Post Mortems

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Since he has been in office, President Bush has quietly increased humanitarian aid to Africa by three times, the WP reports inside.

A front-page LAT piece investigates the plight of those denied health insurance because of pre-existing conditions. Insurers, seeking to limit risk, are refusing to cover some people on the basis of extremely minor incidents such as a short stint in therapy, a history of asthma, or—in the case of one healthy college graduate—a bout of jock itch.

Shock and Awe … Returning to the big story of the day, TP couldn't help but pick up on the distinct strain of grudging admiration that ran through the NYT's coverage of Hussein's trip to the gallows. An early edition of the paper's lead story said that although the witnesses it interviewed were enemies of the dictator, "their accounts of the execution were redolent of respect for the way in which their former tormentor died." The final edition version of the story omits the prior passage but says the widely broadcast videotape of the event suggested that he "lived his final moments with unflinching dignity and courage, reinforcing the legend of himself as the Arab world's strongman." An accompanying front-page piece about the dictator's final moments relates that he "looked strong, confident and calm." A fitting final performance, I suppose, for a master propagandist.

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