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Walter Shapiro and Jodi Kantor

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from: Jodi Kantor

The Mall Street Journal

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999, at 6:21 PM ET

Dear Walter,

Your comments bring to mind the "Weekend Journal" section of the Friday Wall Street Journal, otherwise known as Consumer Reports for Richie Rich. The section--which debuted just after the boom really started to boom--is a weekly tutorial on how to blow surplus cash. This summer's editions have included primers on how to purchase the splashiest inground pools, the smokiest mega-grills, and the preppiest Adirondack chairs. The stories exemplify the macho, leave-the-Joneses-in-the-dust attitude on which you so charmingly riff.

But needless to say, only the prosperous are bored with prosperity. What dissatisfied me about today's otherwise excellent Journal piece was the way it toggled between haves, have-somes, and have-nots, without acknowledging that riskiness is attractive to each group for very different reasons. Risks such as adventure travel may be entertaining for the rich; but for the rest of us, risks (such as day trading) are mostly a way to try and become rich. Just because both activities involve some sort of danger doesn't make them a unified trend. That's something I find consistently annoying about newspaper and newsweekly writing--the way perfectly interesting yet discrete phenomena have to be conflated into Something Larger or a movement that is Sweeping the Nation.

Do you really think Americans are as bored by George W. Bush as we seem to be by Al Gore? Bush is such a flirt, all mystery and anecdote. His personality is appealingly provocative--the Mini-Me bit is great, as are a couple of moments in his profile in Talk (apparently he once grabbed a rival by the collar, drew him close, and yelled, "If you want to fuck me you'll have to kiss me first!").

And Bush has roped what seems like every political journalist in America into a guessing game about his actual beliefs. Someone should keep a tally of the hunches ... how about us? From now on, I say we place each Bush profile we read into one of three categories: Conservative, Moderate, and Empty Vessel.

Until tomorrow,
Jodi

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516171819
from: Jodi Kantor

The Mall Street Journal

Posted Tuesday, Aug. 3, 1999, at 6:21 PM ET
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Walter Shapiro is the political columnist for USA Today. Jodi Kantor is an associate editor at Slate.
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