Early Morning in New Haven….
An ABC producer called Friday afternoon and asked if I’d do a segment on Good Morning America Saturday on the breaking FBI/Clinton news. ABC kindly offered to send a camera crew to the hotel I was at in New Haven, and so I of course agreed. (You can see the TV clip, if you care to, here.) So I came downstairs around 6:15, checked and found the crew set up as promised in one of the hotel conference rooms on the mezzanine floor, and headed to the lobby to get some coffee and figure out what to say about the latest Clinton/FBI developments.
But, hey, it’s an academic town. Worse, it’s New Haven. Why should a hotel–a pretty substantial one, at that–provide coffee, either free or available to purchase, at 6:15 am? They’re on college time. The little coffee place in the hotel would open at 7:00, I was informed.
Well, we were right near the Yale campus. Surely there’d be a Starbucks or Peet’s within a stone’s throw. Nope. All I could see nearby were cutesy organic cold-brew cafes that–I gathered–might open at 8:30 am if the baristas were so moved that particular day.
Not to fear–the story has a happy ending. The helpful desk clerk at the hotel steered me to a Dunkin’ Donuts a couple of blocks away that seemed to cater to cops and criminals who were being deterred by the cops. It was open, I got my coffee, and imbibed enough of it by air time that I was semi-coherent (I think) in my comments. But I report this mini-almost-traumatic-
The one-day conference that brought me to New Haven, I might add, was excellent. Sponsored by the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale, it brought together some distinguished academics like James Ceaser, Morris Fiorina, and Beverly Gage, along with non-distinguished types like me, to discuss “The Future of the Party System in America.” The panels provided plenty of food for thought on what our politics may look like after Trump, whether fundamental changes in the parties and the party system are likely or not, etc. My main conclusion, which might seem like a cop-out, and I suppose in a way is one, is this: The range of possible outcomes is very great. American politics in 2019 could look a lot like American politics in 2015–or it could be in the process of fundamental transformation. And reporting on, and trying to help shape that transformation for good if it’s going to happen, will make the next few months and years very interesting.
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Speaking of interesting, we’ve expanded our podcast offerings–and I’ve got to say, one’s better than the next. There are our old reliable daily (well, almost daily) podcasts, in which Michael Graham discusses the news of the day with various and sundry TWS types. If you’re not in the habit of sampling them when they appear on weeklystandard.com, here are a few recent ones: mine from Saturday responding to the news about Hillary and the FBI, and Fred Barnes on the same topic. If you want more of me, there’s also a regular Friday podcast, Kristol Clear, broadcast (if that’s the word for a podcast–it’s all very confusing!) on Podcast One.
Podcast One also features a terrific end of week wrap-up hosted by my colleague, Eric Felten, the Confab. Eric discusses issues of the week and features of the magazine with our colleagues; last week’s had Fred Barnes on the Trump/Ryan fight, Ethan Epstein on Trump’s chances in Nevada, and Andy Ferguson on California’s crazy Prop 60. Check it out here.
And then there’s the new kid on the block, “The Weekly Substandard,” which will be featured weekly on the website. In this, my colleagues Vic Matus and Jonathan V. Last along with former colleague Sonny Bunch discuss movies and popular culture, what’s out in theaters as well as the classics, with a considerable amount of knowledge and insight—more knowledge and insight on pop culture than most grown men would admit to. Vic and Jonathan have been at THE WEEKLY STANDARD for about 20 years and have written a lot on film, television, and pop culture. Sonny Bunch was our former assistant literary editor (and, more important, a former intern–and a fine one: He always had just the right amount of half-and-half in the coffee he picked up from downstairs. It’s hard to find good interns these days…) Anyway, Sonny’s now the film critic and executive editor of the Washington Free Beacon and a contributor to the Washington Post. So do tune in to THE WEEKLY SUBSTANDARD to get your weekly dose of movie talk with a dash of light humor, wit, and wisdom along with a bit of snark.
And for your additional listening pleasure, a bonus: Eric Felten on the Adam Carolla podcast!
Adam Carolla is one of America’s most listened to Podcasters, and is former co-host of the Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel. He was also the host of the famous Loveline program a syndicated radio show. Adam and Eric discuss podcasting, writing, the jazz trombone, and the 2016 presidential election.
Like the Kristol Clear Podcast and the Confab podcast, Carolla’s podcast is on Podcast One.
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Quite a World Series we’re having! (By the way, I’d made the point a while ago in one of these missives that there was something amusingly and boastfully American about calling a contest among American teams in a distinctively American sport the “World Series.” But a reader, Steven W. Balster, wrote in to inform me: “And tell the boss, it’s called the World Series because it was originally sponsored by the New York World, and then got shortened to just the World Series.” So much for my grand sociological-cultural speculation! (Though in a way my point still holds, I suppose, since Americans don’t know that origin and do seem to like the implication that winning our national pastime is a world-historic event.)
In any case…let me report on the results of the two contests we had to pick the World Series teams. In the contest at the beginning of the season, in April, twelve people predicted the Cubs winning the series. But only one, Janis H. Evans, predicted they would face the Indians. So win or lose for the Cubs, she is the winner of the first contest, hands down. Incidentally, Ms. Evans picked them to win in seven games. If that’s the result Wednesday night, given that Ms. Evans made this prediction in April, I think I’ll be asking her to accompany a few of us on a trip to Las Vegas…
As for the more recent contest, 25 readers picked the Cubs to win the whole thing. But none predicted they’d face the Indians. Eight readers picked the Indians to win–and of them four readers correctly predicted they would face the Cubs. So we have four winners of at least a silver prize, and if the Indians do prevail, all four of you (one of whom is my colleague, Jim Swift–do federal rules and regulations permit him to participate in this game?) will get a YUGE prize.
I have lots of pseudo-deep thoughts on the nature of baseball, some of which you’ve glimpsed already, that I’ll save for next week’s newsletter. I’ll close this one by recommending Tom Boswell’s piece here paying well-deserved tribute to Indians’ manager Terry Francona, and his broader tribute to the virtues of baseball here. I’ve got to cut the newsletter short now, since the aforementioned Jim Swift (who hails from Cleveland) has the job of getting it out, and we’ve got only a short window between his recovering from crying himself to sleep last night and his departing for Cleveland to prepare for the onerous task of attending Game Six tomorrow evening as special WEEKLY STANDARD correspondent! (Note to corporate bosses: His friends out there got him this ticket; it’s not coming out of our “incidentals” budget.)
So to Jim, safe travels, to Cubs and Indians fans good luck, and to all of us, thank you to baseball for a great post-season when we needed it most.
As for my thoughts and my colleagues’ on Comey, Clinton, Trump and everything else–stay tuned to weeklystandard.com for the next eight days…
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Onward!
Bill Kristol
