We should be seeing a Laid Back Al about now. Janet Reno’s decision to leave the campaign-finance probe where it is–in the slow-moving machinery of the Justice Department–is not the end of his legal troubles, but it is a relief. Gore’s team is fr ee to focus on what most concerns it: the early maneuvers for 2000. Gore last week beefed up his political staff, waltzed through feel-good events (a school tour, a handgun-control banquet, an Everglades wade-through), then jetted off to Kyoto for the gl obal-warming summit. Sages from Dick Morris to Ralph Reed were declaring him a lock for the nomination, if not the White House.
So why get shirty? For one, Kyoto is a dicey, transoceanic drop-by. If the conference comes up with tough global standards, America’s industrial unions–and their big-business allies–will blame Gore. If the conference yields little more than exhor tations, greens will attack him for inaction. Gore aides say privately that they wouldn’t mind an inconclusive result: hope for tough standards in the future, nothing concrete now.
Legal questions linger. Justice, eager to prove its mettle, may soon begin issuing indictments. One of the first could be directed at Maria Hsia, the longtime Gore friend who set up his Buddhist-temple event. And new court papers released by Reno on the veep’s fund-raising phone calls underscore a question he’s appar ently never been asked but will no doubt come up in the campaign. If he had no reason to think there was anything improper about dialing for dollars in the White House, why, as a senator, did he always leave his office to make such calls? More important, FBI Director Louis Freeh has privately argued that there may have been a conspiracy to violate federal campaign laws–and Justice will stay on that case.
But most of the reasons for his bad mood are political. If you spend years pondering your proximity to power, it’s a shock when the world doesn’t just hand you the top job. The current list of likely opponents includes House leader Dick Gephardt, t hree current senators (Bob Kerrey, John Kerry and Paul Wellstone), a former senator (Bill Bradley) and a former ““shadow senator” (Jesse Jackson). Gore’s handlers claim to like a more-the-merrier scenario. But Gephardt won Iowa in 1988 and could do it ag ain. Dean could be more than annoying in New Hampshire as an almost favorite son.
And as vice presidents go, Gore isn’t in a strong position. With Ronald Reagan and George Bush it was a different story. Reagan was adored by the conservative grass roots. Bush could win their support, if not their love, just by showing loyalty to Reagan, which is what he did. Gore’s situation is nearly the opposite. Clinton is an emotional and ideological floater whose popularity is personal, transitory and nontransferable. Many of the Democrats’ hardest-working activists –union members, environ mentalists, traditional liberals–are suspicious of the president. Just hugging Bill Clinton won’t help Gore much with these voters.
That’s the opening Gephardt sees, and he’s trying to exploit it. In a tough speech at Harvard on the day Reno sided with Gore and Clinton, Gephardt harshly–though not by name–depicted the administration and its ““New Democrat” allies as poll-driv en cynics interested primarily in raising campaign cash. He called for an increase in the minimum wage, a national-health-care program and tough oversight of foreign trading partners. ““We need a Democratic Party where principles trump tactics,” he said, a party ““that is a movement for change–and not a money machine.”
Fighting words. Gore supporters reacted with programmed fury. Moderate Demo- crats in the House issued a press release describing in detail just how insulted they were. A top White House aide denounced Gephardt as a hypocrite. Another pointed out t hat Gephardt’s itinerary last week included a fund-raising stop of his own. Gephardt eventually called Clinton for a long, conciliatory phone chat. Peace settled over the party. For now.
title: “Potholes On The Road Ahead” ShowToc: true date: “2023-01-31” author: “Craig Crawford”
There’s no escape. Networked digital devices set the pace of change today. As James Gleick notes in his new book, “Faster,” the truly breakneck technologies are the ones governed by Moore’s Law, the prediction in 1965 by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore that microchip miniaturization would lead to a doubling of computer power every 18 months. He was right, as it turned out. The result is exuberance among researchers, a strange blend of triumphalism and paranoia among business people–and for many ordinary users of technology, a sense of dislocation and even fear.
The fear takes four forms.
For better and for worse, we are stuck with speed. For better: in a global economy, technology companies will create untold wealth through sheer frenzies of creation. For worse: we will lose sight of the virtues of languor and deliberation. Some things can’t be rushed, such as diplomacy and love. The techno-tycoons themselves know this: in the rush to be first-to-market, they cut corners and drive customers crazy with bug- ridden products (This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down), but they would never accept a similar lack of craftsmanship in their own golf clubs or yachts.
In the end, though, addressing techno-stress is a commercial imperative. The industry has exhausted the supply of buyers willing to put up with complex and alienating products. In fact, says Yogen Dalal, the realization is already underway, with devices like the Palm Pilot and technologists who are heeding “the needs of mass markets and understanding what people really want.”
We’ll see. In the meantime: don’t smash that screen just yet.
title: “Potholes On The Road Ahead” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-21” author: “David Oswald”
There’s no escape. Networked digital devices set the pace of change today. As James Gleick notes in his new book, “Faster,” the truly breakneck technologies are the ones governed by Moore’s Law, the prediction in 1965 by Intel cofounder Gordon Moore that microchip miniaturization would lead to a doubling of computer power every 18 months. He was right, as it turned out. The result is exuberance among researchers, a strange blend of triumphalism and paranoia among business people–and for many ordinary users of technology, a sense of dislocation and even fear.
The fear takes four forms.
For better and for worse, we are stuck with speed. For better: in a global economy, technology companies will create untold wealth through sheer frenzies of creation. For worse: we will lose sight of the virtues of languor and deliberation. Some things can’t be rushed, such as diplomacy and love. The techno-tycoons themselves know this: in the rush to be first-to-market, they cut corners and drive customers crazy with bug- ridden products (This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down), but they would never accept a similar lack of craftsmanship in their own golf clubs or yachts.
In the end, though, addressing techno-stress is a commercial imperative. The industry has exhausted the supply of buyers willing to put up with complex and alienating products. In fact, says Yogen Dalal, the realization is already underway, with devices like the Palm Pilot and technologists who are heeding “the needs of mass markets and understanding what people really want.”
We’ll see. In the meantime: don’t smash that screen just yet.
