What?
Is the Clinton Expansion
Here? Rebound Seen, but a Slow One
- New York Times headline on July-October economic statistics,
November 30
Media on Economic Growth: Whoops!
"Most economists
agree that the U.S. recovery is far weaker than the recent 2.7 percent GDP
growth spurt indicates. `That was a nice number, but not sustainable,' says
Lea Tyler, manager of U.S. economic forecasting for Oxford Economics in
Pennsylvania. The results included a temporary bulge in defense orders and a
consumer shopping spree that blossomed in July but quickly faded in
August."
- Time Senior Writer John Greenwald, November 23 issue.
vs.
"Gross domestic
product leaped up at an annual rate of 3.9 percent in the third quarter,
returning total output of goods and services to the pre-recession pace of
mid-1990. Strong increases were registered by consumer spending, business
investment, orders for durable goods, sales of existing houses and consumer
confidence..."
- Time "The Week" section, December 7.
"[The 2.7 percent
rate] is more than economists had projected, but in many cases, less than
meets the eye."
- Peter Jennings on ABC's World News Tonight, October 27.
"The President may
complain about the news media, but the economic growth figures which he is so
pleased about are not that definitive, according to a great many independent
economic analysts. The government reports that personal income and consumer
spending were up in September, but orders for durable goods...were down for
the third straight month."
- Jennings, the next night.
vs.
"Timing may not be
everything, but it certainly is crucial in politics. Three weeks after
President Bush lost the election, and several months after insisting the
economy was on the verge of an outstanding recovery, President Bush finally
got the numbers he was waiting for. The government reports today that the
overall economy grew faster during the third quarter of this year than at any
time since Mr. Bush became President, not by 2.7 percent as first estimated,
but by 3.9 percent."
- Jennings, November 25.
October Surprise Spin
'October Surprise'
Conspiracy Story Unsubstantiated, Senate Probe Finds
- Washington Post,
November 24
'80s Hostage Dealings by
G.O.P. Verged on Impropriety, Panel Says
- New York Times, same day
Anti-Women Republicans
"There are many
women in the press, and you couldn't have fought the battles you have fought
to get where you are and not find what the Republicans said about women
offensive...It's not possible, you cannot be that objective. When Marilyn
Quayle says that I have given up my essential nature as a woman and that I
don't take care of my family because I'm working, I cannot help but feel
offended by that."
- Time Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson in a Freedom
Forum special report on campaign coverage titled The Homestretch.
Coddling Clinton
"Bill Clinton hugs
other men. It's not a bearhug, usually - more like a Full Shoulder Squeeze.
Women get it, too, but the gesture is more striking in its generational
freshness when applied to the same sex. He softens the old-fashioned backslap
into some-thing more sensitive. These guys are touching each other! It's
unself-conscious, gender-neutral, very '90s."
- Newsweek Senior Editor Jonathan Alter, November 16.
"The
President-elect's unique trait is a mix of cunning and kindness; he uses both
to learn from others in order to make his own decisions...One presidential
precedent that Clinton - and perhaps the country - can take comfort in is
the fact that the last Democratic challenger to win by a healthy margin shared
these traits of ideological expediency and diffuse authority. In his day,
Franklin Roosevelt had what might be called a Slick Frank reputation....Of
course, if Clinton revives the economy as did FDR, then his decisions - and
how he makes them - will come to be viewed with nostalgia. If not, they will
be merely remembered as bad habits."
- U.S. News & World Report Atlanta correspondent Matthew Cooper,
November 23.
Sucking Up to Stephanopoulos
"His
too-good-to-be-true face looks out from a gallery of photos lining the wall of
his parents' apartment....Critics think the soft-spoken Stephanopoulos has
insufficient heft to speak for the President; yet this brooding, dark presence
has a quiet authority. His power whisper makes people lean in to him, like
plants reaching toward the sun."
- Time Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Margaret Carlson, November 30.
"Like the President
he will serve, Stephanopoulos is the ultimate political meritocrat. Like
Clinton, too, he's hard to pin down. Those who know him best cherish his
decency and thoughtfulness."
- U.S. News & World Report Atlanta correspondent Matthew Cooper,
December 7.
"Of all the aides
surrounding Clinton, Stephanopoulos is the one everybody seems eager to learn
more about these days, partly because of his newfound power and attractiveness
but also because he seems to have more depth and complexity. Here is the
student of theology making a living in the spiritual void of inside politics.
Here is the cheerful countenance with the brooding soul. Here is a fellow who
looks so young and dresses so hip yet behaves with such maturity."
- Washington Post reporter David Maraniss, Nov. 23.
Belly-Up in the Reagan Years
"Even before his
breakfast on Capitol Hill, Clinton jogged across Pennsylvania Avenue to
McDonald's. This used to be a fancy French restaurant. It went belly-up in the
Reagan years."
- NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell, November 19 Nightly News.
Happy Thanksgiving and All That
"The Pilgrims, if
they actually celebrated Thanksgiving at all, were only taking a break from
hanging adulterers, flogging dissenters, denouncing democracy, and banning
Christmas merriment and the singing of lewd songs....The one scrap of national
dignity that remains after all of the self-ridicule, revisionism and
election-year degradation is the majesty of America's ideas. That one of the
most mean-spirited presidential campaigns in recent memory can end in gracious
words of conciliation and in acts that solemnly place two centuries of
democratic principle above any factional ends is still something Americans can
give thanks for - even if their bigoted, intolerant and totalitarian- minded
Pilgrim forebears would not have."
- U.S. News & World Report Senior Writer Stephen Budiansky,
November 30.
Persecuted Wolves
"Wolves have long
been a source of fear and persecution by mankind, and until recently, federal
and state governments paid out bounties to eliminate the animal many
considered vermin. CNN's Greg Lefevre reports on an eradication program with
some controversial motives."
- CNN anchor Patrick Greenlaw, November 23, World News.
- L. Brent Bozell III;
Publisher
- Brent H. Baker, Tim Graham; Editors
- Brant Clifton, Nicholas Damask, Steve Kaminski, Marian Kelley, Tim Lamer;
Media Analysts
- Jennifer Hardebeck; Circulation Manager
- David Muska; Intern