN AT 10:15 P.M. ET: We take absolutely no credit for this, despite our recommendation in the update below. It's a coincidence: From AP, eight minutes ago: ST. PAUL, Minn. - Likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain and his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, are traveling to Mississippi on Sunday to check on people getting prepared for Hurricane Gustav. Their trip comes just as delegates are preparing for the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday.
UPDATE AT 9:24 P.M. ET: From the Washington Post: ST. PAUL -- Republicans grimly monitored the progress of Hurricane Gustav today, with presumptive GOP nominee John McCain himself raising the prospect of some kind of alternative plan for the Republican convention if it appears the storm is landing early next week with the kind of force Hurricane Katrina had when it smashed into the Gulf Coast three years ago.
In an interview to air on "FOX News Sunday," McCain said that holding the convention while Gulf Coast residents suffer would be insensitive.
COMMENT: The McCain people are on the ball. I hope McCain sends Sarah Palin to Louisiana to render assistance. He might consider going himself. Louisiana has a great governor in Bobby Jindal. This won't be Katrina...unless the press makes it into Katraina to help its candidate.
THE EXPERIENCE FACTOR
Posted at 6:45 p.m. ET
The "experience" factor has come to the fore again with John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin to be his running mate. There is anguish. There is regret. There are predictions of a backlash. That childish woman in our White House.
Even The Politico, liberal but usually restrained, ran a hit piece quoting "scholars" as saying that Palin has fewer qualifications than any major-party candidate, maybe in all of human history.
Reality check: No one doubts there are legitimate questions about Palin's experience, but I'm surprised that no one is examining the role that experience plays in voters' decisions. In fact, it often plays a very small role.
In 1932, incumbent and vastly experienced Herbert Hoover was defeated by one-term Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, because of the depression.
In 1952, politically experienced Governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois was defeated by war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower, who'd never held political office.
In 1960, former congressman, senator, and incumbent Vice President Richard Nixon, running on the slogan, "Experience counts," was defeated by the much-less-experienced John F. Kennedy.
In 1976, heavily experienced and incumbent President Gerald R. Ford was defeated by former Georgia Governor Jimmah Carter, who'd never held federal office.
In 1980, incumbent President Carter was defeated by former California Governor Ronald Reagan, who'd never held federal office.
In 1992, the resumé president, George H.W. Bush, one of the most experienced men ever to hold the presidency, was defeated by Bill Clinton, governor of a small state, who'd never held federal office.
In 2000, Vice President and former Senator Al Gore was defeated by the less experienced George W. Bush, who'd never held federal office.
And, need we point out, that 2008 has the vastly experienced John S. McCain running against Chicago machine product Barack Obama, a man whose experience can fit on the thin edge of a falsified voter-registration card. Let's hope that this time the voters choose the more experienced presidential candidate.
August 30, 2008. Permalink
THE OTHER WOMAN
Posted at 2:24 p.m. ET
HEADLINE OF THE DAY, FROM THE NEW YORK POST: 'HILL' HATH NO FURY LIKE A WOMAN SCORNED.
And the story:
DENVER - Hillary's got to be seething.
Picking political unknown Sarah Palin for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket is opening old wounds for Barack Obama and the Democrats, a top adviser for Hillary Rodham Clinton said yesterday.
"There is much we don't know about Governor Palin," former Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson said.
"But at least in the short term, it will shake up the race, and leave some asking why Senator Obama didn't pick Senator Clinton to be his veep."
Open those wounds, open those wounds!
Clinton's reaction was congratulatory - if perfunctory.
"We should all be proud of Governor Sarah Palin's historic nomination, and I congratulate her and Senator McCain," she said in a statement. "While their policies would take America in the wrong direction, Governor Palin will add an important new voice to the debate."
Former vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to garner the nomination - as a Democrat - came out in support of Palin.
"Without Hillary being the nominee, it's really quite equally as important," Ferraro, a disgruntled supporter of Clinton during the Democratic primary, wrote on a Fox News blog yesterday.
"There are a lot of women who are disaffected by how Hillary was treated by the media, by how she was treated by the Obama campaign . . . not speaking up when sexism raised its ugly head in the media."
First reaction to Palin by voters appears to be very positive, despite the legitimate "experience" question. It's a gamble, but it may well pay off, especially if Palin does brilliantly at the convention.
August 30, 2008. Permalink
TRACKERS
Posted at 1:28 p.m ET
Both trackers for the day are now out, and both show no change from yesterday. That is not good news for Senator Obama. Theoretically, at least, his bounce from the convention should still be building.
As reported earlier, Rasmussen has Obama up four.
Gallup has him up eight.
Did Sarah Palin stop the Obama bounce? Both tracking polls included results from last night, after McCain announced his choice of Palin. With caution, it appears there was an effect. However, we'll get a far better idea of her impact as the Republican convention unfolds this week.
If this is the maximum bounce, it must be disappointing to the Obama side. Averaging the two polls, Obama gets a six-point boost. He needed double digits to do some real damage to McCain.
This will be a close, exciting, and critical election.
August 30, 2008. Permalink
BULLETIN AT 9:32 A.M. ET: First tracker of the day is out. Rasmussen shows no change from yesterday, with Obama up four points. That's not much of a bounce. Obviously, we will have to await the Gallup tracker this afternoon, and other new polls.
Just as significant, Rasmussen reports that Sarah Palin has made a strong first impression, with 53 percent of those polled viewing her favorably. By contrast, 48 percent view Joe Biden favorably. Not bad for one day. Not bad at all.
EYES AND EARS OF THEMSELVES
Journalists love to boast that they're the "eyes and ears" of the public. They are not, as I found out in my years in the business. They are the eyes and ears of themselves. No one elected them. They were not appointed by a body of our representatives to extend our eyes and ears. The questions they ask are not ours, but theirs. Their views, as a profession, decidedly do not reflect the divisions in public opinion.
Lawrence Spivak, who co-founded "Meet the Press," used to caution viewers that the questions asked by reporters on the show did not necessarily reflect their point of view, but was "their way of getting a story for you." Such cautions are rare today, and in too many cases would probably be laughable.
So it's not surprising to see the mainstream media go to work on Sarah Palin. Consider this, from the reliably liberal Jonathan Alter of Newsweek:
Reporters are already winging their way to Alaska to probe what Alaskans call "Wootengate," the story of the dismissal of former Public Safety commissioner Walt Monegan, who says he was pressured to dismiss state trooper Mike Wooten. Wooten was engaged in a nasty custody fight with his ex-wife, who is Palin's sister. As soon as Palin was selected, the Web was already buzzing with Monegan's claims that Palin is lying about her role in the personnel matter. And the beautifully named Steve Branchflower, the special counsel appointed by the state legislature to probe the mess, has opened a tip line for Alaskans who might know if the governor and possible vice president of the United States abused her power.
What strikes me is the obvious enthusiasm here. The same mainstream media that ignored for months, or years, serious questions about Barack Obama, cannot wait to jump on Sarah Palin. And when Joe Biden was selected as Obama's vice-presidential choice last week, did you see a single probing report on his foreign-policy judgment in his 36 years in the Senate? We were told he was a foreign-policy expert, and it was left at that. In fact, many of Biden's judgments are open to the most serious questions, but those questions are not being asked. Indeed, if Biden's advice had been followed, the Cold War would still be raging and Saddam Hussein would be running Kuwait.
Or consider this, from today's editorial in The New York Times:
Governor Palin’s lack of experience, especially in national security and foreign affairs, raises immediate questions about how prepared she is to potentially succeed to the presidency. That really is the only criteria for judging a candidate for vice president.
Is that a serious statement? Has The Times raised the same question about the top of the Democratic ticket, one Barack Obama? His experience consists of some trips and some offhand remarks, such as declaring Iran a small country, or pledging to end missile defense. And he won't have to "succeed" to the presidency. If elected, he'll be there. Further, he's surrounded himself with some of the worst foreign-policy retreads we've seen in decades. Comment from The Times, please? (Oh, and by the way, New York Times, the word is "criterion" when a singular is called for, not "criteria." To avoid confusion, use "standard.")
We've expressed our fear here that the media can elect Barack Obama by the way it filters the news. We're seeing more proof of that threat in the initial response to Sarah Palin.
August 30, 2008. Permalink
THE REFORMER
Posted at 8:41 a.m. ET
Ed Lasky of American Thinker alerts us to a Wall Street Journal piece outlining the reform background of Sarah Palin. She reinforces the reform image that McCain seeks for his campaign, and she's an antidote to Joe six-Senate-terms Biden, the consummate Washington hand:
If any doubt remained that former fighter pilot John McCain loves to take unconventional risks, he put them to bed Friday by picking Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. Introduced in Dayton by Mr. McCain, Governor Palin swung the bat pretty well. We'll now see if she can hit curve balls.
It's a daring pick because Mrs. Palin has never faced national scrutiny and hasn't had to deal with foreign policy. Most VP choices are designed to do no harm, and we tend to agree with the maxim. Democrats are already saying they can't wait for Mrs. Palin's debate against "statesman" Joe Biden. On the other hand, the record shows that Sarah Palin's political career is a case study in taking on the big boys. We suspect her record of fighting the status quo was uppermost in John McCain's decision.
And...
Sarah Palin's reform resume would be remarkable in any political career. She entered politics at 28, winning a seat on the Wasilla city council as an opponent of tax increases. After she defeated Wasilla's three-term incumbent mayor four years later, she swept the mayor's cronies out of the bureaucracy.
In 2003, Alaska Governor Frank Murkowski appointed her to the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Bear in mind that Mr. Murkowski had already served as junior U.S. Senator from Alaska for 22 years. Mr. Murkowski was junior senator for so long because Senator Ted Stevens (who was recently indicted for corruption) had lifetime tenure in the senior post.
Shortly after joining the oil and gas commission, Mrs. Palin commenced an ethics probe of the state's Republican party chairman, Randy Ruedrich, involving conflicts of interest with oil companies. The probe resulted in a $12,000 fine for the party chair.
She crossed party lines in 2004 to join a Democratic representative's ethics complaint over an international trade deal against the Republican Attorney General Gregg Renkes, who had ties to the Murkowski machine. Mr. Renkes resigned.
Do not get on the wrong side of this woman. There are health hazards.
Experience?
For starters, we'd say Governor Palin's credentials as an agent of reform exceed Barack Obama's. Mr. Obama rose through the Chicago Democratic machine without a peep of push-back. Alaska's politics are deeply inbred and backed by energy-industry money. Mr. Obama slid past the kind of forces that Mrs. Palin took head on. This is one reason her selection -- despite its campaign risks -- seems to have been so well received by Republicans yesterday. They are looking for a new generation of leaders.
Don't expect this remarkable personal Palin narrative to get an Obama-like break from the national media. Their main focus will be her lack of experience, claiming it undercuts Mr. McCain's criticism of Barack Obama. One mispronounced foreign leader's name, and she's going to be hammered.
Finally...
Senator Obama's acceptance speech made it clear that his campaign strategy is pegged to linking Mr. McCain to the Beltway Republicans and the struggling economy. It's a powerful argument, and John McCain needs an answer to Mr. Obama's list of Democratic bromides. The vulnerability in the Obama plan is there's little in it that is new. He'd mostly replace one status quo with an earlier status quo of government spending schemes. Joe Biden is no help on that.
Mr. McCain's instinct clearly is to offer himself to voters as a reformer. With Sarah Palin, a genuine reformer, Mr. McCain may have found the right idea and the right person to make his run.
She'll have to steel herself against attacks by the press, which will become increasingly strident if she catches on. But she strikes us as strong and gutsy, and she has a chance to emerge as an American hero.
August 30, 2008. Permalink
"What you see is news. What you know is background. What you feel is opinion."
- Lester Markel, late Sunday editor
of The New York Times.
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
Subscriptions to URGENT AGENDA are voluntary. Why subscribe to something you're getting free? To help guarantee that you'll continue to get it at all. Subscriptions sustain us. Payments are through PayPal and are secure, but you do not have to sign up for a PayPal account. Credit cards are fine.
FOR A ONE-YEAR ($48) SUBSCRIPTION, CLICK:
FOR A SIX-MONTH ($26) SUBSCRIPTION, CLICK:
IF YOU DON'T WISH A SET SUBSCRIPTION, BUT PREFER TO DONATE ANY OTHER AMOUNT TO SUSTAIN URGENT AGENDA, CLICK:
SEARCH URGENT AGENDA:
POWER LINE:
It's a privilege for me to post periodic pieces at Power Line. To go to Power Line, click here.
To link to my Power Line pieces, go here.
THE CURRENT QUESTION
This space will regularly raise questions that relate to the news, but transcend daily headlines. The idea is to stimulate talk about basic issues. Our last question asked:
Last week we asked,
What do you think will be the single greatest crisis facing the new president in his first month in office?
You can view the answers here.
What would you like to see President Bush accomplish in his last five months in office?
If you'd like to send us your thoughts, click:
response@urgentagenda.com
(Please stay within two or three paragraphs. We try to print every reply, if space allows. Place your name at the end of the message if you wish your name published. This question will stay up through Sunday.)
CONTACT:
YOU CAN E-MAIL US, AS FOLLOWS:
If you have wonderful things to say about this site, if it makes you a better person, please click:
applause@urgentagenda.com
If you have a general comment on anything you see here, or on anything else that's topical, please click:
comments@urgentagenda.com
If you must say something obnoxious, something that will embarrass you and disgrace your loving family, click:
despicable@urgentagenda.com
If you required subscription service, please click:
service@urgentagenda.com
FAVORITE SITES (List will grow)
Power Line
Faster Please (Michael Ledeen)
OpinionJournal.com
Hudson Institute
Bookworm Room
Bill Bennett
Red State
Pajamas Media
Michelle Malkin
Diana West
The Weekly Standard
The New York Sun
Real Clear Politics
The Corner
City Journal
Gateway Pundit
American Thinker