Domestic Issues

FOR THOSE who like their shopping uncrowded and unhindered, there is nothing like Super Bowl Sunday.Lines at the Giant checkout are non-existent. Crowds around the cashiers at Hecht's have vanished into thin air. The occasion is serene and comforting, especially for those who can't stand being even in a television universe inhabited by the likes of Bob Irsay.One of our agents this year discovered a variation on the Super Bowl escape mechanism prized by quiet shoppers.He decided to fly cross-country from Los Angeles to Baltimore on that special Sunday.

Defeating terror around world is still Bush's goal The Sun's editorial "Dead or alive" (Oct. 14) shows that The Sun hasn't really understood the missions of the United States since last Sept. 11. President Bush made it quite clear that our priorities were ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan, smashing al-Qaida and its worldwide network and challenging terrorism wherever it occurs. The news media frenzy over Osama bin Laden must have confused the editorial writers into thinking Mr. Bush was concerned only with bin Laden.

WHEN TROUBLES beset America, we turn to our president for guidance. Today we have a president whose greatest political strength is his innate ability to lead during crises. So why, given the morale-sinking events of the past two months, had President Bush not stepped forward until this week in a very public way to reassure the country that everything will be OK? With the exception of tax cuts, Mr. Bush has proved ineffective at rallying the country on domestic issues. But on foreign policy, he has shined.

WASHINGTON -- Suddenly, in the midst of one the longest spells ever of partisan gridlock, the White House and Congress have discovered they need each other.The Los Angeles riots have sparked the only bipartisan spirit of cooperation seen here since the presidential election campaign opened last fall. All sides agree it is likely to result in additional aid to the nation's cities, possibly as soon as this summer."I think this is the best chance we've had all year to actually get something done," said Nicholas E. Calio, chief White House lobbyist.

TEMPE, Ariz.- Sen. John Kerry blamed President Bush for turning his back on the nation's economic woes while Bush accused the Democrat of plotting to raise taxes on Americans to finance big-government plans, as the two candidates grappled for advantage during the final presidential debate. "You know, there's a mainstream in American politics and you sit right on the far left bank," Bush told Kerry, as the president defended his record and painted his opponent's plans as a "bait and switch" that would end up hurting Americans.

WASHINGTON -- For the second time in a week, President Bush had to dramatically reverse course yesterday on a policy position advocated by members of his administration.His hasty rejection under pressure of a federal personnel directive that critics say would have subverted the purpose of the civil rights bill he was about to sign raised new questions about who is in charge of domestic policy at the White House.Presidential spokesman Marlin Fitzwater put the blame on White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, who other aides said was promoting his own agenda at the president's expense by trying to achieve through regulation what he could not win legislatively.

WASHINGTON -- When war in the former Yugoslavia first erupted in 1991, most of the core NATO powers were led by conservatives such as then-U.S. President Bush, British Prime Minister John Major and German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.But when NATO leaders gathered in Washington last weekend to celebrate the organization's 50th anniversary -- and considered the unsteady state of its war in Kosovo -- almost all of them represented left-of-center governments. Apart from conservative French President Jacques Chirac, all the other seats at the head table are now held by baby boomers who consider themselves progressives: President Clinton, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

Still infant, the 1992 presidential campaign in one regard already resembles its recent pre- decessors: It proceeds by inflating one electoral myth after another, as a street vendor pumps helium into a child's balloon. It then watches fascinatedly as the myth swells; and when it explodes, it goes on to another without pause or apology.The latest of these curious political trial balloons is the notion that what really matters to Americans are domestic matters, not foreign affairs, and that the president's domination of the latter is actually, mirabile dictu, a disadvantage.

WASHINGTON -- Declaring that the U.S. commitment to peace in the Middle East did not end with the liberation of Kuwait, President Bush announced last night his intention to help resolve the long-standing Arab-Israeli dispute as well as the tension in Lebanon.While reporting to Congress that the first of the U.S. forces involved in the Persian Gulf war would begin returning today, Mr. Bush also announced that U.S. air and ground forces would continue to take part in joint military exercises in the region.