Essay

Pitch Perfect: For a Fund-Raising Virtuoso, The Medium Is A Mixed Message

By Garry Trudeau

(TIME, March 17) -- When Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan recently canceled a long-planned donors' dinner, he had the right idea: collecting private money at the apogee of public disgust over the practice is perverse. The White House sees no such disconnect. If, in fact, the sign of a first-rate intellect is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind and still function, then President Clinton is as smart as he wants to be, which unfortunately is not smart enough to know better. For him, fund raising is a no-brainer.