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Clueless in Seattle
The real legacy of the WTO protests is a rising tide of populism -- try telling that to politicians swapping platitudes on global trade.
By Arianna Huffington
[12/10/99]

Who were those masked anarchists in Seattle?
The media has blown the story, but there's a growing fringe of activists who believe property destruction isn't "violent," and are bent on convincing the rest of us.
By L.A. Kauffman
[12/10/99]

What the National Guard is doing for New Year's Eve
If the world doesn't end at the turn of the millennium, the FBI warns that militia groups and religious nuts might try to help it along.
By Sam Stanton and Gary Delsohn
[12/10/99]

How victors split their spoils
Trent Lott was all set to funnel yet another military project to his home state of Mississippi until Arkansas Sen. Tim Hutchinson took him on.
By Suzi Parker
[12/09/99]

McCain vs. New York
The GOP presidential candidate says he'll sue if the state's byzantine laws keep him off the ballot.
By Andrea Bernstein
[12/09/99]

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Though GOP rabble-rouser Alan Keyes fumes on and on about media racism, the real discrimination at hand is rampant anti-geekism. Or, at least, media prejudice against dorks is the best reason I can come up with for the following phenomenon. Last weekend, even though Forbes had just earned the enthusiastic endorsement of the Union Leader -- the state's largest paper, which endorsed New Hampshire primary winner Pat Buchanan in '96 -- and although Forbes maintained his solid No. 2 showing in the polls in Iowa, and shot up from 9 percent to 17 percent among New Hampshire Republican voters last week according to the latest Newsweek poll, he is still generally dismissed by the press corps as if he were an audio-visual club bookworm crashing the cool kids' kegger.

There were only two reporters following him around all weekend -- compared with throngs for Gov. George W. Bush, Sen. John McCain, former Sen. Bill Bradley and Vice President Al Gore. Even Keyes reportedly had something of a media pack in tow.

One oft-cited reason is that Forbes' political skills are wanting, and that on the stump, as well as in TV studio green rooms, he is awkward. This assessment isn't inaccurate -- he is stiff and socially challenged, his mien is nothin' but nerd -- a fact not helped by the fact that the strong prescription of his glasses make his eyes look like they're about four feet behind the rest of his head.

Forbes is hindered by exactly the same thing that helps John McCain: social skills. McCain is so comfortable being McCain he is all too eager to rattle off the ways in which he sucks. Forbes, conversely, seems a stranger in his skin, and is still something of a novice at human contact. At Forbes Inc. Christmas parties, former Forbes employees attest that their CEO could be seen humbly standing solo in the corner. A chat with Forbes -- and seeing him pressing the flesh and kissing babies -- adds credibility to this anecdote. He is thoughtful and genial, but incurably reserved. His eyes light up when he can drop a relevant historical reference. But his inquisitiveness seems to be all about books, and little about people. He does have a dry, clever wit, and he can use it effectively, if somewhat stiltedly, on the stump. But is it enough? Or is it even relevant?

Forbes doesn't think his wanting social skills are the reason the media generally treats him like a silly trifle. "I was just thinking of other fellow charismatically challenged candidates of the past," he says, citing former Sens. Bradley and Paul Tsongas and 1988 Democratic candidate Gov. Mike Dukakis -- who "weren't back-slappers, or the kind of guy you'd go out for a beer with, unless [they] were paying for it."

He claims that there are deeper reasons for his shunning by the media and political culture. "It goes beyond style," he says, "to background and substance."

Forbes' basic take is that the Washington establishment, including the media, does not take him seriously because he is not one of them. "The British civil service's Tories for a generation were enveloping whatever minister sat in the chair," Forbes says, evoking a customary tangential historical reference. "I think sometimes the political culture feels the same way. They can take off the rough edges and house-train you, and since I'm an outsider who's beholden to none of them, they have no hooks in me. They know I mean what I say, I can defend what I say, I can state what I believe in. So therefore, I think whether it's subliminal or what, they hope I don't get traction ... But I realized that going into the thing; it's one of the reasons I announced on the Internet."

"Obviously [members of the media] aren't going out of their way to put wind in my sails the way they do for McCain and Bradley," he said. "But I see them as economically what you would call a 'lagging indicator.' They'll get the message after the voters give it to them ... They chose to ignore [my second-place showing in the Iowa straw poll], but after the caucus and the primary it's going to be a little harder to ignore."

Still, the media snub seems to sting him a bit. "After the Iowa straw poll, the thing was summed up by the Des Moines Register," Forbes says. "The next day, they had a headline: 'Bush Finishes First.' Subheadline: 'Dole Finishes Third, Bauer Finishes Fourth, Buchanan Disappointing.' It's a good subject for an anthropologist some day."

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