On May 13, 1999, George W. Bush, then governor of Texas, changed his position on global warming. “The last time, I wasn’t certain of the science,” Bush said. “I’ve had some briefings recently, and I’m becoming more convinced that the science proves there’s global warming.” Bush was the front-runner in the campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination—although he wouldn’t officially declare his candidacy until the legislative session ended a month later. He was responding to a question I asked him at a press conference in Austin, where I was working on a book about his candidacy. Neither Bush nor his press secretary, Karen Hughes, explained when “the last time” was. Nor would either elaborate on what briefings about what science had led him to depart so radically from the position he’d held since he was elected governor five years earlier. Up to this point he’d said there was no proof that the earth was warming.

Read more

ETHANOL IS A MAGIC ELIXIR. It allows politicians and political operatives to promise voters that America can achieve “energy independence.” In this new energy Valhalla, American farmers will be rich, fat and happy, thanks to all the money they will be making from “energy crops.” Better yet, U.S. soldiers will never again need to visit […]

Read more

Wonderful Town—It might seem odd for a billionaire to develop a radical plan to help the poor. But New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, a possible independent presidential candidate for 2008, has done so in a typically unconventional manner. Stay in school, go to the dentist, take a higher education course or get job training […]

Read more

Springtime in January—“This is the life,” a woman on the beach tells her husband in a recent cartoon. “A cool drink, a good book, the warm sun.” “Buffalo in January,” her husband responds. Aside from the blizzards in Denver, this Christmas season felt more warm than white. And it only got hotter as the New […]

Read more

Handling Haditha—The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi bumped news of Haditha off the front page, blunting public impact of the incident, in which U.S. troops stand accused of killing 24 Iraqi civilians and then covering it up. On the day of Zarqawi’s death, the State Department’s coordinator for Iraq said, “Haditha is a serious issue […]

Read more