ONE OF Catherine the Great's closest advisers was Prince Potemkin, who famously tried to persuade her that his policies were improving the life of the Russian people by constructing fake prosperous villages for Catherine to see as she sailed by on the Volga River. Today, another powerful woman,…

HERE'S THE CONVENTIONAL interpretation of the most recent media recount of the Bush-Gore election: Bush would have won even if the U.S. Supreme Court had not stopped the statewide recount of undervotes ordered by the Florida Supreme Court. But Gore would have won a statewide recount (that he did…