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The first presidential and only vice-presidential debates of 1996 took place. The consensus on one was that Clinton made no mistakes and that Dole did better than expected, but not well enough to make up ground. The consensus on the other was that Gore won on points, though reviewers didn't care for his patronizing tone. Kemp got the worst reviews of the four. "Ill-prepared," with "windiness and obscure references" (Dan Balz of the Washington Post) and "a Nixonian sweat" (Tom Shales). Both debates were deemed boring. The Post's David Broder called Clinton-Dole "a lesson in civics and civility ... helping politics regain its good name," but a CNN reporter reflected the consensus: "It's almost enough to give civility a bad name." See S LATE's take on both debates. | | The main issue emerging from the debates was Dole's failure to attack Clinton's character. "Nothing against nice, but nice here has become softheaded," objected Bill Bennett, the editor of The Book of Virtues. Columnists waxed nostalgic for the surly Dole of 1988. Kemp declared it would be "beneath Bob Dole to go after anyone personally," but Dole hinted that he would do so in the second and last debate Wednesday. "Dole Campaign in Discord Over Attacking President," was Friday's New York Times headline. Some reporters noted with relief that Dole had, at least (echoing George Bush in 1992), called Clinton "Bozo." |
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| A new Clinton scandal poked its nose over the horizon. This one involves campaign contributions by U.S. representatives of an Asian conglomerate called the Lippo Group. The Wall Street Journal news section, which broke the story, played it as an illustration of loopholes in the law. The Journal's editorial page saw something more sinister. And William Safire labeled it point-blank as "selling influence to rich aliens."Journal editorialists and Safire both exuded despair about getting anybody interested. |
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| At the first game of the American League playoffs, between the New York Yankees and the Baltimore Orioles, a 12-year-old boy reached out and grabbed a fly ball hit by a Yankee batter as an Orioles outfielder waited below to catch it. The umpire declared a home run and the Yankees won, 5-4, although the consensus outside New York was that the call was wrong (and even the ump admitted to having second thoughts). New Yorkers and national TV shows declared the boy a hero. Sports commentators connected the episode with last week's spitting on an umpire by Baltimore's Roberto Alomar (also condemned by Gore in the debate) and lamented that baseball has once again proven itself ethically obtuse. |
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Yasser Arafat warned Palestinians to prepare for "all possibilities" after a week of no progress in talks with Israel over the latter's promised withdrawal from Hebron. The New York Times said "it was evident that [Arafat] was warning of further travails and perhaps violence." Earlier in the week, Arafat had an upbeat meeting with Israeli President Ezer Weizman, in which he said he had instructed Palestinian police never to shoot at Israeli soldiers. Israel's Labor Party accused Prime Minister Netanyahu of steering the country toward bloody confrontation with the Arabs. Netanyahu charged that Labor Party leaders had "attacked the government" while "Israel Defense Forces were at the height of battle" with Palestinians. | | The Supreme Court opened its fall term. Among the hot topics on the agenda were Paula Jones' lawsuit against President Clinton, free speech on the Internet, "English only" laws, and assisted suicide. The Los Angeles Times described the court as liberal on civil liberties but conservative on criminals' rights, with a "new Democrat" influence from Clinton appointees Ginsburg and Breyer. The New York Times emphasized the court's preference for state authority over federal. Gossip focused on Justice Scalia's new beard, the first facial hair on the court in more than half a century. During the past year, as Clinton's re-election prospects have improved, Chief Justice Rehnquist has been touting his recovery from chronic back pain. |
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| The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility for two car bombs that injured 31 people at a British army base in Northern Ireland. The IRA refuses to resume its previous cease-fire until it is admitted to peace talks. The British and Irish governments refuse to admit the IRA to the talks until it resumes its cease-fire. |
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| The honeymoon is over for the Muslim fundamentalist Taleban regime in Afghanistan. Educated, liberal middle-class professionals are fleeing the capital, Kabul, which was recently occupied by the Taleban. Two military chieftains in the country's north, apparently backed by Russia, formed an alliance and pledged to establish a nonfundamentalist opposition. One of the chieftains launched a successful surprise attack on Taleban forces, shattering the widespread view that the war was over and the Taleban had won. U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali threatened to cut off aid to the country if the Taleban continued to violate the United Nations' "gender equality" policy. The New York Times and Washington Post also lectured the Taleban on women's rights. A 26-year-old mullah who sits on the Taleban's ruling council replied that Muslims hadn't trimmed their principles in 1,400 years and weren't about to start now. The mullah said that Afghan women are pleased with the new restrictions, which forbid them from working, going to school, and exposing their eyes in public. |
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Russian security chief Alexander Lebed accelerated his campaign to succeed ailing President Boris Yeltsin. Lebed visited NATO headquarters in Belgium and denied that he was hostile to the West. Yeltsin surfaced on the radio to advise rivals for his job "not to rearrange the portraits on the wall" just yet. A new poll found that 40 percent of Russians named Lebed as a politician they trust--not an overwhelming show of support, but more than twice that for any other politician. The Washington Post anointed Lebed "by far the front-running candidate" and inferred that the political establishment's attacks on him may actually be endearing him to the public. Meanwhile, in another Kremlin shake-up, Yeltsin fired his tennis coach from the state sports committee. | | A book out this week concludes that male primates are born killers. Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence by Harvard anthropologist Richard Wrangham and science writer Dale Peterson describes a species of great ape known as the bonobo, among whom peace prevails only because females make the laws. "The cultural lesson from this is obvious," writes Time's Jeffrey Kluger. "Power sharing between the sexes may make not just political sense but evolutionary sense as well." The New York Times' Christopher Lehmann-Haupt derives a slightly different moral precept: "[O]ur dilemma as they depict it is classically tragic, and the only way out is through the application of rigorously self-conscious human intelligence." |
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| More book news: Scott Turow published his fourth courtroom thriller, The Law of Our Fathers. It is more earnestly psychological than any of his previous novels. One critic dubbed it "The Big Chill meets Perry Mason," quoting a character in the book. Reviews were mixed. In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani called it "programmatic."Time's Paul Gray said that "Turow's usually strong hand loses some grip."American Spectator contributor David Brock published his biography, The Seduction of Hillary Rodham, and went on CNN to argue that his was a favorable, "understanding portrait." In an upcoming New York Times review, James Stewart (Blood Sport) calls Brock an apologist for Hillary. Writing last week, S |
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LATE's Jacob Weisberg called the pro-Hillary posture "disingenuous."| Miscellaneous: A poll found that by a 2-1 margin, Americans don't want their kids to grow up to be president. (One reason: They think the president has less influence than journalists do.) Merging officially with Time Warner this week, Turner Broadcasting System targeted the son of its chairman for downsizing. "You're toast," Ted told his son. The director of 4-H clubs in Iowa objected to a state GOP platform plank that accuses the clubs of promoting homosexuality and socialism. A junior-high-school student was suspended in Houston for bringing a bottle of Advil to school, while a girl was allowed to return to class in Ohio after being expelled for giving a classmate a Midol tablet. (See S LATE's comment on Midol-gate.) |
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| --Compiled by William Saletan and the editors of S LATE. |
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Photographs of Jack Kemp and Al Gore by Colin Braley/Reuters; photograph of Yasser Arafat by Rula Halawani/Reuters; photograph of Alexander Lebed by Yves Herman/Reuters
