The polls showed that people did not trust [Clinton], even more than they did not trust him the week before; but they still supported him. It could only be a matter of time, official Washington was deciding, before the proletariat caught up with the Commentariat.

Jean Chretien's Liberals, with deep-seated strength in Ontario, still have to be considered the odds-on favourite across the nation to win the next election, despite impressive recent Tory gains under Kim Campbell. But among Quebec's nationalist-minded commentariat, native son Chretien is dead in the water.

The commentariat has also had its problems, particularly, in our view, in coming to terms with the new administration. It keeps shifting the standard of judgment.