Sore Loser?

The latest from the Political Grapevine:

Sore Loser?

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is in Washington last week to pay his respects to President Reagan. Gorbachev however, stopped short of giving his former adversary credit for winning the Cold War. Telling The Washington Post, "That's not serious. I think we all lost the Cold War.”

Gorbachev says, his own, "Growing credibility and prestige forced the United States to deal with him on arms control." And that Reagan, "Wanted to look good in terms of making peace."

Then and Now

In 1988 the noted liberal historian Arthur Schlessinger wrote, "A few years from now, I believe, Reaganism will seem a weird and improbable memory, a strange interlude of national hallucination, rather as the McCarthyism of the early 1950s and the youth rebellion of the late 1960s appear to us today."

In this week's Newsweek Schlessinger continues to assert that Reagan, quote, "had no capacity for analysis and no command of detail." But he praises his eloquence and optimism and says his lasting legacy will be the end of the Cold War, which Schlessinger calls a, "historic achievement in foreign policy."

Forgotten Factor

A new Los Angeles Times poll says John Kerry leading President Bush among registered voters nationwide by 7 percent, 51-44. In a front page article The Times attributes his lead to concerns about the country's direction and doubts about President Bush's policies, but nowhere does The Times mention that their poll surveyed 13 percent more Democrats than Republicans.

Times pollster Susan Pinkus stands by the results, says that factoring in party affiliation in a national poll, “makes no sense."

Kofi's Comments

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan says the United Nations is need in of, "enlightened American leadership," to repair what he calls, "the crisis of damaged international solidarity."

Delivering the commencement address at Harvard University, he asked the audience, "What kind of world would it be, and who would want to live in it, if every country was allowed to use force, without collective agreement, simply because it thought there might be a threat?"

He added, "All great American leaders have understood this," a remark, which grew laughter and loud applause.

— FOX News' Michael Levine contributed to this report