Word: babbittism
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...farmers could freely sell or lease their water rights, profit motives would provide a powerful incentive for conservation. In Arizona, where such "water ranching" is widespread, farmers are drawing top dollar and, in the words of former Governor Bruce Babbitt, "retiring to beachfront condos in La Jolla ((Calif.)) to raise martinis instead of alfalfa." If water rights were widely traded, proponents say, cities and factories could assure their needs for posterity. Agriculture would still receive four-fifths of the West's water and would thrive, despite the increased costs...
...worth $40 billion and booming, not least among foreign visitors. Western recreation should get a fresh boost from water marketing. Many environmentalists support the concept, especially as it recognizes the "in- stream values" of water: for trout fishing, white-water rafting and habitat for game birds and animals. Says Babbitt: "In many parts of the West, a cow has a lot less economic value than an elk." It is time for water laws and practices to recognize that new equation...
...cares what banks fail in Yonkers, it is the upbeat message that conquers." Look what happened to the Cassandras with apocalyptic new ideas. Jack Kemp's earnest seminars on gold-bug economics went the way of Pete du Pont's Iowa lectures on the evils of farm subsidies. Bruce Babbitt's budgetary bravery proved that press puffery persuades few primary voters. Dick Gephardt's political stock soared only after he softened his overheated it's-midnight-in-A merica rhetoric...
...himself into Mr. Maladroit, it is easy to forget how his hyperaggressive debate posture put a crimp in all the wimp talk. Jackson's dominance of the Democratic debates helped him narrow his credibility gap as a serious contender. There were also casualties from these protracted trials by rhetoric: Babbitt, plagued by near palsied facial contortions, and Hart, who returned to the fray looking like the portrait of Dorian Gray...
...deceiving. Finally, a few words about the press, that media mob of 3,000 journalists who descended on Iowa like commandos hitting the beaches of Normandy. Certainly, when it came to influencing the results, the press proved to be a paper tiger. Despite his glowing clip file, Bruce Babbitt foundered in Iowa, while Bob Dole, the media's favorite Republican, was upended in New Hampshire -- and later had the temerity to blame the press in part for his defeat. Reporters were doomed to repeat as gospel political orthodoxies that were soon outpaced by events. Try these on for nostalgia...