The latest from the Political Grapevine:
Explain Paris, Please?
For those wondering why Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat chose to go to France for treatment, a new poll there shows that 43 percent of French citizens believe Arafat is not a terrorist but a "hero of national resistance." Only 27 percent consider him a terrorist.
What's more, when asked if they tend to sympathize with the Palestinians or the Israelis in the Middle East conflict, only 13 percent of French citizens say the Israelis. More than twice that many say the Palestinians.
Kerry-ing Hard Feelings?
Since the election last week more than a dozen John Kerry supporters in Palm Beach County have taken themselves to a Florida psychologist, suffering from what American Health Association officials are now calling "post-election selection trauma."
Psychologist Douglas Schooler, quoted by the Boca Raton News, says people he saw were so "emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated" by President Bush's victory, that they just stared listlessly into space. He treated them with "intense hypnotherapy."
Meanwhile, Kerry adviser James Carville is calling on fellow Democrats to face reality, insisting "we have to come to grips with the fact that we are an opposition party right now, and not a particularly effective one."
He said, "We've got to reassess ourselves. We've got to be born again."
Running for What?
Florida Republican Governor Jeb Bush is pleading with reporters to stop asking him if he's going to run for the U.S. Senate in 2006 or for the Presidency in 2008, insisting he has no such plans.
He says, "Why am I not believable on this subject? This is driving me nuts."
Meanwhile, two politicians who failed to win the presidency this year have yet to deny reports of their latest ambitions.
The Associated Press says Democrat Howard Dean may try to become chairman of the Democratic National Committee, and John Kerry's brother tells the Boston Globe it's "conceivable" the Massachusetts senator will run again for President in four years.
Freedom Fights Terror?
Despite the belief that poverty nurtures terrorism, a new study shows that there is no link between the two.
The study, however, did find that — with the exception of totalitarian regimes — the more political freedom a country affords, the less likely it is to be hit with terrorism.
The study — conducted by an associate professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and outlined in a school newspaper — examined the nearly 1,800 reports of domestic and international terrorism last year with respect to a number of variables, and found that political freedom was one of the only variables that related to levels of terrorism.
— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox