Obama: the man who wasn’t there
As I was going up the stair I saw a man who wasn’t there He wasn’t there again today I wish, I wish, he’d stay away. The above ditty, “Antagonish,” is a children’s poem written at the turn of the … Continue reading →
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A tale of two infidelities: Bill vs. Eliot
John Heileman has an article in New York Magazine listing ten reasons Eliot Spitzer was politically undone by his infidelities while Bill Clinton managed to survive his. The most important reasons seem to be that Spitzer had already become very … Continue reading →
Obama vs. McCain: profiles in courage
Peter Wehner presents an absolutely devastating critique of Obama’s most visible foreign policy record, his position on Iraq. It’s also the record of which Obama is most proud. But if one closely follows his shifting statements, it’s hard to conclude … Continue reading →
Mamet: the end of the beginning
David Mamet’s Village Voice piece on his political conversion—“Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’”—has caused a minor sensation. To me, of course, it’s an old story, not only because I experienced something of the sort myself, but because … Continue reading →
Mamet, change, and Eliot Spitzer
No, there’s not really any relation between Mamet, change, and Eliot Spitzer. Except that I was planning to write a post today on playwright David Mamet’s Village Voice essay “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal.’” It seemed tailor-made … Continue reading →
Caught on tape: Ballet, “Walpurgis Nacht,” and Plisetskaya
I grew up in New York City during what may have been the golden age of ballet. My parents loved dance, and so they took me at an early age to see the greats—the New York City Ballet and American … Continue reading →
Continuing evidence that being a Harvard professor is no guarantee against stupidity…
…or delusions. Hillary’s “red phone” ad may have been many things, but racist was not one of them.
Continue reading →Presidential campaign as boxing match: the “refs” and the candidates
Presidential races require strategy. As they’ve become longer and more complex, they’ve taken on qualities somewhere between a marathon, a boxing match, and an advertising campaign. Special advisers can help the candidates, much like trainers, coaches, and promoters. But still, … Continue reading →
In the villages of Al Anbar
Michael Totten’s latest. Worth reading, as always.
Continue reading →My mother takes a walk
[NOTE: For earlier posts about my mother, see this one about her stroke, this one about her recuperation, and this one about her move from the New England town where we’d both been living to the New York City community … Continue reading →
Presidents, that ringing telephone, and military service
By now the consensus is that Hillary’s red phone ad probably helped her comeback on Super Tuesday Two. The ad was controversial but traditional, in the mold of a famous ad Walter Mondale used against Gary Hart in 1984, and … Continue reading →
Michele Obama: portrait in audacity
Candidates’ spouses (we can’t just say “wives” anymore, can we?) are less important than the candidates themselves. But they still have an effect on elections. Most spouses still try to go the old route of staying bland enough to cause … Continue reading →