The First Three Days
It’s going to be an interesting year. It’s going to be an interesting four years.
There’s no point repeating here what’s been said elsewhere. That’s what links are for. So…for my thoughts from the day before the inauguration (which hold up now, I believe), you can read my editorial in the new print issue. There I suggest Obama and Trump don’t illustrate the range of political possibilities, that the nation will be able to “see beyond progressivism and look above populism.” For my thoughts the morning after inauguration, take a listen to my podcast with Michael Graham here. (Someone on Twitter said it was unusually animated. Perhaps. These are animating times.)
If I may say so myself, we had a lot of insightful analysis online of Trump’s first couple of days in office. I’d call attention particularly to Alice Lloyd’s amusing and interesting account of the Women’s March, Jonathan Last’s great dissection of the Sean Spicer episode (which as I write Monday morning is apparently being discussed on Morning Joe), and Steve Hayes’s report on the Senate Democrats delaying Mike Pompeo’s confirmation as head of the CIA. And there’s lots more. There’s also a lot to read in the new issue, including important pieces on governing by old pros Chris DeMuth and Jeff Bergner, which senior Trump administration officials would benefit from reading.
Speaking of Twitter, since so much transpires these days on it, I’ll suggest again that you might want to take a look at various TWS contributors’ Twitter feeds. It’s easy, even if you’re not registered on Twitter. You can follow what our staff is tweeting, without an account, by bookmarking this link. And the @WeeklyStandard Twitter account also tweets out links to many of our pieces, so it’s another way of keeping up with what’s on the website.
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And then there were eight
So it’s the Patriots and Falcons in the Super Bowl. A careful review of all the entries to our competition reveals that of the 110 of you who competed (and of the 60 or so alive going into this weekend), only 8 picked those two teams to make it. Or maybe I should say, in the spirit of Sean Spicer, that an amazingly large number of 8 people got the two finalists right! Six of you have the Patriots winning, two the Falcons–so we’ll have to break the tie in either case by seeing who comes closer to the final score.
Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to today’s editorial meeting: Steve Hayes and John McCormack (Packers fans) will be glum, and Mike Warren (Atlanta) and Chris Caldwell and Michael Graham (Boston) will be happy. Indeed, I ran into Caldwell in the garage coming in early this morning, and he was happy to deliver a lengthy (and very interesting) speech on the brilliance of Bill Belichick. It only ended when I told him I really needed to head next door for coffee. When we got upstairs, Chris sent over this link to a video of the Pats’ great receiver, Julian Edelman, in which Edelman reveals a bizarre (if sophisticated) sense of humor: When complaining to a ref, he says, “I get so defensive! My therapist yells at me for that!” This suggests that even though the games were one-sided, we’ll still be able to spend at least half an hour discussing them at our editorial meeting, so won’t have too much time to consider the state of the nation instead. Sad!
In any case, for a pertinent rumination on sports and politics, take a look at Tom Boswell’s recent column in the Washington Post. And given how terrific the most recent NBA Finals, World Series, and College Football Championship have been, I suppose we’re at least entitled to hope for another good Super Bowl. Which we can then discuss at length in our editorial meeting in two weeks…
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Fellowships Galore
Let me flag two fellowship opportunities for young people, in case you know strong candidates or know people who might know strong candidates. One is for students, the other for young journalists.
For students: A new undergraduate program devoted to the study of Leo Strauss’s thought, administered by the Salvatori Center at Claremont McKenna College, will hold its inaugural session from June 5th to June 9th of 2017.
This one-week fellowship will offer 15 exceptional undergraduates and recent graduates the chance to study the thought of Leo Strauss with faculty from Claremont McKenna College and visiting scholars. The program will meet for 2 three-hour sessions each day and will focus on selections from Natural Right and History, Thoughts on Machiavelli, and Persecution and the Art of Writing.
The program will be held at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, CA. Participants will be given complimentary accommodations in the residence halls and a $1,500 stipend to offset travel and other expenses. Both students familiar and unfamiliar with the writings of Leo Strauss are encouraged to apply. Applications are due February 12, 2017. Full program information can be found on the program’s website.
If you know outstanding students who should be applicants to this program, please nominate them by e-mailing the coordinator, Petria Hoffpauir, at [email protected]. Please provide a brief description of the student’s abilities, interest in studying the thought of Leo Strauss, and the contact information (name and e-mail address) of the student you are nominating.
For journalists: Know any print and electronic journalists with less than 10 years of professional experience? They’re eligible for the 2017 Robert Novak Journalism Fellow
The Novak Journalism Fellowshi
To apply online, visit here or contact:
The Robert Novak Journalism Fellow
The Fund for American Studies
1706 New Hampshire Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Email: Vanessa Hederson, [email protected]
I should add that many TWS writers and contributors have benefitted from these generous fellowships. I’ll also add that getting this notice of the Novak Fellowships recently brought back fond memories of the late Bob Novak, who wrote for TWS here, whose memoir was reviewed in TWS here, and who was remembered by his long-time friend Fred Barnes here.
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Onward.
Bill Kristol
