ITEM: George W. Bush finally is the president-elect, no ifs, ands or buts. (In case you hadn’t heard.) COMMENT: Republicans, including the underdog but feisty contingent on Kaua’i, can rejoice that their party has won back the White House after
ITEM: George W. Bush finally is the president-elect, no ifs, ands or buts. (In case you hadn’t heard.) COMMENT: Republicans, including the underdog but feisty contingent on Kaua’i, can rejoice that their party has won back the White House after eight years of gnashing their teeth over the residency of a certain Democrat named Clinton. And Democrats can take bittersweet solace in Al Gore’s concession speech Wednesday, which was perhaps the best of its kind ever delivered and was far more impressive than the bland, anticlimactic speech by Bush, who looked uncomfortable and slightly overwhelmed as he stepped into the history books.
How many Gore supporters wonder: If only Gore hadn’t run such a bad campaign … If only he’d had an incumbent president campaign for him..And if only the election hinged on the popular vote that Gore won, not the electoral vote that swung to Bush.
ITEM: Sen. Daniel Akaka says forget politics and work with the new president-elect.
COMMENT: Hawaii’s junior U.S. senator, a Democrat, sounded the right tone in the wake of the presidential follies when he said Wednesday, “It is incumbent that all of us join together in working for the good of our country. The next president will enter office without a mandate or popular majority. Indeed, the only mandate we have comes from the American people to both the president and Congress: Put aside partisan rancor and address the challenges facing our nation in a bipartisan manner.” Amen. Cynics would point out that political parties are always interested in bipartisanship when they’re in the minority. But Akaka is telling the truth about apolitical folks who just want the system to work for everyone.
ITEM: The USS Missouri Memorial Association will receive $300,000 to give the public a bigger peek at the retired Navy ship on which Japan formally surrendered to the U.S. in World War II.
COMMENT: With the grant coming from Save America’s Treasures, a public-private partnership between the White House Millenium Council and the National Trust for Historic Preservation, part of the crew’s quarters below deck will be renovated and opened for public viewing. The eventual rare glimpse into America’s sea warfare past wasn’t available when the Missouri was berthed almost out of sight among other old vessels at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, an hour’s ferry ride west of Seattle. The Mighty Mo, as it’s nicknamed, was towed to Pearl Harbor in 1998 with a promise by supporters of its new home that the majestic battleship would become a true tourist and history icon. They’re making good on their promise.
TGI editor Pat Jenkins can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 227) and pjenkins@pulitzer.net.
