Issue 1 is the presidential race–both Democratic and Republican. Issue 2 is Hillary Clinton’s failure to quickly denounce an assertion by Yasser Arafat’s wife that Israel had used poison gas on Palestinians.
Bill Bradley’s basketball buddies take to the airwaves to praise their candidate. Bradley’s former Knick roommate, Dave DeBusschere, tells Meet the Press (NBC) that the candidate was “very quiet, actually. But a wonderful roommate–a lot of fun to sit and discuss different things with.” On the same program, former Celtic Bob Cousy acknowledges that “old jocks don’t know a lot about the Balkans and the Middle East solutions or campaign finance reform.” Interviewed courtside at Madison Square Garden (the site of a fundraiser), Bill Bradley tells Late Edition (CNN) that his new campaign slogan is, “It Can Happen.”
The pundits are mildly surprised by Gore’s increasing lead over Bradley in New Hampshire. Mark Shields and Paul Gigot (both of PBS’s Newshour With Jim Lehrer), among others, conclude that Gore has “stopped the hemorrhaging” in his campaign. Tucker Carlson (Late Edition) says Gore will soon be helped by Bradley’s negative ratings, which are sure to rise as the candidate becomes better known. On Meet the Press, Joe Klein says that when he asked Gore why he feels so strongly about distancing himself from President Clinton, Gore referred to his struggle to break free of his father’s shadow when running in his first race for Congress. Bill Schneider (Late Edition) says the smartest thing for Gore to do is simply ignore Clinton, not criticize him and risk alienating his base.
Many pundits are encouraged by a new poll showing John McCain, the media favorite, nearly neck-and-neck with George W. Bush in New Hampshire. Brit Hume (Fox News Sunday) thinks this puts more pressure on Bush to perform well in next month’s debate. Skeptics include Jeff Birnbaum (Fox), who notes that one poll is just one poll, and Bob Novak (CNN’s Capital Gang), who says it’s much easier for a polarizing figure such as McCain (or Buchanan in ‘96) to win New Hampshire than to win the nomination. However, Bill Kristol (ABC’s This Week) says that Bush support in South Carolina (the second primary state) is broad but skin deep; if McCain wins New Hampshire, he predicts, South Carolina businessmen might give the veteran another look. George F. Will (This Week) proposes that McCain is like Robert E. Lee and Bush like U.S. Grant (who won by attrition). Kristol counters that Bush might be George McClellan instead (who did not).
Most pundits criticize Hillary Clinton for her silence in West Bank–especially for her comment afterwards that denouncing Arafat’s wife on stage would have hurt the Mideast peace process. (This Week’s George Stephanopoulos and Fox’s Juan Williams defend her, however, arguing that she was in the Mideast on a diplomatic mission as First Lady, not as a New York senatorial candidate.) Hillary is further ridiculed for a new soft-money-funded “issue advocacy” TV ad created by the state Democratic Party and featuring Hillary. Eleanor Clift (PBS’s The McLaughlin Group) argues that every candidate exploits these campaign-finance loopholes, but Stephanopoulos, Jay Carney (McLaughlin), Tony Blankley (McLaughlin), and Michael Barone (McLaughlin) conclude that the ad will hurt her more than help her. Joe Klein notes that the Jewish vote in New York is actually two votes: the “Manhattan superliberal” one and the “outer-borough superconservative” one.
Et Cetera
On Washington Week in Review (PBS), Michel McQueen notes that there has been a tremendous surge in Internet fundraising in the last five weeks. Bradley has now raised one million dollars online; McCain, half a million.
Fox Softball Sunday
Some of the questions Tim Russert asked Kenneth Starr on Meet the Press on Oct. 24:
Two months ago the headlines: “Starr Expects To Issue Report On Clintons By Fall Of 2000.” You’ve now resigned, not completing your report. What happened?Do you believe the public lost confidence in you?Supporters of the president are already saying that [your successor] Robert Ray was hired by Rudy Giuliani in the southern district of New York as a U.S. attorney at one time; therefore, anything that he concludes about Hillary Clinton will be tainted because of his relationship with Rudy Giuliani.You lost three of the last four jury trials. Do you believe that those juries were, in effect, influenced by the perception of you in the impeachment process against the president?Five years, $ 50 million–why so long? Why so much money?Some would suggest that if you had not been practicing private law while being independent counsel, the process would have moved along more quickly. In hindsight, should you have stopped all private law practice?Let me show you how the American people in the end viewed your performance as independent counsel. Put it on the screen. Ken Starr, favorable, 30; unfavorable, 61. The exact opposite of President Clinton. What happened to you?
Some of the questions Tony Snow and Brit Hume asked Starr on Fox News Sunday last weekend:
Was it the Constitution the president was trying to save [as he alleged to ABC News last week]?You mentioned that [Clinton’s lies] would be grounds for removal of a judge. Isn’t it also grounds for disbarment?Judge [Starr], I’m wondering what you think about the famous moment on the South Lawn of the White House on the day of the impeachment when Vice President Gore stepped to the lectern and said that history would remember President Clinton, in his view, as one of the greatest presidents we’ve ever had. Does that tell you anything about Al Gore’s judgment?Apart from the oddness of the [vice president’s] statement–granted it was odd–what does it show you about the the judgment of the person who made that statement, if anything?What’s your sense of Louis Freeh?
