Would Soviets like being like us?

Through the miracle of CNN, we were able to watch George Bush,41st U.S. president, address Russians in Moscow and Ukrainians inKiev. He was erudite if condescending in lecturing them on theproper cures for their manifold problems of ethnic diversity anddisastrous economics. His advice boiled down to, "Be like us."

Through the same miracle of electronic communication we werealso able to watch "us." The Senate was debating the defenseauthorization bill; the House was debating (or rather ignoring) theSenate's pay raise, and both debates were so soporific that it waseasy to understand why our president would rather hear applause fromlegislators in Moscow or Kiev than talk …