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Politics : Bill Clinton Scandal - SANITY CHECK -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Les H who wrote (29137)	1/22/1999 10:33:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 67261

Les, you'll have to take up this argument with the 90-98% effective people, as well as the "Presidential integrity" people. It'd be nice if Clinton had the political capital to keep the ABM stuff limited to research, but he doesn't. On the START talks, I will just note in passing that the widespread modern usage of "spin" in the political context started after the Reykjavik summit, where Reagan almost cut a deal with Gorbachev on his own, somewhat deeper in the cut department than what eventually passed, but then the handlers had to blast the remnants apart. Another note in passing, Soviet nuclear capabilities were always vastly overrated, along with the rest of their military prowess. They had nuclear subs that were in port 90+% of the time (vs. 50% for our very effective fleet) and an inconsequential intercontinental bomber fleet. And their land-based ICBMs were all liquid fueled, and thus subject to great reliability problems. Remember the Titan II's? We kept a few around, because they were big, but they had a bad habit of blowing up when somebody dropped a wrench in the silo or something. The whole Russian ICBM inventory was like that. I'd say it would be a safe bet not very many were kept fueled. The dreaded SS-20 or whatever the IRBM that caused consternation in Europe was actually a remnant of a failed Soviet attempt to duplicate the Minuteman solid-fueled ICBM, which was in place from the mid 60's in the U.S. The idea that a first strike by the soviets could have taken out our land based missiles was always quite hypothetical, and there's no way the Soviets could defend against a devastating counterattack from the SLBMs.

To: Les H who wrote (29137)	1/22/1999 11:46:00 AM
From: Les H	Respond to of 67261

Presidential Approval Rating at 102% Washington D.C. - BNN polls taken immediately after President Clinton's State of the Union Address showed that the President's job approval rating sky-rocketed to a record 102%. 1012 Americans, randomly contacted by telephone after the President's speech, participated in the poll, which had a margin of error of 3%. White House Press Secretary, Joe Lockhart, said the White House welcomed the news. "The President has wondered when right-wing opponents would finally realize that the American people wanted the Republicans to cease the Impeachment process, and let the President get on with the business of the people. The President is confident that these newest poll figures will attract the notice of Republicans in the Senate" Indeed Republican leaders did notice the poll, but were quick to point out, however, that the 102% approval rating cited by the poll should be impossible. George Schicklegrubber, director of polling data at BNN, scoffed at this criticism, retorting, "I'm really tired of these ceaseless attacks on the polling process by those who know nothing of the process and the complex mathematics involved. The figure of 102% was arrived at using standard techniques which correct for statistical anomalies, such as radical, right-wing, respondents engaged in a conspiracy to skew our data."