9/22/00 4:15 p.m.
A Good Week for Bush
And not just because of Oprah.

By Ramesh Ponnuru, NR senior editor

arlier this week, the respected political analyst Charlie Cook said of George W. Bush that "[n]ot since Michael Dukakis left this business has a presidential candidate in a general election had three or four bad weeks like this." Um, sure. Except for Bush's father in 1992. Or Bob Dole in 1996. I think he had a couple of fifteen-week losing streaks.

According to the Hotline, Cook went on to say that Bush had just had a few good days and was still in the race. On that part, he's right. The Oprah and Regis appearances went well, which must have boosted his confidence. But the rest of the week's news was also helpful. Gore was caught in another weirdly gratuitous lie, this one involving the price of drugs for his mother-in-law and his dog. (Perhaps the comparison of his mother-in-law and his dog is a subliminal attempt to steal the married men's vote from Bush.) And the Democratic ticket's continual back-and-forthing over Hollywood began to attract unflattering attention.

The Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Clinton, endorsed Bush. Economic Security 2000 — a group favoring a reform of Social Security that includes private accounts, but the least partisan of such groups — handed out report cards to both candidates on the issues surrounding Social Security. Bush had 6 As, a B+, and a B-. Gore got 4 As, a B, and 3 Ds. (Well, at least it beats his grades in divinity school.) (ES2000 has Tea Leoni on its board. That's apropos of nothing, but I thought it worth mentioning.)

There's been some tightening in the polls, and some of the polls even give Bush the lead. But what should give heart to Bush supporters is not the polls, which have been both volatile over time and inconsistent with each other. It is the fact that the campaign has finally gone on offense on the issues and started making the case that Bush would be better than Gore for the middle class.

Up with English
Two polls this week have Ron Unz's latest initiative against bilingual education cruising toward a landslide. The KAET-TV/ASU poll has it ahead 71-21 percent. The Arizona Republic has it at 74-19. It's running considerably ahead of bilingual-ed supporter George W. Bush in the state — perhaps because voters recognize that it would actually fulfill Bush's promise to "unite, not divide" Americans.

Etc.
The National Legal and Policy Center is trying to have Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, disbarred for corruption. . . . In Slate, Jacob Weisberg concludes that Richard Nadler's ad, discussed exhaustively in this column yesterday, is "crude and deceptive" (since it's not clear its characters are fictional) but not racist.