IT CAN BE DONE

Here’s how to confront our looming fiscal crisis. If the president were really interested in promoting the “responsibility society,” he’d spend this election campaign showing how he’s going to save future generations from crushing debt. Instead, we get gauzy, feel-good ads designed to obscure the challenges we really face.

IT CAN BE AVOIDED: Bob Barr, uber-conservative foe of Bill Clinton and architect of the Defense of Marriage Act, reiterates his opposition to the anti-gay constitutional amendment: “I just don’t think the federal government should use the Constitution to start defining social relationships. And I say that as a very strong opponent of same-sex marriage. But to me, just because you have a problem — that’s not a reason to amend the Constitution.”