Search Salon

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Recently in Salon News

The whole world is watching
Direct action comes to the WTO, and members debate what the meaning of "non-violence" is.
By L.A. Kauffman
[11/30/99]

Everything you need to know about the WTO
While thousands of protesters gather outside, there's plenty of disagreement inside, too.
By David Moberg
[11/29/99]

The vice president's stiff comedy
Al Gore's problem is not that he lacks a sense of humor -- he's just not showing it.
By Daniel Kurtzman
[11/29/99]

Republicans lost in space
Polls suggest that the "Democrats' issues" will dominate next year's elections; if so, the GOP better learn how to fight more effectively in a hurry or it will be in for a bruising.
By David Horowitz
[11/29/99]

Smog alert
The Texas governor is trying to clear the air about his environmental record -- trouble is, the state's alarming pollution levels are getting in the way.
By Robert Bryce
[11/24/99]

Complete archives for News

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Sure, he was spinning us -- with that ostentatiously correct pronunciation of "East Tee-moor," the gratuitous list of Russian cities he'd visited and a multiculturally-hip story about an Indian government official -- "Cha-bimba, or whatever," clucked one otherwise-liberal Tufts student.

But Bradley moved with such self-assurance, and engaged his mind so fully with his own words that his mild pandering was quickly forgiven. Denouncing foreign policy that is "made through polling or focus groups to score domestic points," he stated flatly, "I deplore that." A perfectly elegant, strong, unambiguous judgment by a man who knows what he thinks.

The Fletcher students repeated that line like little kids rehashing the plays of last weekend's big game.

Bradley also gave this audience glimpses of a vulnerability that served only to underscore his powerful presence. He told the students that as a 10-year-old, he had designed his own bomb shelter, with a place for his sporting equipment. "The premise was, even after nuclear holocaust there would be basketball."

The only hint of profligacy to match Bradley's recently unveiled, pie-in-the-sky health-care plan came in his remarks about the domestic impact of free trade. "Trade will benefit more people than it will hurt. But some people will lose their jobs." He then reiterated his support for expanded health care, portable pensions and "transitional assistance" for people who are bumped down from high-wage to lower-wage sectors as the economy changes.

Margaret Sloan, studying for a master's in diplomacy, came to the event with a list of questions she hoped to ask, and was next in line when the question period was cut short by the school's dean, John Galvin. In the cafeteria, she described the direction in which she had hoped to steer the discussion: "[Bradley] talked too much about the easy topics -- Israel, Colombia. He needs to address the situations that actually threaten us -- Iraq and China."

Answers to these hardest questions will have to come another day, and somewhere else. The feeling at Tufts was that even if Bradley hasn't delivered the goods yet, he certainly has them in his possession. There's something refreshing about a person of substance who does not yield intimacy too easily -- even when given the chance. He gives you something to look forward to. Which may have been what Bradley's spokesman Eric Hauser was trying to say, in an oblique way, when he explained ahead of time to reporters how the Q&A format of the event would work:

"It's like Oprah. But not really."
salon.com | Nov. 30, 1999

- - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - -

  Get a printer-friendly version

  E-mail a friend about this article

  Backflip this article to find it again

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Search Salon