Presswatch / Reagan on a Roll

...Computer programming and engineering, two relatively male-dominated fields which pay well, require patience...

...If you are interested in exploring the beliefs behind the "data" - in probing the deeper religious feelings embedded in our lives, however much we try to ignore them - if you want to understand what moves a Martin Luther King Jr., a Lech Walesa, an Archbishop Romero, a Mother Teresa, a Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Polish Pope, a Simone Weil, a Dorothy Day, a George Orwell, then you're ready to look into the NEW OXFORD REVIEW...

...With a recovery-however feeble-under way, we can't assume that the national agenda will favor us in 1984, Congressman Gillis Long of Louisiana, the chief of the House Democratic caucus, told the Democratic National Strategy Council in mid-May...

...Economist Thomas Sowell (in Affirmative Action Reconsidered) reports that unmarried female academics earn slightly more than unmarried male academics...

...a What is the problem we wish to solve when we try to construct a rational economic order...

...These examinations will do more to affect curricula than any other single factor...

...This guy Reagan, popular again...

...Consider the following evidence: *The 1973 Economic Report to the President contained a section on "The Economic Role of Women," which revealed that women in their thirties who had worked continuously since high school earned slightly more than men in their thirties who had worked continuously since high school...

...With no help from the press, Democrats have caught on that issues are not likely to be cutting heavily their way in 1984, as they did in the off-year elections in 1982...

...they learned too that the excitement for science they once had was justified, though their local schools had come close to extinguishing it...

...It isn't...

...The more I heard, the more I knew I had been wrong in assessing the debate...

...It is almost as though these Reagan appointees, who provide us hourly with tasty insider stuff about the President's indecisiveness or lack of comprehension, believe that the only way to 'save' the President is to 'destroy' him politically...

...And it's not just the recovery that threatens to make 1984 different...

...As a result, For many years, as I have worked, trying to understand how all sorts of families make do, often against considerable odds, I have written articles and books for interested fellow citizens...

...If we possess all relevant information, if Sarkes Tarzian Inc...

...Clearly, it won't be a panacea," a presidential adviser was quoted as saying...

...But when I have tried to describe how, say, an old Spanish-speaking woman from northern New Mexico, or a Southern black child, or an Appalachian white child, or a small-town working-class man happen to feel about Jesus and His words and deeds, then the result is either the silence already mentioned, or rarely, a puzzled, frustrated truculence: "I don't see why you get yourself into all that religious talk...

...And some of Reagan's White House aides have this same impression...

...Programs in science education such as those funded by the National Science Foundation must be greatly expanded...

...But does this mean that the Equal Pay Act and other antidiscrimination laws have failed (assuming that they were ever needed...

...In one 35-minute interview, the President not only undermined the credibility of his recent speech before a joint session of Congress, but, perhaps worse, once again focused attention on what one commentator calls his `Oakland' problem: is there any there there...

...An even better reflection was delivered in April by Rich Jaroslovsky of the Wall Street Journal, who is one of the best reporters covering the White House these days...

...Instead, today's troubles can always be projected into the future...

...shallow, bumbling, unsure, some 26 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983 askance at the recovery and what it means for Reagan politically...

...The "need" for comparable-worth regulation is based on the following statistics...

...After watching the debate, I was driving to Philadelphia and listening to Larry King's call-in show on the radio...

...In Reagan's White House, the valets make their dissatisfaotJon with their boss's performance known to the press...

...Intellectuals also need to document how people's.beliefs prompt them to live their lives...

...And what if there is a "bad quarter...

...In 1981, despite passage of the Equal Pay Act and other antidiscrimination laws, women earned 59 percent of the median income of men...

...from the June 1982 NEW OXFORD REVIEW...

...Just the opposite is happening now with Reagan...

...Virtually every caller was knocking Carter mercilessly, notably for his comment about Amy and nuclear proliferation...

...A somewhat altered set of recommendations appears when the two different objectives of civilization and competitive advantage are considered: First, the "best and the brightest" must have access to instruction of the most competent and energetic sort...

...And why is that...

...It didn't help...

...Housework and its commercial equivalents, customarily female-dominated fields, are not paid very well, yet do require some strength and endurance...

...On certain familiar assumptions the answer is simple enough...

...Years ago, when I helped administer Columbia's Science Honors Program, I learned first-hand ,how much just a Saturday session of university instruction meant to gifted science students in junior and senior high school...

...Noble laureate -Friedrich Hayek exposed this error in his classic essay, "The Use of Knowledge in Society": There is opportunity in America...

...Because the jobs women go into do not pay as much as the jobs men go into...

...These recommendations are but a beginning...

...Reagan has become the touchstone for every national issue, which is often not a plus politically, but he also has the most dominant political persona since Franklin Roosevelt...

...But on two matters in particular-deficits and press conferences-Reagan's underlings give him low grades, and they let reporters know it...

...Fifth, students who create disciplinary problems so regularly as to warrant suspension thus incur fines that must be paid by their families as a condition for readmission...

...But the fundamental error in the feminist thinking is the belief that "value" is "given" by a central person or groupthat the price of services like cleaning or computer programming is set conclusively and that "wf" can change it, without any ill consequences...

...Remember a recent President who was dazzlingly detailed and authoritative in his answers to questions at the press conferences...

...A recent Reagan visit to hard-hit Pittsburgh became a publicrelations setback when thousands of unemployed steelworkers turned out to jeer the presidential motorcade, dominating news reports of the day...

...The reality, of course, is that if you keep your nose to the grindstone, stay out of trouble, do the very best you can-you still may well fail miserably) D by Fred Barnes out-of-touch public man who, if he would just heed the wise counsel of his loyal staffers, would immediately change his economic policies...

...In 1939, the median income of women who worked year-round was 58 percent of the median income of men...

...I thought so too...

...Even in the months before the 1980 election, he was turning in remarkably crisp and fluff-free performances at prime-time press Robert Coles on INTELLECTUALS By covering the hour-to-hour events of Reagan's presidency, reporters are inexorably forced to dwell on the transitory worries of accessible aides-and to miss larger shifts and trends...

...His name was Jimmy Carter...

...real target," according to Cornell economist George Hildebrand, is "federal intervention into the occupational wage and salary structure on a very large, and possibly even massive scale...

...Today comparable worth is being considered in Montgomery County, Maryland, and elsewhere, but the Bruce Powell Majors has written for Inquiry, the Washington Times, and other publications...

...Seeing Reagan up close-a distance that can be quite unflattering for the President-Washington reporters often miss the larger-thanlife image he projects nationally...

...The fear is that without him, the party loses, even to former Vice President Walter Mondale and especially to Senator John Glenn...

...The Democrats would love to take credit for the job done on Reagan...

...Funds 0 Sample copy...

...Republican politicians know that Reagan is on a roll, his political strength building...

...It is the no-man-is-a-hero-tohis-valet syndrome...

...The other mega-issue that hurt Republicans and conservatives last year was Social Security...

...Bloomington, Indiana 28 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983...

...F-1 THE PUBLIC POLICY WOMEN'S WORTH c tComparable worth" rules are a new feminist proposal to use regulation to achieve equal incomes between men and women, by legally mandating that "male dominated" and "female dominated" occupations judged to be of equivalent difficulty by state or federal agencies be paid equally...

...The point here is that the truly exceptional students must periodically be pulled out of their local schools and nurtured by top-flight, productive scholars and scientists...

...Families lacking the financial means to do so times old and tired, always on the verge of making a fool of himself...

...Newsweek added that "an apparently fatigued or distracted President spouted a string of illconsidered, often incomprehensible remarks on foreign policy that drew snide snickers from reporters who listened in from a White House briefing room...

...some aides fretted...

...publisher of the NEW OXFORD REVIEW] and mail to: New Oxford Review Room 406 6013 Lawton Ave...

...The President is being daily denigrated by his appointees on both sides of the [economic] policy debate...

...And I fear that when I started doing that I learned something about myself and my kind - how arrogant and self-centered we risk becoming: interested in our own heady assertions, and anxious to be the spokespersons for all those others, who don't write and teach and come up with new ideas, but who rather, try to go from one day to the next, and who yes, in large numbers indeed, keep calling on Jesus, not the intellectuals, for guidance...

...But they cannot...

...For all the faults that existed in Jimmy Carter's White House, this was not one of them...

...Virtually every reporter I know thought Carter whipped Reagan in their debate...

...Third, there must be a conscientious return to the use of nationally standardized tests (a) for the early recognition of promising students, (b) for the early recognition of backward students needing special remedial instruction, and (c) for the regular recognition of how well a given school system is meeting fundamental educational objectives...

...Reagan in 1980 but who returned to the Democratic Party in the 1982 elections...

...Looking at the recent past, reporters see a Ronald Reagan burdened with troubles of every conceiv able sort, including a lack of smarts...

...Serious political damage has already been done...

...As a rule, voters and politicians, unschooled in nuances of seeing the future as they may be, have a better grasp of the political drift than reporters do...

...The civil rights struggle, for instance: I ought have kept my mind on the various "variables" that prompted it...

...But the whole world isn't always watching and responding the way they do...

...In not moving boldly to attack deficits, Reagan is following a "high-risk strategy," warned Steven Weisman in the New York Times in May...

...Reagan's aides privately agree with Sen...

...Nevertheless, considered as economic aggregates, working women and working men do not receive equal pay...

...At the Democratic council session, a liberal governor listened patiently while Washington-based political reporters told him of Reagan's perceived weaknesses, some of them related to old age...

...In short, there is a good deal of evidence that single women and men with similar work experience do earn equal pay...

...The gist of his well-reported but Cassandrasounding story was that recovery is at hand, but maybe it won't help Reagan get reelected...

...Reagan rambled confusedly in that session, causing "concern among his aides" once again, as David Hoffman of the Washington Post put it...

...But I was brought up to love Jesus Christ, and when I saw the police of this city use dogs on people, I asked myself what Jesus would have done - and that's all I know about how I came to be here, on the firing line...

...3.50 Make check payable to A.C.U...

...his aides did not savage him in the press, disappointed as some of them were in his presidency...

...No thought of a vigorous recovery here, but quite a good reflection of White House staff thinking on the subject...

...I should be what an intellectual ought to be - someone who analyzes how others think and feel, who gives reasons for one or another moment of history...

...Politicians sensed in 1979 and much of 1980 that Carter's prospects were not so good for reelection, though most every reporter in Washington figured that Carter would at least be able to beat Reagan...

...one that places a high premium on mental agility, computational skills, linguistic proficiency, and a comprehension of essential aspects of Western civilization...

...in October 1980...

...That such tests are somehow "culturally biased" merely reflects our national commitment to a given culture...

...Oakland, CA 94618 I CITY STATE ZIP CODE PAYMENT MUST ACCOMPANY ORDER I THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JULY 1983 conferences...

...Reporters find that hard to swallow, especially if they heard his untelevised press conference before six reporters in early May...

...There is a clamor among Republicans for assurance that he will run again...

...preferably tests such as the Graduate Record Examination...

...I refer to the descriptions I've rendered of the religious thoughts and feelings of the children and adults I've come to know...

...This is a unique phenomenon...

...One day a week they learned they weren't "freaks...

...To expect local school systems to keep up with such children is unreasonable...

...The complicating factor is his geniality," said the governor, unpersuaded by the reporters...

...For sure, Shields overstates the political harm that has been .wreaked on Reagan...

...Senator Howard Baker, always a favorite with the press, might be tough, but not Reagan..In any case, there was a clamor among Democrats to get Carter off the top of the ticket...

...19 (regularly $36) NAME (Please print or type) 1 STREET ADDRESS 1 El One-year Canadian or foreign subscription , . , $11 (regularly $17) Payment must be drawn in U.S...

...Good economic times will repair the damage, regardless of what reporters write...

...Why can't we have Nixon again...

...The feminist answer, given to us by Washington Post columnist Judy Mann, is that "jobs requiring strength and endurance were given more value than jobs requiring tact or patience...

...Failure to reach the 80th percentile three consecutive years should constitute grounds for dismissal...

...Janet Norwood, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics...

...Fred Barnes is National Political Yet to reporters, Reagan seems Reporter for the Baltimore Sun...

...If you're trying to prove that people are superstitious, or need a crutch, then a page is enough, not a chapter or half a book...

...It will take many years to reacquaint American children with reality...

...1 1 [Please allow 2 to 8 weeks for de Ii very OF first issue...

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...Columnist Mark Shields and a few fulminating conservatives have pinpointed what is going on...

...A number of Mr...

...But on one score ,I confess to perplexity, even alarm - an absence, almost total, of reaction when it comes to an entire side of my work...

...Meanwhile, there is this young man from Birmingham, Alabama, speaking in 1965: "I don't know why I said no to segregation...

...And then they project this into the future, writing as if the Reagan presidency were inevitably doomed...

...There is,_ but you have to look in the right place...

...Soon enough, I have received the expected responses...

...Clearly, this answer is wrong...

...Robert Coles writes a regular column called "Harvard Diary," and like him, our writers - Peter L. Berger, J.M...

...But the Washington press, looking over its shoulders at the just-departed recession and listening to the concerns of White House aides, continues to look PR ESSWATCH REAGAN ON A ROLL Jude Wanniski, the journalist and economic guru, has coined a truism about the myopia of Washington reporters: "The last place to get reliable information on what's going to happen is the Washington press corps, which reports over its shoulder...

...The result is that Reagan frequently comes off in the press as a boob...

...Second, local school boards have to be given something to think about as they proceed to introduce useless "electives...

...Lugar's view," Jaroslovsky wrote...

...An enduring economic surge that redounds to the benefit of the President is outside its field of vision...

...With a twist...

...Like reporters, they see the man at close range, which can breed disrespect...

...And for all that is written negatively about them, Reagan's performances don't hurt...

...Any such shift will involve a transfer of power concerning wage bargaining from millions of employers who know the particular jobs and employees involved to a small number of federal bureaucrats who do not have this information...

...Weekly, more and more of his constituents view the President as an will have their children "work off" the fine through service to the school...

...What the press has missed, with one or two exceptions, is the roll that Reagan is on, a roll sparked by the quickening economic recovery and marked by White House victories in Congress, rising Reagan popularity, and growing pessimism among Democrats...

...We are spearheading the renewed interest among today's intellectuals in what Daniel Bell terms "the sacred...

...Fourth, State Boards of Education must have the courage to mandate state-wide examinations as a condition of promotion and graduation...

...This according to figures offered at a recent congressional hearing by Dr...

...To date comparable-worth rules have been instituted-at a cost of over five million dollars annuallyfor city workers in San Jose, California, and the idea of "comparable worth" was cited in a recent sex discrimination case-at a cost of $52 million-against a major airline...

...In my own case, the attention given religious faith is held even more suspect because I'm a psychiatrist - and so, presumably, "educated" and "perceptive" enough (so I was told in another friendly letter...

...The unfavorable picture of Ronald Reagan has been created and developed by Ronald Reagan's own advisers...

...It took about a quarter of a century to transform the American classroom into what is all too often a woeful fen of mediocrity...

...Cameron, Erazim Kohak, Juli Loesch, Dale Vree, and others - express themselves with clarity., verve, style, and "heart...

...I'm just another white Southerner, and I wasn't brought up to love integration...

...But they say the White House still hasn't found the right note to strike that will win back blue-collar white voters, many of whom supported Mr...

...But they sure didn't learn this from reading the paper or watching TV news...

...Reagan would then likely have to learn to live with a deficit that could hurt him politically, double the national debt before the decade was over, and become a virtually permanent drag on national prosperity...

...to "know better...

...it is now put aside, whatever the economic merits of the compromise designed to prop up the system...

...Or what if the recovery isn't across-the-board, boosting the smokestack industries...

...said Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, who is worried that enough hasn't been done to help the smokestack states...

...Since reporters come in direct contact with Reagan at press conferences, these sessions make a big impression on them...

...All I need do, it seems, is come up with a social conclusion, make a psychological generalization, attempt a literary analysis, try portraying a certain kind of personal or regional life, and there are thoughtful (appreciatively or reprovingly so) correspondents willing to share their evaluations publicly...

...What can be known now are the identities of the culprits who have portrayed the President as some sort of dotty ideologue who is intractable and not very bright...

...Sixth, merit increases in the salaries paid to teachers should be based in part-in large part-on scores earned on standardized tests in their content-areas...

...Researcher Helen Astin's study, "Career Profiles of Woman Doctor by Bruce Powell Majors ates" (in Academic Women on the Move), presents evidence that unmarried female academics become full professors faster than unmarried male academics...

...Published monthly, we have been praised by Newsweek for being "thoughtful," and the Library Journal predicts we will "doubtless command increasing attention...

...If "deficit-reducing measures"-tax increases?-are brushed aside, "Mr...

...I would have them think about this: the federally guaranteed loans for higher education will, by 1988, be available only to those who have completed four years of science, four years of mathematics, four years of English, and two years of either a foreign or a classical language...

...his senior staff discussed ways to restrict such interviews in the future, according to the sources," Hoffman wrote...

...to the President," he wrote...