The singlemost thing that impressed me about last night’s Biden-Palin debate was how fast they both talked. Both of them, and especially the slow-talkin’ westerner, ripped through their answers. Counting Gwen Ifill‘s questions, there were 17,083 words spoken in last night’s 90 minute debate; there were 16,146 spoken in last week’s presidential debate. These kids …
Here’s what’s happening with five weeks until election day. Obama‘s lead is moving beyond measurable to solid. He is achieving in some polls the talismanic mark of 50 percent. He is opening leads in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri. Two days ago, a GOP House of Representatives, egged on by phone callers roused up by right …
The first Obama-McCain debate was held late on a Friday–a weird time. Both men did well, but I scored it a narrow win for McCain–he seemed to drive the discussion more. Obama was learned and reasoned in his responses, but never–has never yet–wheeled on McCain and gone from defense to offense in a response. He …
I had lunch today at Ammos Estiatorio on Vanderbilt Avenue with my friend John Leo. John, who had a long and distinguished career as a columnist at US News & World Report, is a resident scholar at the Manhattan Institute, from whose parapets he wags a stern and scornful finger at the soggy ignorance of …
I watched the ceremonies marking the end of baseball at Yankee Stadium, and as pleasant as it was to wallow in nostalgia, it all felt a little manufactured to me. I’ve always enjoyed going to Yankee Stadium; coming out of the concourse into the grandstand and beholding the field is really a special thing that …
I had a very nice time Friday night at a fundraising dinner marking the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Hudson Valley Writers Center, a terrific organization that celebrates, teaches, and promotes writing. The event honored Ben Cheever (above, though murky)who is quite a good writer and a good friend of writers, and as …
Elizabeth Austin, a vice president of corporate communications at Playboy in Chicago, as well as a friend of Joanne Gruber, as well as an alumna of The Washington Monthly, as well as a friend of Nick Thompson, has, in the course of other correspondence, asked “Did I tell you how much I enjoyed The Coup? …
I wish I felt better about the state of things. I wish that Jim Cramer wasn’t saying we had just averted a Depression, and I wish the New York Post wasn’t reporting that we were 500 trades away from a meltdown, and I wish Chris Dodd and John Boehner weren’t on TV saying that the …
We got a visit at the office yesterday from the great James Ellroy, the author of L.A. Confidential, American Tabloid and other classic too numerous to mention. The classy Ellroy brought champagne for the staff, regaled us with memories of his favorite Playboy jokes and cartoons, talked about recording pornographic grunts for Velvet magazine in …
. . . but some artist-like bloke named Peter Tunney is displaying a dozen or so of his paintings n empty retail space at Fifth and 52nd. Most of them seem entirely too derivative and entirely too calculated to shock, not excepting the one above. But I like it.