Americans, You Are the Weakest Links

And now the most fascinating two minutes in television, the latest from the wartime grapevine:

Simpatico With Americans on Cuba
The American public, it appears, thinks well of Jimmy Carter and agrees with some of his ideas about Cuba. Carter is thought of favorably by 73 percent in the latest FOX News Opinion Dynamics poll, just four points below President Bush's favorable rating. And 63 percent think people should be able to travel freely to Cuba. But when it comes to actually going there, a total of 74 percent said they were either not very interested or not at all interested.

Viewpoint for the Lead
David Brock, the liberal, turned conservative, turned liberal again journalist, writes in his current book that his conservative period began when he covered a speech at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. He says the speaker U.N. Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick was shouted down by left-wing protesters who threw mock blood at the podium. He said he wrote the lead story for the student paper about the incident, which changed his political views, and led him to help start what he calls a "neoconservative" student magazine. It now appears that Brock did not cover the speech for the student paper, nor can anyone except him remember any mock blood being thrown at the podium. We learn this courtesy of a Bay area publication called the EastBay Express, which says its investigation also revealed that no one else noticed any change in Brock's views and that the publication he helped start was not conservative and was a newspaper not a magazine.

What's Up, Doc?
Anne Robinson, the tart-tongued British host of the quiz show The Weakest Link, which is being dropped from American TV, says she thinks Americans are stupid and she told London's Daily Mirror she includes George W. Bush in that. In fact, she says she saw him wave at the blind singer Stevie Wonder. Unfortunately that story has long since been shown to be a tall tale, because the videotape of the incident makes clear Bush was waving at Kelsey Grammer, host of the event.

Takes Fishy Criticism from His Wife?
The first lady of Taiwan, Wu Shu Chen, has warned her husband that if he cheats on her, she'll run against him in the next election. She also referred to President Chen Shui-Bian in a news conference in Taipei this week as Tuna Belly. She told the reporters that it's impossible to buy pajamas for him because his stomach would pop the buttons on a size small and the size medium sleeves are too long for his arms.