Clicking on banner ads enables JWR to constantly improve
Jewish World Review Oct. 23, 2000 / 24 Tishrei, 5761

Jonah Goldberg

Jonah Goldberg
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Debbie Schlussel
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Roger Simon
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports


Gore needs to put first things first

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- THE GORE CAMPAIGN has decided to make the economy its main, if not sole, issue for the rest of the campaign. With all due respect, it's about time.

The only legitimately successful president to be elected or reelected with a majority of the vote (Clinton never did break 50 percent) since FDR was Ronald Reagan. Reagan cared about two things: fighting communism and reducing government interference with the economy.

FDR threw out a lot of ideas, but he really only cared about two big things: beating the Depression and winning World War II.

When George W. Bush ran for governor in Texas he promised to do just four things: tort reform, education reform, welfare reform and juvenile justice reform.

While this time Bush's mission seems dismayingly diffuse for a conservative, it can be summed up largely as tax relief, entitlement reform (including Medicare and Social Security), military reform and restoring "dignity and honor" to the White House. That's pretty much it.

There's an elegance to such promises and to the kind of government they produce. An administration that has a narrow agenda will be more likely to leave people alone and fix the big problems that voters really want fixed.

A campaign, like Al Gore's, that promises to do everything will in all likelihood do nothing or do just enough of everything to make everything worse.

Another problem with overpromising government is the sort of people it yields. Candidates who promise everything invariably encourage the notion that every group and constituency deserves a promise of its own.

Indeed, when Gore says, "I will fight for you," he means lots of different "yous." For example, at the Democratic National Convention, Gore promised, "I'll fight for tax cuts that go to the right people." Just look at the "undecided" voters at the last debates. Nearly all of them asked some form of "what can you do for me" question. That's gross.

For example, perhaps my second favorite president - after Reagan - was Calvin Coolidge who proudly did nothing, because he did not think anything was needed. When Coolidge died, H.L. Mencken wrote, "There were no thrills while he reigned, but neither were there any headaches É he was not a nuisance." Now, that's my kind of president.

But Gore is the un-cool, un-Coolidge. Gore promises every constituency a ticket to the trough. He fancies himself a new Harry Truman who will fight for the little man. Well, Mencken had something to say about Truman, too. "If there had been any formidable body of cannibals in the country, Harry Truman would have promised to provide them with free missionaries fattened at the taxpayer's expense."

But Gore does Truman one better. Not only does he promise to do many things, he promises to do many, many things simultaneously. In fact, the list of things he will do "first" is growing into the dozens. A few examples, "My first act as president -- if I'm entrusted with the job -- will be to resubmit the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to the Senate," said Gore in March.

In February, he said that "the No. 1 priority for me," is his $115 billion education plan.

The Associate Press quoted him in December as promising that "the first order of business of the Gore-Lieberman administration" would be to end racial profiling.

And he's said for almost two years that, "If you elect me as your president, the McCain-Feingold bill will be the first domestic legislation I send to the Congress --- on my first day in office."

That's an awful lot of first things to do first.



To comment on JWR contributor Jonah Goldberg's column click here.

Up


10/20/00: Treatment of Farrakhan glosses over odd issues
10/16/00: Secrets of election can be found in 'Star Trek'
10/12/00: Arafat hardly 'provoked' into violence
10/10/00: Undecided voters may be ignorant, not discriminating
10/06/00: The importance of character isn't debatable
10/03/00: Conservatives are the true friends of science You know why?
09/29/00: Symbolic 'born alive' vote makes sense
09/25/00: Conservatives adopt abandoned liberalism
09/21/00: Ventura's media backpedaling makes fiction of his new book
09/18/00: Tough questions target Hillary Clinton's elitism
09/14/00: Hollywood morality to blame
09/11/00: Specifically, AlGore's detailed plan is meaningless
09/07/00: Time-honored tradition: Insult the press
09/05/00: Scouting out justice
08/30/00: The ADL's historical revisionism
08/28/00: Sitcoms will survive, post-"Survivor"
08/24/00: Candidates' choice of movies shows refreshing honesty
08/21/00: An AlGore victory? Only if dead birds fly
08/17/00: AlGore is doomed, but Dems ignore warning signs
08/15/00: Proud and true: He's a Jew
08/10/00: Exploiting religion would be tragic mistake
08/08/00: Cheney serves up tempting appetizer
08/03/00: Republicans now 'nice,' media still nasty
08/01/00: Presidential campaign could use some anti-metric mania
07/27/00: Government shouldn't subsidize Reform Party
07/25/00: Campaign finance 'reform' gives too much power to liberal media
07/20/00: Hillary slur speaks volumes
07/18/00: AlGore's McCarthyism
07/11/00: 'Survivor' shows hypocrisy of animal rights groups
07/05/00: McDonald's deserves a break today
07/03/00: On July Fourth, time to reflect on America's founding
06/28/00: America bashing becomes international pastime
06/23/00: If Fonda is sorry, let her say so
06/06/00: NAPSTER exposes artists' hypocrisy
04/18/00: Not much difference between TV journalists, TV actors

© 2000, TMS