He's a Uniter, Not a Divider

This from a longer account in the Washington Post about the feats of strength used to determine the next pope:

Asked when the cardinals began focusing on Ratzinger as a candidate, McCarrick replied with a grin: "When we read the newspapers. Because the newspapers were telling us that Cardinal Ratzinger is the favorite. So we see, the Holy Spirit may speak through the newspapers -- sometimes even the Italian newspapers."

Hmmm...using the press to affirm the inevitable victory of a candidate. Damn, this sounds so familiar... Where have I seen this—oh, wait, now I remember!

Pressing forward with his planning for the presidency, Gov. George W. Bush met for more than three hours today with Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Senator Trent Lott, the majority leader, to discuss a strategy for enacting tax cuts, education measures and other items on his legislative agenda.

The meeting at Mr. Bush's ranch near Waco, Tex., along with arrangements that his aides made for photographs and videotape of the participants, was the latest signal that despite continued legal wrangling over the election, the Texas governor was molding himself as the inevitable president-elect.

A senior Republican aide in Congress said that the meeting was arranged largely to amplify an aura of inevitability around Mr. Bush, and Bush advisers said before the discussion today that it was likely to be fairly broad. . . .

''I'm soon to be the insider,'' Mr. Bush said. ''I'm soon to be the president.''
—New York Times, 3 December 2000