Al Gore conceded the presidency, and George W. Bush accepted it. Both speeches emphasized national unity. Gore called Bush “the president-elect.” The White House gave Bush money for his transition. This follows the U.S. Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision overturning the Florida Supreme Court’s order to begin manual recounts in Florida. The GOP will control the presidency and both houses of Congress for the first time since the Eisenhower administration. (The Senate is divided 50-50, but Vice President Dick Cheney will break ties.) Gore’s spin: “We put country before party.” Bush’s spin: “I was not elected to serve one party, but to serve one nation.” Pundits’ spin: Gore was never so gracious—or endearing—as in defeat. President Clinton’s spin: Americans should support Bush “without rancor.” Dissenting spins: 1) Gore’s graciousness came at the expense of candor. 2) If Bush wants to be bipartisan, he should worry about his right wing, not the Dems. Speaker of the House’s spin: We’re going to start small with the tax cut. (To read Slate’s election coverage, click here.)
More teens are taking ecstasy, and fewer are smoking. The annual government survey of 45,000 representative youth found that ecstasy use last year increased from 1.7% to 3.1% of eighth-graders and from 5.6% to 8.2% percent of 12th-graders. (More teens now use ecstasy than cocaine.) Smoking continued its decline—levels are nearly where they were before an upsurge in the early ‘90s (7% of eighth-graders smoke daily; 21% of 12th-graders do). Other drug use—primarily cocaine and marijuana—remained constant (16% of eighth-graders and 37% of 12th-graders smoke pot). Researchers’ spins: 1) Ecstasy is too new for teens to grasp its dangers. It took a decade to reverse the cocaine craze in the late ‘70s. 2) Price increases, tobacco lawsuit publicity, a ban on billboard advertising, and killing Joe Camel have cumulatively reduced lighting up.
The government ruled that many insurance companies must cover birth control. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said insurance companies that pay for Viagra and vasectomies but not “comparable” benefits like female birth control violate civil rights laws. The ruling is not binding on courts but may influence coverage decisions by employers and insurance companies. Insurance companies’ spin: More regulations make coverage less affordable. Besides, Viagra cures a disorder; pregnancy is natural. EEOC’s spin: Many insurance companies cover Viagra for non-impotent men and cover male sterilization.
The Federal Trade Commission approved the America Online-Time Warner merger. The FTC extracted many concessions from the new company: 1) It must continue to offer Internet Service Providers other than America Online access to its high-speed cable lines (Time Warner controls a fifth of the U.S. cable market); 2) it must promote AOL’s DSL technology (an alternative to cable); and 3) it must give AOL customers access to non-Time Warner content. Approval by the Federal Communications Commission is expected soon. Skeptics’ spin: The new company is still a vertical monopolist, controlling content and access. (To read David Plotz on how the Washington establishment overlooked AOL, click here; to read an “Assessment” of Time Warner CEO Gerald Levin, click here; to read Moneybox on the merger, click here.)
Russia released a former U.S. naval officer sentenced to 20 years for espionage. President Vladimir Putin pardoned American businessman Edmund Pope, who was arrested in April for acquiring information about a Russian torpedo. Meanwhile, Putin visited Cuba and promised closer ties with the former Soviet ally. Putin’s spin: Pardoning Pope is humanitarian. (Besides, I don’t want to anger the U.S.) Congratulations, George W. Bush. (If you try to dominate the world, you will fail.)
S hortstop Alex Rodriguez will make a record $252 million over 10 years. Texas Rangers owner Tom Hicks (who bought the team three years ago for $250 million) will pay Rodriguez $23 million a year for the first three years—$5.5 million more per year than the current highest baseball salary and the richest total contract in professional sports. Sportswriters’ spin: Rodriguez is an excellent player, but far from the best. “This takes the French off the hook for the Louisiana Purchase.” Hicks’ spin: “A-Rod” will win us a championship. Skeptics’ spin: Basketball stars—like the Los Angeles Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal, who gets paid $25.5 million—can bring a team a championship, but Rodriguez can’t fix the Rangers’ poor pitching.
General Motors will phase out Oldsmobile. Sales of the longest-surviving nameplate in U.S. history have fallen from 1 million in the 1970s to 300,000 this year. GM will also reduce its American and European work force by 10 percent over several years. Analysts’ spin: Olds spent billions to update its stuffy image and target the younger, import-buying market, but “your father’s Oldsmobile” remained just that. Wall Street’s spin: Buy! (Click to see Olds models from the turn of the century, the teens and ‘20s, the ’30s and ‘40s, the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and current offerings; to read “Moneybox” on how Oldsmobile was a victim of its own brand, click here.)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak resigned, forcing a special election in February. His sudden reversal—he had earlier agreed to a general election in late spring— was seen as a legal maneuver to prevent former Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu from running. (The special election will be for prime minister only; because Netanyahu resigned his parliamentary seat after his defeat as prime minister in 1999, he can run for prime minister only while simultaneously running for parliament.) Netanyahu announced his candidacy anyway and will urge parliament either to make an exception for him or to dissolve, which would trigger a general election. Barak’s spin: The thought of preventing Bibi from running never crossed my mind. Netanyahu’s spin: Barak has been negotiating peace treaties without majority support. Now he wants to hold an undemocratic election. Israeli press’ spin: Barak has provoked a constitutional crisis to stay in power. “What are we, America?” (To read world reaction to Barak’s announcement in “International Papers,” click here; to read an “Assessment” of the Likud Party’s fallback candidate for prime minister, Ariel Sharon, click here.)
A Chilean appeals court dismissed kidnapping charges against former dictator Augusto Pinochet. The prosecution will appeal to the supreme court. Last week a judge indicted Pinochet for the disappearance of 19 prisoners in 1973 (shortly after he took power) and placed him under house arrest. Pinochet, who stepped down in 1990, was under house arrest in London from October 1998 to March 2000. The civilian government that succeeded him said 3,197 people disappeared or were killed under his rule. Pinochet’s spin: “As a former president of the republic, I accept all the facts that they say the army and the armed forces did.” Human-rights campaigns’ spin: Justice demands a trial. (The Explainer tells you how to pronounce “Pinochet” here; to read world reaction to his arrest in “International Papers,” click here; for Anne Applebaum’s take, click here.)
Yemen fingered two USS Cole suspects with links to Osama Bin Laden. But authorities have yet to find a “smoking gun” directly linking Bin Laden to the Oct. 12 bombing, which killed 17 sailors. The United States and Russia jointly asked the U.N. Security Council to tighten economic and travel sanctions on Afghanistan, which is harboring Bin Laden. Intelligence officials’ spin: It’s easy to prove links to Bin Laden—his organization has trained nearly every Afghan-born terrorist—but nearly impossible to prove direct orders for a bombing.
