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Michael Chabon and Frank Rich

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from: Frank Rich

Political Boneheadedness, Right Out of the Gate

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2001, at 1:31 PM ET

Dear Michael,

I like the idea of turning a breakfast club into a supper club, though my nocturnal wardrobe (and menu) is far less glamorous than you imagine, alas. I've always been a night person and have never been overly keen on breakfast. Indeed I think it's impossible to have repartee at breakfast except in Tracy-Hepburn movies. So I'm glad to be defying the normal Slate a.m. slate on this.

But as I write, it's now morning in L.A.--if not necessarily America. So please don't expect anything too scintillating from me. The caffeine intravenous has only just been hooked up.

As for Bush's first-week-in-office run on family planning, it just goes to show that he may not have the Reaganesque political skills that his promoters have hawked all these months. To upstage the feel-good headline you want--President Rescues Inner City Schoolchildren With Brilliant New Compassionate Plan--with Any (and I do mean any) Headline About Abortion is self-defeating. Democrats should take long-run heart, maybe even cheer, from this political boneheadedness right out of the gate--gloomy as the short run is.

Trying not to think about our new president, I see that five of the seven Texas fugitives that, well, the former Texas governor let escape have now been accounted for in Colorado. Last week in New York there had been all this excitement--at least on our 11 p.m. news--that these killers were on the loose in our own fair city. I pictured them turning up in, say, the audience of Seussical: there's no better place to hide out in America than in the audience of a flop Broadway musical. No one--let alone law enforcement authorities--ventures there. But this fantasy of killers on the lam in Manhattan--a throwback to the haunting New York of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay if I may say so--was not to be, sad to say.

Also in the LA Times "Calendar" section, only slightly behind the power crunch and the writers' strike in importance: "Will the Real Slim Shady Show Up at Grammys?" I have been trying for a year to write a column about this guy and still don't know what I think. The jerk has talent. His lyrics are hateful. And all I do is see this headline, and immediately I start humming his damn song. I'll throw it into your lap if you care to do anything with it.

Best,
Frank

the breakfast table
entries
12345678910111213141516
from: Frank Rich

Political Boneheadedness, Right Out of the Gate

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2001, at 1:31 PM ET
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Michael Chabon's latest novel is The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Frank Rich is an op-ed columnist for the New York Times and author, most recently, of Ghost Light.
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Reader Comments From The Fray:




Thank you Mr Rich for bringing up the no tanks in the streets comment repeated by all the talking heads on TV. I too was shocked by it. We should be celebrating because there are no tanks in the streets? We settle for so little. They had an election in Canada recently, with very high turnout(by American standards) modern voting machines, and yes no tank in the streets. The winner was declared within hours. Unlike the US they can be certain that the man in charge was elected fair and square.

Why do the talking heads repeat empty pieties? Healing, closure, no tanks, peaceful transfer? Is it to create a false sense that the system works even when there are signs that the system failed?

--James Lynch

(To reply, click here.)


The news coverage of the inauguration seemed so rote. It reminded me of my local cable access channel, which replays the same prom footage over and over and at odd times. It's odd to channel surf and come across high-schoolers decked out in tuxes and gowns, standing awkwardly on lawns, getting into limos, walking into a dance hall over and again. I'm sure the kids in the video might like the event, and must love seeing it.

So too this inauguration. The hard core Bushies and the hard core Clinton-haters were likely cheered and moved by the whole coronation process. But really. It was so forlorn.

And even Bush's well-crafted--it's a pleasure to read--acceptance speech sounded tin coming from him. Every time he speaks, even when the rhetoric's lofty, I can't help but hear the C- student he usually is, the one who describes or explains things by restating the obvious (I'm a uniter, not divider, and that means I try to bring people together, not push them apart.). I'm so used to circular logic from Bush that I'm edge whenever he speaks.

And too, Clinton's 7.5 minute farewell, it seemed to me, had more oomph and staying power than W.'s 14 minute at bat. So as Rich suggests, W. pales not only because I usually find him dim, but also, in this case, by comparison to Clinton's superior oratory style.

--Nick Carbone

(To reply, click here.)

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