The Inside Passage
THE SAVVY CRUISERS came to Seattle a day early to experience the delights of Pike Place Market and Copper River salmon, which has just come into season. The rest of us embarked on Saturday morning and set sail that afternoon for the third annual WEEKLY STANDARD cruise, this year heading north to Alaska.
During the kick-off panel about the coming election, Bill Kristol noted that in 1951 and 1967 you couldn’t have predicted who the candidates for president would be the following year. “Things tend to happen more suddenly and unpredictably” in elections during war time, he explained. Fred Barnes echoed those sentiments, reminding attendees of the great media expectations that existed for the presidential campaigns of Howard Baker, Ted Kennedy, and Gary Hart–as well as the unexpected victory of the unknown Jimmy Carter in 1976 and the unexpected loss of George H.W. Bush in 1992, after he had looked all but invincible following the Gulf War. Elections are always volatile, Barnes noted, and this one may prove to be more so than others.
Kristol and Barnes fielded questions from cruisers about Hillary, Obama, Newt, the prospects for a third-party run and other interesting aspects of the coming election. And that was just to get things started.
In the afternoon, Washington Post columnist and former Bush speechwriter Michael Gerson gave a fascinating talk about what it was like to have a ringside seat to history on September 11, 2001 and in the days that followed. After that, I joined Terry Eastland, Claudia Anderson, Phil Terzian, and Military.com’s Christian Lowe on a panel discussing the state of the Old and New Media.
We’re at sea all day today and the luxurious ms Oosterdam is shrouded in mist and blanketed by cloud cover; if you look closely, you can make out mountains off to both port and starboard as we follow the inside passage north. The ship is great and the food is better, with different versions of Baked Alaska being served every night. (Old joke: You board cruise ships as a passenger and leave as cargo.) But the real fun begins tomorrow when we reach Juneau and have our first chance to see Alaska proper. There will helicopters, float-planes, fly-fishing, dog-sledding, hiking, and a host of other exciting excursions. Should be fun.
Next year’s cruise departs on March 24, 2008 for the Caribbean and Points Unknown. Don’t be left out! We ran out of cabins this year, so if you want first crack at getting on the 2008 trip, drop us an email at [email protected].
–Jonathan V. Last
