 |
|
MARCH 9, 2011 |
 |
By Matthew Continetti |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
COLD OPEN |
 |
 |
Can someone explain to me again why Obama is a lock for reelection? I had to fill the gas tank the other day and my eyes jumped out of their sockets, Roger Rabbit-style, when I noticed I was paying around $3.50 per gallon. The turmoil in the Middle East is driving the oil price upward and there's no reason to think the turmoil will end anytime soon. The last time gasoline hovered around $4.00 a gallon, Barack Obama was the beneficiary. Not this time.
Combine high energy prices with an anemic job market, record deficits, and an unpopular health care law, and you have trouble for the incumbent. The White House clearly hopes that Obama will once again sprinkle pixie dust over the American electorate and convince it that the situation is improving. The White House also seems confident that the Republicans will shoot themselves in the foot by nominating someone too far to the right for the country. Maybe so, but Obama's powers of persuasion are seriously diminished, and praying the other guy messes up isn't exactly the best strategy. Americans may admire Obama the man. But if the economy doesn't improve quickly, they'll soon discover that there's no reason they can't admire him out of office just as well. |
 |
|
LOOKING BACK |
 |
 |
"Beer drinkers, like smokers, tend to be loyal customers, and brand loyalty is, of course, exactly what a brewer seeks to instill in its clientele. Budweiser claims to be the 'King of Beers,' but, as a number of clever Miller ads recently pointed out, Americans are not fond of monarchy. Miller's counterclaim to be the 'President of Beers,' however, was ill conceived. Budweiser noted Miller's South African ownership—foreigners can't even run for president. Coors is another mega-brewery, but I'll let you in on a dirty little secret about Coors that the twins won't tell you. As Lee Buxton, Coors's head of marketing, explains, 'The heart of Coors Light marketing is to communicate that in every bottle, can, and glass of Coors Light is the taste of Rocky Mountain cold refreshment.' That other taste might be the Rocky Flats Superfund nuclear waste site, where tons of plutonium sit 'in liquid form, contained in deteriorating piping systems'—says the EPA—just a few miles away from the Coors brewery in Golden, Colorado."
—Michael Goldfarb, "The Case for the Draught," from our May 16, 2005, issue.
Remember you get full access to THE WEEKLY STANDARD archive when you subscribe. |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
FROM THE DESKTOP |
 |
 |
How to dodge the pension disaster
Berkeley professor David L. Kirp on a mentoring program that actually works
James Piereson reviews The Neoconservative Persuasion
The Economist on "the geographical expression" of Italy
Haleh Esfandiari: "Iran's State of Fear" |
 |
|
QUOTE OF THE WEEK (SO FAR!) |
 |
 |
"The other big problem with history textbooks was that they always started at the Dawn of Civilization and ended around 1948. So we'd spend the first three months of each school year reading about the ancient Sumerians at a leisurely pace. Then the teacher would realize that time was running short, and we'd race through the rest of history, covering World War II in a matter of minutes, and getting to Harry Truman on the last day. Then the next year, we'd go back to the ancient Sumerians. After a few years of this, we began to see history as an endlessly repeating, incredibly dull cycle, starting with Sumerians and leading inexorably to Harry Truman, then going back again. No wonder so many of us turned to loud music and drugs."
—Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Bad Habits, p. 189. |
 |
|
LOOKING AHEAD |
 |
 |
|
Here's what's coming up in THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Sam Schulman looks at the history of censorship and blasphemy laws that end up doing more harm than good; Ronald Radosh and Steven T. Usdin offer more evidence showing that Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were guilty as charged; and John Simon reviews the prose of Constantine Cavafy. |
 |
|
PARTING SHOT |
 |
 |
Borders Books recently declared bankruptcy. It's set to close around a third of its stores—and that may be just the beginning. Christopher Caldwell wrote a fantastic column on the topic that you can read here. His description of Borders as a store that drifted away from books toward "cat calendars and stationery" is classic.
What's bad news for book lovers is actually good news for book buyers: The stores that are closing are all holding liquidation sales. As Caldwell notes, the Borders near our office is set to close this spring. Last Friday I went to see if I could find any bargains. As soon as I entered the store I felt like I was in Sarajevo circa 1995: It looked as though a bomb had gone off, strewing books in every direction. The periodicals section was a desiccated mess. The history section had been sacked by Visigoths. In current affairs I had to watch myself, lest I trip over copies of Donald Rumsfeld's memoir. In horror, the Stephen King paperbacks were scattered like corpses. Searching for books to buy, I felt as though I were looting a graveyard.
I remembered when I first visited a Borders. For a young person just becoming interested in the world of ideas, entering the massive store at Tyson's Corner, Va., was a revelation. Philosophy, art, history—it was all there. Over the years my nerd friends and I would go to Borders just to hang out. We would roam the shelves, talking about books and writers and pretending that we knew more than we actually did. (This skill would prove useful in the future!) It saddens me that there will be fewer opportunities for young people to learn about books in the same way. I buy a lot—a lot—of books on the Internet. The experience of browsing on the web just isn't the same.
Now, I applaud the efficient gales of creative destruction in the marketplace. But I feel skeptical toward the brave new world of the electronic book. The tension between change and stability is something you can't escape. No one ever said being an American conservative was easy.
See you next week. And don't forget you can write me at editor@weeklystandard.com.
--Matthew Continetti
 Share
P.S. To unsubscribe, click here. I promise not to take it personally. |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
MORE FROM THE WEEKLY STANDARD |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Online Store |
 |
|
Squeeze the head to the left to relieve stress. Yes you can! Only at our store. |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
Subscribe Today |
 |
|
Get the magazine that The Economist has called "a wry observer of the American scene." |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
 |
 |
 |
Read probing editorials and unconventional analysis from political writers with a
dose of political humor at weeklystandard.com. |
 |
 |
|
