The Columnist Manifesto

The New Yorker endorses Kerry. (Thanks, Nina.) Makes me proud to be a subscriber.

Among the many excellent points in the editorial is this one that has bothered me about the Bush administration from the beginning. Although most of the mainstream media seems to have forgotten the point, it's been simmering, and goes a long way to explaining the depth of feeling of those voting against Bush:

But the damage [of the disputed 2000 election] would have been far less severe if the new President had made some effort to take account of the special circumstances of his election—in the composition of his Cabinet, in the way that he pursued his policy goals, perhaps even in the goals themselves. He made no such effort. According to Bob Woodward in “Plan of Attack,” Vice-President Dick Cheney put it this way: “From the very day we walked in the building, a notion of sort of a restrained presidency because it was such a close election, that lasted maybe thirty seconds. It was not contemplated for any length of time. We had an agenda, we ran on that agenda, we won the election—full speed ahead.”

Vote those [@#$%!] bums out. You gotta love democracy.