The Fray was up for personalities this week: Cornel West, Cynthia McKinney, and William Bennett were much discussed. McKinney had a lot of support in the Fray—see the notes at the end of this "Assessment"—the others, less so: Publius said he would "pay good money to hear the conversations between West and Princeton's Amy Gutmann about his prostate."

Subject: Connecting the Unconnected
Re: "Assessment: Cynthia McKinney"
From: Riccaric
Date: Fri Apr 19 2:41 p.m. PT

Conspiracy theories are a good way for those who are not connected to political power to understand how politics works. Most Americans feel powerless in relation to the government and the corporate sector, do not vote in most elections, and do not pay close attention to the mainstream media. … Their theories often constitute "good guesses" concerning dimensions of political life that the mainstream media refuses to address.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: Watch on the Whine
Re: "Chatterbox: Cornel West Whine Watch"
From: David
Date: Wed Apr 17 3:01 p.m. PT

This is a promising start, but it confines nominations to one egotist's small world. Why not generalize the Whine Watch to self-absorbed narcissists more broadly? So many await recognition: worthies with egos so galaxy-sized they risk gravitational self-collapse into neutron stars. Any Sunday morning's television offers up a journalissimo or two who fits the bill. And don't get me started on failed presidential candidates.

[Find this post here.]

Subject: Self-Help Library
Re: " Culturebox: Oprah's Book Fatigue"
From: The Bell
Date: Tue Apr 16  8:44 a.m. PT

Oprah's selections followed repetitive themes … because she seemed intent on recommending only those books that she herself might have written. … I do not believe this was a case of egotism so much as Ms. Winfrey's desire to have only products of a particular quality associated with her name. She was not performing a particularly useful editorial role in the purely literary sense. Indeed, Oprah was never running a book club so much as providing her endorsements for a self-help library that, as it turned out, contained about 70 volumes provided to the reader at the rate of one per month.

[Find this post here.]