Each achieves one or both of two objectives — making liberals feel good about themselves and being good to liberal candidates.

Still, it is not perverse to wonder whether the spectacle of America, currently learning a lesson - one that conservatives should not have to learn on the job - about the limits of power to subdue an unruly world, has emboldened many enemies.

Modern Americans travel light, with little philosophic baggage other than a fervent belief in their right to the pursuit of happiness.

Football combines the two worst things about America: it is violence punctuated by committee meetings.

On March 8 a poll showed Hart 9 points ahead of Reagan. So perhaps 60 million Americans, 55 million of whom had not heard of Hart a month ago, have suddenly decided thay want him to be leader of the free world. The public mind is not just soft wax, it's runny.

As has been said, standards are always out of date - that is why we call them standards.

The great task of life is transmission: the task of transmitting the essential tools and graces of life from our parents to our children