What Is At Stake In The Debate

While Democrats Fussed With The Details Of Health Care Reforms, Conservatives Spent Months Telling The Nation That The Real Issue Is Freedom, That What's On The Line Is American Liberty Itself.

Journalism Has A Special, Hallowed Place For Stories Of Its Practitioners' Persecution.

Money Never Seems To Be Interested In Strengthening Regulatory Agencies, For Example, But Always In Subverting Them, In Making Them Miss The Danger Signs In Coal Mines And In Derivatives Trading And In Deep-sea Oil Wells.

We Are Watching Industries Crumble, Wall Street Firms Disappear, Unemployment Spike, And Unprecedented Government Intervention. And Our Designated Opinion Leaders Want To Know: Is Obama Up This Week? Is He Down? And Is His Leadership Style More Like Bill Clinton's, Or Abraham Lincoln's?

I Think The Wikileaks Releases Furnish Us With An Opportunity To Observe The Upper Reaches Of The American Status Hierarchy In All Its Righteousness And Majesty. High-achieving Colleagues Attempting To Get Jobs For Their High-achieving Children. Foundation Executives Doing Fine And Noble Things. Prizes, Of Course, And High Academic Achievement.