Policy Suggestions for President Obama: Let 18-Year-Olds Drink
The Wall Street Journal has rounded up a variety of characters to give President Barack Obama some tips for what to do next/first. Nation Editor Katrina vanden Heuvel says spend, baby, spend; Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin commends fiscal discipline, tax cuts, and building up the military; former Sen. George McGovern (D-S.D.) says feed the hungry; Francis Fukuyama says tackle entitlements; and so on.
And Instapundit's Glenn Reynolds suggests inculcating respect for disparate ideological points of view and comes up with a specific idea that's not only right, but do-able:
I will make one policy proposal. Some of my fellow libertarians hope that the Obama administration will put an end to the drug war. I hope so too, but I'm not too optimistic. Instead, I propose a smaller step toward freedom—eliminating the federally mandated drinking age of 21. This mandate was a creature of Elizabeth Dole (who is no longer in the Senate to complain at its abolition), and it has unnecessarily limited the freedom of legal adults, old enough to fight for their country, to drink adult beverages.
Reason's Radley Balko talks with former Middlebury College president John McCardell, head of the Amethyst Initiative, which seeks to lower the drinking age.