Bush Gored

I agree with Tapped*: Al Gore’s Move On speech (*) was first-rate; if he’d spoken that clearly in 2000, he’d be President today. (Yes, there would have been disadvantages to electing as President someone who still doesn’t get that the Kyoto Treaty was a bad joke, but you have to take the bitter with the sweet.)

If someone other than Bush is going to be inaugurated in 2005 it will be because other Democrats learn to make speeches like this. GWB should hear “honor and integrity” as relentlessly as his father heard “read my lips.”

P.s. Too bad the speechwriter doesn’t know “rein” from “reign.”

Update Thanks to CalPundit *, this Daily Howler account * of the Right-wing Spin Machine in action: Fred Barnes is denying that the Bush crew ever tried to link Saddam Hussein to 9-11. No, really. Pandagon * is also on the case.

… how can you compete,

Being honour bred, with one

Who, were it proved he lies,

Were neither shamed in his own

Nor in his neighbours’ eyes?

— Yeats *

Author: Mark Kleiman

Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out. Books: Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken) When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993) Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989) UCLA Homepage Curriculum Vitae Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com