A large chunk of the 90,185 booed when they first saw President Clinton's face on the Rose Bowl's big TV screen during the Women's World Cup final between the U.S. and China. He wasn't shown a second time.

I did notice, though, that everytime Clinton was shown on ABC during the game, he was eating something.

Clinton's motorcade arrived an hour later than scheduled and caused hundreds of people -- many with pricey seats -- to miss part of the first half. That included Marla Messing, the president of the tournament's organizing committee, who finally reached her seat about 10 minutes into the game.

"Here I am, waiting to greet the president, and I must admit I was a little bit furious," Messing said. "I missed the start of the game. I missed the pregame ceremonies. This is three years of my life I spent working on this, and I'm not out there to see it."

Robert Potts, of Alexandria, observes ...

The son of a powerful father in a large political family is running for president. No one has a clear idea what the son will do as president, but he is an attractive candidate with an attractive family.

The last eight years have been good, but the country is beginning to tire of the old crowd and is ready for something new. The son faces primary battles in key early states, but he has a large war chest ready to finance these contests.

In the fall he will face the vice president, a man who served in the House and the Senate and who has been a loyal No. 2 at the White House. The vice president has more experience in foreign policy and in the details of government, but he has a stiff, somewhat uncomfortable manner in public.

The year? 1960. John F. Kennedy vs. Richard Nixon.

Anti-death penalty advocates were upset this week when 344-pound Allen "Tiny" Davis was punished in the electric chair, and in the process suffered a bloody nose and mouth. The advocates say this amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. What did Davis do to be put to death? He murdered a pregnant woman and her two daughters, ages five and nine. Knowing this, doesn't his suffering seem pretty minor compared to what he inflicted on the family and friends of his victims, as well as society in general?

New York Governor George Pataki sharpened his attack on Hillary Clinton's run for the Senate, charging that the first lady's run for U.S. Senate would be fueled by ego and a desire to promote a "cockamamie national agenda" at the expense of New Yorkers.

Pataki said Mrs. Clinton "is going to say all of the right things for the people of New York" over the course of a campaign. But he insisted that New Yorkers "know what she's interested in. It is the national media, it is the national attention," the governor said. "It's being back in Washington as an important power in her own right. It's being a national spokesperson for the left."

The USA Today released a special report by James Healey that showed how the government has been pushing the myth that sport utility vehicles are a threat to safety to smaller passenger cars.

The liberal mantra that small cars have a high death rate because they get hit by the bigger SUVs took a hit, with this fact:

"Fact: In 1997, latest-available government data, 56% of small-car fatalities involved only small cars: 46% from single-car crashes, 10% from small cars running into each other. Just 1% of small-car deaths in 1997 involved collisions with midsize and large SUVs -- 136 out of 12,144 total small-car deaths that year."

In reality, the newspaper says that hundreds of people are killed in small-car wrecks each year who would survive in just slightly bigger, heavier vehicles. This is supported by government and insurance industry research. In the 24 years since a landmark law to conserve fuel, big cars have shrunk to less-safe sizes and small cars have poured onto roads. As a result, 46,000 people have died in crashes they would have survived in bigger, heavier cars, according to USA TODAY's analysis of crash data since 1975, when the Energy Policy and Conservation Act was passed.

Now I can purchase my SUV guilt-free (as if I would've thought twice about it anyway) in mid-August!

As a fan of baseball, I am insulted by Juan Gonzalez of the Texas Rangers decision to not play in the All-Star Game this week in Boston. Before the full rosters were released Gonzalez said that if asked to play, he would not accept because he was not voted in as a starter by the fans. Manger Joe Torre of the Yankees stated that he would have selected Gonzalez for a reserve spot, but did not bother after hearing of this. Gonzalez's decision and self-absorption means the spirit of the game is lost on his talent.

After two disconnected 9-1-1 calls from an elementary school, police in Woodbury, Tennessee, went to see if there was an emergency.

Police Chief Bill Avera (AY'-ver-uh) says he and two officers were investigating when they saw a five-year-old boy climbing on a chair to reach a pay phone.

Avera says the boy told them he had been brought to the office and his grandmother had been called.

He figured he was in for a paddling and said he'd been taught to call the police if he was ever in trouble.

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