Scrapbook
Scrapbook Ross Perot: Is He an Egomantiac? Last week, David Frost gave us another glimpse into the psychology of Ross Perot. In an interview on PBS, Frost asked Perot, "What do you think are your...
...Here are three salient facts," said Hunt...
...It's not every day, after all, that nine-year-old news makes the front page of a major newspaper...
...The reason the Journal now splashes this old story across its pages is not that the reporters seem especially scandalized by the decision of the government to lie about AIDS back in 1987 (they sympathetically portray that act as a noble lie necessary to increase federal funding for AIDS research), but that they are scandalized by the consequences of the lie, as spelled out in the article's subhead: "Most Heterosexuals Face Scant Peril but Receive Large Portion of Funds: Less Goes to Gays, Addicts...
...That's probably a flaw...
...As he put it in 1987: "Every dollar spent, every commercial made, every health warning released, that does not specify promiscuous anal intercourse and needle-sharing as the overwhelming risk factors in the transmission of AIDS is a lie, a waste of funds and energy, and a cruel diversion...
...After some brief back and forth, Perot announced his biggest flaw: "Four years ago I didn't know that much about politics...
...But Winthrop's audience, of course, recognized the phrase and vision as from Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount...
...His outrage: Bob Dole's attack on Clinton's judicial appointments...
...You can see why it didn't do well if you consider the subtext of this dark, beautiful film-it is a tale of disappointment, about a moody man who thinks he was handed a raw deal, and, even though he learns he has had a wonderful life, was sort of right the first time...
...When you have a columnist "on message," surely you can take some time out to give him a pat on the back...
...What risks...
...Frost zeroed in on the particular flaw in Perot's presentation...
...Salient facts" 2 and 3 track with DNC point 3: "Attack Is Poll Driven...
...Dole Is Attacking Judges He Voted To Confirm 98.4% Of The Time...
...And that-you know, around politics you learn to just grin and expect to have it...
...The immensely long article, clearly intended for Pulitzer consideration, begins: "In the summer of 1987, federal health officials made the fateful decision to bombard the public with a terrifying message: Anyone could get AIDS...
...The article is, to put it mildly, nothing new...
...Well, as reporters Amanda Bennett and Anita Sharpe explain, "for most heterosexuals, the risk from a single act of sex [is] smaller than the risk of ever getting hit by lightning...
...The Rental List Fifty years ago, in 1946, the movies were at their high-water mark of popularity and influence: 90 million Americans went to a picture show every week, a number never duplicated before or since...
...Fumento told this story with greater moral clarity and at a time when it might have done enormous good...
...Al's outrage is rather similar to the DNC talking points...
...I was just shocked at the total absence of any kind of ethics...
...The Strange Love of Martha Ivers...
...which offers selected quotes to bolster their case that Clinton's not a judicial leftie...
...which told exactly the same story the Journal tells now but was rather more timely when he wrote it...
...And I guess another flaw around politics is standing on principles...
...The following day, columnist and TV commentator Al Hunt offered his "outrage" of the week on CNN's Capital Gang...
...One, independent studies suggest that Clinton's judicial appointments have been rather mainstream . . . two, Bob Dole has supported 98 percent of these appointments, and three, the presumptive Republican nominee is trailing in the polls and feverishly is looking for any helpful issue...
...It's a Wonderful Life...
...Perot answered as follows: "Well, particularly where politics are concerned, I am results-oriented...
...Much celebrated at the time, subject of a brilliantly withering critique by seminal movie critic Robert Warshow, this collaboration between screenwriter Robert Sherwood and director William Wyler about three returning GIs stands the test of time- it's one of the best American movies, without question...
...You've listed five virtues rather than five flaws, in fact," Frost said...
...In November 1987...
...His "salient fact" #1 mirrors the sixth point on the DNC list, "President Clinton's Judges Are Moderate...
...Michael Fumento published a wildly controversial article in Commentary called "AIDS: Are Heterosexuals at Risk...
...A box-office failure upon first release, it was allowed to slip into the public domain in the 1970s and, because it was free to all stations, became the most-shown Christmas movie on television...
...I was shocked when I got close to it...
...To Thine Own Crack Vial Be True Mayor Marion Barry, the capital's longest-running social project, announced he was taking a week off to "work on me" at a farm in rural Maryland-"a very special place that was established to facilitate holistic, personal renewal for leaders and others who work under extremely stressful circumstances," according to the mayor (who then quickly hightailed it off to another "very special place" in St...
...Louis, which is marginally closer to the nation of Colombia than rural Maryland...
...Spooked by the AIDS lobby, no doubt...
...And why not...
...You say, 'Boy, it's obvious, Ross.' Okay, but what you see is what you get...
...In politics, I am not an actor...
...The same DNC talking points Hunt parroted on national television also have a quote from a Hunt Wall Street Journal column attacking the GOP's relationship to the National Rifle Association...
...On April 19, the Democratic National Committee's Communications Office faxed talking points to "interested parties" with the headline, "Bob Dole's Attacks On President Clinton's Judges: Playing Cynical Politics With The Issue Of Crime...
...Incidentally, throughout the Reagan years, "a shining city on a hill" was repeatedly attributed-by secular journalists and academics-to colonial governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts...
...Herewith, some of the year's enduringly interesting ones: The Best Years of Our Lives...
...To original sources, be true...
...In fact, some people knew about it at the time...
...I write my own speeches...
...And that's a flaw And again, if you come to a true flaw, it is very hard for me to suffer fools gladly...
...without it, they become tyrants, if you see what we're getting at...
...In an interview on PBS, Frost asked Perot, "What do you think are your flaws that you are aware of...
...Whisper her name," went a famous radio campaign at the time for this spooky and atmospheric tale of small-town revenge with Kirk Douglas and a literate Robert Rossen screenplay...
...Now, that's probably a flaw that I should have...
...But it is vital for political figures to have even just a dollop of self-deprecation...
...All of those things are basically good for you that you've mentioned...
...Where was the Journal then...
...It was a pretty good year for movies too...
...So I will stand on principle and fight for what I believe in...
...They are spoken by Polonius, of course, a meddlesome old fool...
...It is, of course, a common human weakness for people to mask their vanity in self-criticism: Self-promoters often tell you that their biggest problem is their generosity, or that they care too much...
...Toeing the Liberal Party Line Nothing like a little objectivity from a press corps scornful of the idea that they lean leftward...
...In a two-page statement, Barry averred, "The Bible says, 'To thine own self be true.'" Maybe Barry was high the day they read him the Good Book, so it falls to us to inform the mayor that those words are from Shakespeare...
...I don't want to be an actor...
...Not Giving Credit Where It's Due The Wall Street Journal published a remarkable story last week under the headline, "AIDS Fight Is Skewed By Federal Campaign Exaggerating Risks...
Vol. 1 • May 1996 • No. 34
