The most tasteless passage in last week's State of the Union Message came about half an hour into the speech, as President Bush was enumerating his Administration's successes against Al Qaeda. Three thousand suspected terrorists have been arrested, he said. "And many others have met a different fate," he went on. "Let's put it this way: they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies." Talk about smoking guns. You could almost see the President blowing across the upturned barrel of his Colt .45.

This opening is from Hendrik Hertzberg in this week's The New Yorker (Feb. 10, 2003) in the "Talk of the Town" Comment (Blixkrieg) section. You'll find the full text here.

Clinton wasn't perfect. And in many issues where he had a fine understanding of the issues, he wasn't able to convey that understanding to the large number of corporate-sponsored senators and congresspeople. Some of the compromises were pretty stinky. Our problem in the U.S. is that whoever comes up with the best slogan is likely to win. Says a lot about the inability of U.S. voters to think about the issues. In a kind of mangled parody of Dorothy Parker's wit, I would suggest that you can Turn the Hoard to Voters, but you can't make them Think.

SRS