Bill Bennett: “all I know is what I read in the newspapers. Based on what I do know about public policy and what I read in the…”

“all I know is what I read in the newspapers. Based on what I do know about public policy and what I read in the newspapers, I would be very frightened if all I knew was what I read in the newspapers because newspapers often get things wrong. It has been interesting to me, as we have had the buildup to this discussion in the Senate about Iraq, there have been a number of very thoughtful pieces written that have appeared in the newspapers, and I wish to draw on some of those and quote from some of them at length here today. It so happens that both of the pieces I will use today appeared in the Washington Post, but there have also been useful pieces in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Before I get to that, I want to describe a conversation I had once as a younger man that has been an absolute paradigm conversation in my understanding of politics. I was having lunch with an old friend, a very experienced political hand, a man who had once served President Eisenhower as a close member of his staff. We were discussing a certain candidate for President. I said, somewhat improperly, because it was rather arrogant for me to do this: Is this candidate smart enough to be President of the United States? My old friend answered immediately. He said: Of course not. Nobody is. Then he went on to explain. As I say, he was a man who had been at Eisenhower's elbow during some of the most significant decisions of our time, and he made this point.…”