Presidential Contenders

Reason, August, 2000 by Michael W. Lynch

In which our man in Washington hears Earthtone Al and Dubya Bush lower their voices reverently and D.C.'s mayor support vouchers

Subj: China Good, Cuba Bad

Date: 5/30/2000 6:55:49 PM

From: mwLunch@reason.com

I headed over to the National Press Club last week, along with 300 to 400 of my closest colleagues in the Washington press corps, to catch George W. Bush. I was eager to witness Dubya answering unscripted questions. My hunch was that Bush gets a bad rap--"the English Patient" is his handle among some who travel with him--and that he couldn't be as bad as his Yale grades. He wasn't.

"I guess he's not talking about education," said a woman behind me, as Henry Kissinger. George Shultz, Colin Powell, and other GOP foreign policy luminaries took their places between the podium and 12 American flags. Once the elders were settled, Bush commenced.

He got off to an awkward start, reading the prepared text of his big foreign policy announcement. Surrounded by Cold Warriors, he accused the Clinton administration of being "locked in a Cold War mentality," declared his intention to build a missile defense system to protect all 50 states and select allies, and promised to unilaterally reduce America's weapon stockpiles to the lowest level consistent with our national security.

He was trying a tad too hard. Like a first grader learning to read in front of class, Bush put all his energy into pronouncing each word correctly, at the cost of sentence and paragraph flow. If I wasn't reading the prepared text, I'm not sure I could have absorbed his speech.

He had no such problems in Q&A, when he answered questions directly and cut up the room with humor.

What's the difference, asked one reporter, between China's communist government and Cuba when you consider things like freedom of the press, fair elections, oppression of minorities, and attacks on religious movements with no political intentions? Bush didn't duck the question, but he lapsed back into the very Cold War mindset he'd been decrying.

"The difference is, uh, as far as I'm concerned, that we are trading with an entrepreneurial class in China. That by trading with China we are encouraging a group of entrepreneurs, small business owners to get a taste of freedom," said Dubya, lowering his voice reverently when uttering "taste of freedom." "That's not the case in Cuba. In Cuba we are trading with government-controlled entities."

So I guess a President G.W. would have no objections to day trips to Cuba, where Americans could engage in one-on-one trade with small entrepreneurs and give them a taste of post-Cold War freedom? Don't count on it. What's the real difference between China and Cuba when it comes to trade? Only this: An organized voting bloc in an important state that happens to be governed by Bush's brother. Which is too bad. I'd take a Cuban-rolled Cohiba over a Chinese-stitched shirt any day.

Subj: Class of 2000 & 2004

Date: 5/31/2000 5:57:22 PM

From: mwLynch@reason.com

It wasn't easy getting me to show up for school, let alone for optional events like graduation. But when Patrick Purtill of the Washington Scholarship Fund, which provides partial tuition scholarships to low-income D.C. kids, called to invite me to its graduation, I marked my calendar. The ceremony for 75 eighth graders and six high school seniors was held at St. Augustine Catholic School, which is attached to D.C.'s oldest black Catholic church.

The auditorium was packed. Two students delivered remarks, thanking their families, their teachers, and the scholarship foundation. Ashley Tardy, the eighth-grade speaker, paraphrased Ben Franklin to the effect that "if a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take that away from him." Stephanie Lawrence, who graduated from the Bullis School and is headed to Dickinson College next year to pursue a pre-med major, waxed poetic: "Education is like going on a journey," she said. "It helps you discover who you are and who you want to become."

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams rose to speak after the students. He talked about why education mattered and dwelled on the sacrifices the children's parents had made for them to be able to achieve what they have. Williams' dad, it seems, was a decorated veteran of World War II who returned home not to parades, but to a job at the U.S.P.S., where he worked for the next 40 years without a single day off, all to support his eight children.

I'm not sure whether that was meant to inspire the kids or just scare the hell out of them--40 years at the post office is about the best motivational message out there to go to college. The mayor followed it up by delivering the "three keys" to success: Believe in God, work together, and pay attention to the basics. He illustrated the second point with a story about a poor farmer's mule pulling a rich lady's Jaguar off a country road. The fable he told about sticking to the basics made even less sense. "A short cut is fine," explained Williams. "But if you don't learn the main route, a short cut doesn't do you very much good."