"We're never going to get people all in agreement about force and use of force. But action -- confident action that will yield positive results -- provides kind of a slipstream into which reluctant nations and leaders can get behind." So spoke President Bush in a reflective interview with The Washington Post's Bob Woodward. The syntax is characteristically challenged, but the idea expressed is exactly right. And many, many presidents, including the past two, have often failed to grasp it.

Woodward's series on George W. Bush's handling of the presidency post-Sept. 11 makes for very interesting reading because it sheds some light on the combination of qualities that make some men good leaders. These traits are not always evident from a resume (though George Bush's resume, which included Yale undergrad, Harvard business school and governor of Texas, was just fine).

WASHINGTON -- Ever since her disputed election to the U.S. Senate from Louisiana six years ago, Mary Landrieu has nimbly performed the dance favored these days by many Southern Democrats seeking statewide office: voting liberal and talking conservative. Thanks to her state's baroque election laws, however, she may trip in quest of a second term.

Sen. Landrieu campaigned as George W. Bush's best friend in Louisiana's Nov. 5 election against three Republican opponents, but failed to reach the 50 percent needed for election, thanks to an anemic African-American turnout. Now, with the White House mobilized behind Republican Suzanne Haik Terrell, Landrieu has to appeal to black voters without alienating her white support.

In analyzing the recent Democratic bath in the off-year election, black Representative Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., defeated in her own primary, accused the Democratic Party of "taking black voters for granted." Tavis Smiley, black NPR commentator, made the same assertion while chastising his guest, former Vice President Al Gore, for allegedly committing the same crime.

The Democrats-take-black-votes-for-granted argument goes as follows: Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe insulted blacks by failing to provide greater financial assistance to black Democratic New York gubernatorial candidate Carl McCall. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy Townsend failed to choose a black running mate, instead selecting a Republican-turned-Democrat. Former Vice President Al Gore insulted blacks in failing to more aggressively challenge allegations of Florida black "voter disenfranchisement." Thus, goes the reasoning, Democrats "take black voters for granted."

AUSTIN, Texas -- Readin' the newspapers anymore is eerily reminiscent of all those bad novels warning of the advent of fascism in America. "It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis was a bad book, and the genre shades off into right-wing paranoia about black helicopters, including the memorably awful "Turner Diaries." I don't use the f-word myself -- in fact, for years, I've made fun of liberals who hear the approach of jackbooted fascism around every corner. But to quote a real authority on the subject, "Fascism should more properly be called corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini.

Paul Krugman recently quoted "the quite apolitical website Corporate Governance, which matter-of-factly remarks, ‘Given the power of corporate lobbyists, government control often equates to de facto corporate control anyway.'" It's gettin' downright creepy out there.

A tax-cut battle royale is shaping up in the White House, with President Bush's economic team divided over which measures will best strengthen incentives for economic growth and stock-market investment.

Economists Larry Lindsey and Glen Hubbard continue to favor a broad-based tax-cut package that would boost stock-market values and increase after-tax cash flows for businesses and families. Those two made similar arguments a year ago, but they were overruled by Paul O'Neill and Mitch Daniels -- the Bush advisors who favor a much more austere economic strategy based on deficit reduction.