What an interesting reaction was elicited by the Republican decision last week finally to air some anti-Clinton ads. THE SCRAPBOOK has always hewed to the view -- call it eccentric -- that if you think the president of the United States may be unfit to hold his high office, and if impeachment hearings in the House are imminent, and if congressmen might have to vote on this question rather soon -- then it is not inappropriate to take the occasion of a national election to make mention of the fact. At the New York Times, on the other hand, the GOP decision to air the ads was instead a decision "to inject the scandal into the closing debate." Discussion of executive-branch malfeasance is apparently, according to the Times, a risky topic for public consumption. And God forbid that our elections might be sullied by partisanship!
And what was it, incidentally, that was being debated before the untimely injection? Oh yes, the "host of consequential issues" on which the New York Times/CBS News voter survey, conducted a week before Election Day, showed the Democrats running ahead. The nerve of those Republicans, trying to change the subject away from "consequential issues" like health care to frivolous ones, like the third impeachment inquiry in the history of the nation.
According to the front-page story accompanying the polling data, the Democrats were all over the Republicans "like ugly on ape," as George Bush (not the Texas governor with all the good press) used to say. But the data themselves told a different story: Republicans led Democrats in a "usual turnout" situation 48 percent to 43 percent. And in a "low turnout" situation (which many analysts predict) Republicans led by a striking 51 percent to 41 percent.
But you didn't see that on the first page. You had to hunt for it in a chart printed at the bottom left of page 24.