Hard sell
The
Washington Post reports on the fact that there are a lot of
individuals who worry about having to manage their proposed private
Social Security account and that is making selling the concept of
private accounts difficult:
"I don't know what's going on with it," she said one night at a tax
clinic in Southeast D.C. "I just know I have these three accounts, so
I just say, 'Let's hope and pray. Let's hope and pray it's not going
into Enron. Let's hope and pray it's not going into Tyco.' It's just
hard to absorb all I'm supposed to absorb."
The Post indicates that this attitude exists upon an economic fault
line:
According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted last month,
support for private accounts rose with income level. Among households
reporting income of $35,000 or less, 6 in 10 said they opposed the
president's proposal on Social Security. In households with income of
$75,000 or more, about half of those polled said they supported the
proposal.
Dean’s Florida trip
The St. Petersburg Times State offered an insightful look at Howard
Dean’s attacks on Republicans. Dean, referring to the Terri Schiavo,
case said:
"It's a character issue and a values issue. The Republicans are
willing to reach into our personal lives at any moment," Dean told the
St. Petersburg Times , dismissing the notion that the
controversy would fade with time.
"There is a deep scar on the American psyche," he said. "This is a
great tragedy for the American people and I think the behavior of the
governor [Jeb Bush] and the president and the senator [Mel Martinez]
is something that will long be remembered."
Howard Dean had previously made a statement that Schiavo would be a
political issue in 2006, "This is going to be an issue in 2006, and
it's going to be an issue in 2008, because we're going to have an ad,
with a picture of Tom Delay, saying, 'Do you want this guy to decide
whether you die or not?'"
Referring to Republicans he said:
"We need to kick the money changers out of the temple and restore
moral values to America," Dean said, drawing roars from the crowd.
Network news is dead
According to former ABC news anchor Sam Donaldson, network news is
dead [LINK]:
"I think it's dead. Sorry," he said during a breakfast panel Tuesday
at the National Association of Broadcasters' convention in Las Vegas.
"The monster anchors are through."
Donaldson was joined on the panel by CNN political analyst Jeff
Greenfield and CBS Sunday Morning's Charles Osgood, both of whom were
less pessimistic about network news' future.
The three also agreed that that Internet bloggers have had a generally
positive impact on news because mainstream reporters are forced to
better verify their information and pare opinions out of their work or
face he wrath of scrutinizing critics.
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