The best article I’ve read on Presidential Inaugurations remains Ted Widmer’s piece in the American Scholar from 2005. The entire thing is a treat but he handily summarises the essential rules of Inauguration Speeches as: 1. I am not worthy of this great honor. 2. But I congratulate the people that they elected me. 3.
One of the first rules of punditry is Thou Shalt Disdain New York Times Columnists. Some of this, naturally, is a product of some jealousy; rather more of it a consequence of the sheer gawd-help-us ghastliness found on the Gray Lady’s op-ed page every day. Still, connoisseurs of this particular (minor) genre will enjoy Matt
Hello Spectator readers! It’s a great pleasure to be here. My thanks to the boffins for all their work in transferring this blog from its old home at The Debatable Land to these plush new surroundings. I’ve been reading the Spectator since I was a teenager and, in fact, spent a couple of weeks’ worth
Ach, Sir John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey and leading champagne socialist, has died. Sad. From a piece I wrote about him way back in 2002: Mortimer belongs, I think, in the vanguard of the supporting cast, a second lieutenant rather than a leader himself. He’s too reticent to play the
Responding to Stephen Walt’s hypothetical (What if Gaza were full of jews?), Megan McArdle compares the Israel lobby to the Irish-American lobby. Ross Douthat says, OK, but the IRA was still considered a terrorist organisation. Daniel Larison dives into the weeds of US attitudes towards Irish terrorism. He writes: The IRA was a genuine terrorist
We’re getting used – alas – to the idea that smokers will not be allowed to adopt children (abuse!) but, as always, that proves to be but the beginning, not the end of this sort of thing. To wit, a couple in Leeds have had their application to adopt denied on the grounds that the
Thinking about recent posts on the Republican party’s problems prompted this mildly disconcerting thought: So, isn’t it just a little too convenient that the Republican party might be able to solve some of its problems if only it were inclined to view matters in much the same way you do? That is if it were,
Peter Hoskin is right to be suspicious of the government’s latest ploy: mandating that all public bodies have a statutory duty to narrow the gap between rich and poor. As you might expect Polly Toynbee is tickled a deepish shade of red by the notion. Nonetheless, consider this snippet from her column today: Poor children
The first book-length accounts of the campaign will be out shortly. Ian Leslie’s book To Be President arrived this morning and my friend Mike Crowley’s “graphic diary” (drawings by Dan Goldman) of the campaign is also published this month. It will, I’m sure, be entertaining even if, unaccountably, I haven’t received a copy yet…
Lord knows, we all blunder from time to time. Still, this is pretty impressive: “Each year, in my last Economic View before Christmas, I try to shed some light on economic events of the previous 12 months by comparing what has actually happened with expectations published here in early January. This year, even more than
Since I live-blogged a darts match, I’m in no position to chuck rocks, but can I just point out that the Guardian is live-blogging Jeff Stelling’s debut as presenter of Countdown*. New media; new rules I guess. As a friend says “This makes me happy!” And so it should. *Note to American readers: a long-running
I must send this new Tory poster to my cousin who gave birth to her first child on Saturday. A fine way to welcome the wee fellow into the world…
George W Bush seems to agree with me. This isn’t as alarming as it might sound. Here’s some of what the President had to say at his final press conference this morning: I am concerned that, in the wake of the defeat, that the temptation will be to look inward and to say, well, here’s
Sometimes Scottish politics is far too exciting for its own good… An SNP pledge to give children free access to swimming pools is not being delivered, according to Labour. Scottish Labour sport spokesman Frank McAveety said only two councils provided school children with free, year-round access to pools… Mr McAveety said: “The SNP have been
I suppose it must have seemed a neat idea at the time, but Dan Drezner is absolutely correct: Bono’s debut column for the New York Times is simply gibberish*. I guess one of the perks of celebrity is being able to find a publisher for nonsense that would, quite correctly, be rejected out of hand
A friend of mine, once armed with impeccable progressive credentials, recently came out s a Conservative – much to the bemusement of his family and many of his friends. With Neill’s permission, here’s the explanation he published on his Facebook page. Sure, this is just one person’s story, but I wonder how many other people
Mickey Kaus digs up an NYT article ($ needed for full access) from 1981 comparing the manufacturing of Ford Escorts at plants in Germany and at Halewood on Merseyside. It is, as you might expect, exceedingly grisly stuff: This [German] plant produces some 1,200 cars a day, more than the 1,015 that Ford planners had
Peggy Noonan is perhaps my favourite American political columnist. She’s on good form today, not least because she takes some time to make a point this blog has long favoured: During the postspeech coverage, MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell spoke to a journalist about how presidents get advice and information. Mitchell noted that people often mean to
I doubt many Nationalists would welcome the comparison but facts are stubborn things and the fact is that the SNP and Mr Rove have quite a bit in common. Just as Rove orchestrated campaigns in 2002 and 2004 that portrayed the Democratic party as being, in some odd sense, fundamentally unpatriotic (principally for the crime
Granted, no-one in their right mind would choose Michelle Malkin as a political standard-bearer. Or gate-keeper for that matter. Nonetheless, there is the awkward fact that she’s extremely popular amongst a certain class of American conservative. I’ve already suggested that organisations such as the Club for Growth and Americans for Tax Reform are just as