Good Show, Tony Snow Jude Wanniski November 15, 1999

What a great idea, having Pat Buchanan and Lenora Fulani on together, after Lenora endorsed Pat in his campaign for the Reform Party nomination. Yours was easily the best show Sunday morning of the regular talkies. I can't believe the producers of Meet the Press, Sam and Cokie and Face the Nation all decided to serve up several greybeards of the National Basketball Association -- to tell us what a great guy Bill Bradley is. I wanted to know what Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson think of global warming! Sure, I think Bill is a great guy too. I might even vote for him a year from now. But for goodness sakes, what a waste of a Sunday morning. At least Wolf Blitzer on CNN's Late Edition gave us Dollar Bill himself, in a genuinely interesting interview that gave me some real clues on what to expect from him down the line.

Those who viewed your show at least got a jolt, seeing Pat being figuratively embraced by a black radical lady from New York's Marxist left -- who is going to introduce him to the Rev. Al Sharpton and maybe Louis Farrakhan!! Those political reporters who can only think in linear terms probably conclude that this puts Buchanan even further outside the pale than they had believed. It looks like a terribly risky thing for Pat to do, but I don't think he would have had a chance at the brass ring if he did not do it. Pat and Lenora are even more bizarre a couple than Jim Carville and Mary Matalin, at first glance, but I think he has gone so far to the right and she to the left that they met on common ground. The political dunces at the Weekly Standard, who cannot walk and chew at the same time, made fun of me a few weeks back, having noted that I told Pat he was a Marxist without realizing it. Hey, if Marx were alive today, he would grab the nearest pitchfork and join the brigades: "Workers of the World Unite!" I actually think that Lenora Fulani, one of the brightest, most articulate women in politics today, actually will help knock some of the rough edges off Pat. A year from now, when the nation actually goes to the polls to pick the first President of the new millennium, I bet she will be the best known, most influential black woman in the world. I recently talked to her at some length by telephone after seeing her play Hardball with Chris Matthews. I could see why Pat Choate told me he thinks Lenora will soon be on the way to being big stuff in the political universe. If the Reform Party decided to shoot for the U.S. Senate seat being contested by Rudy and Hillary, it could not do better than Lenora.

I'm sure you read her statement of support for Buchanan, but if not, I refer you to Pat's website www.gopatgo.org. This team is going to shake things up, I predict, and you saw it coming first. Good job, Mr. Snow.