Here’s my latest at newyorker.com: “[President Obama] is the most ill-prepared person to assume the presidency in my lifetime. This is a guy who literally is walking around in a dark room trying to find the light switch of leadership.” –Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, at a Republican dinner in Lexington, Kentucky. New Items …
Joe Nocera made a good point about education in the Times yesterday. “[S]ocial scientists have contended — and unquestionably proved — that students’ socioeconomic backgrounds vastly outweigh what goes on in the school as factors in determining how much they learn. Richard Rothstein of the Economic Policy Institute lists dozens of reasons why this is …
Several years ago, I had a conversation with the political commentator Jeff Greenfield about how the personal appearance of candidates affects elections. Most of our conversation focused on facial hair, and its almost total disappearance among political candidates, especially among those for national or state-wide office. Jeff thought the fashion against facial hair would be …