Washington Examiner 03 12 2024

March 12, 2024 • $7.
99
GOP
Takes
the
Plunge
Republicans
bet everything on Trump
W. JAMES ANTLE III — P.24
Nikki Haley The Limits

Bows Out of Fettermania
PETER TONGUETTE — P.12 DAVID SIVAK — P.16
Veep Lessons Don’t Take Out

for the GOP The Trash
TEVI TROY — P.20 KARA KENNEDY — P.54
p. 8, 10, 44, 59,

61, & 62
Editorials
Unanimous Supreme Court concurrence of the three Democrat-
ic-appointed justices on the court, the
majority wrote, “State-by-state resolu-
rightly rejects ballot chaos tion of the question whether Section 3

bars a particular candidate for President
from serving would be quite unlikely to
yield a uniform answer consistent with
the basic principle that ‘the President …
I
represent[s] all voters in the Nation.’”
t is important but not surprising But this was just one court’s opin- This “patchwork,” the majority con-
that the Supreme Court unani- ion. Under the Democrats’ theory, every tinued, would “sever the direct link that
mously rejected Democratic Party state could hold separate trials to decide the framers found so critical between
efforts to remove former President if Trump is an insurrectionist. The result the national government and the people
Donald Trump from presidential would be a patchwork of rulings where of the United States.”
ballots in states the party controls. It access to the ballot was determined by Colorado, Illinois, and Maine must
is also not surprising, but highly tell- the political bias of state judges. This now reverse course and keep Trump on
ing, that many Democratic operatives, never made sense, and it only shows how the ballot, should he, as now seems in-
law school professors, and columnists badly Trump has warped the thinking of evitable, become the Republican nomi-
opined that the 14th Amendment em- those who took this argument seriously. nee for president.
powered states to remove presidential Although the Supreme Court is- There are many, many reasons why
candidates on a whim. sued three judgments on Monday, all Trump should not be president. We
After the court’s unanimous 9-0 nine judges flatly rejected the claim have made that case many times. But
decision on March 4, voters across the that states can unilaterally use the it is up to voters to decide, and Dem-
country can see how desperate Demo- 14th Amendment to remove federal ocrats’ legal shenanigans are probably
crats are to use lawfare to deny citizens candidates from their ballots. In a sec- making the public more likely to decide
the democratic right to choose their tion highlighted for agreement by the he should be. 
next leader. It is not a good look for
the Democratic Party or President Joe
Biden, and it helps Trump’s campaign.
The Colorado Supreme Court was
the first state entity to declare that
Section 3 of the 14th Amendment pre-
cluded Trump from appearing on the
state’s presidential ballot, but a judge in
Illinois and Maine’s secretary of state
quickly issued copycat decisions.
The operative portion of Section 3
reads, “No person shall … hold any of-
fice … under the United States … who,
having previously taken an oath … as an
officer of the United States … shall have
engaged in insurrection or rebellion
against the same.”
Democrats argued Trump’s speech
before the Jan. 6 Capitol riot makes him
an insurrectionist under this section
and that states are therefore empow-
ered to strike his name from the ballot.
Never mind that federal prosecu-
tors have not even charged, let alone
convicted, Trump of insurrection. A
Colorado district court held a five-day
trial, which Trump did not participate
in, and concluded that Trump was an
insurrectionist.
March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 1

EDITORIALS
Big win for school choice in Republican-controlled states should

heed. Voters will no longer tolerate GOP
legislators who do the bidding of Amer-
in Texas ican Federation of Teachers President

Randi Weingarten and other union lead-
ers. They need to understand that parents
will henceforth refuse to let their children
be enslaved in failing public schools. They
T
demand educational freedom, as they
exas voters delivered a stinging school choice legislation were either should.
rebuke on Super Tuesday to defeated outright or now face runoff In Texas House District 60, incumbent
incumbent Republicans who elections. state Rep. Glenn Rogers was obliterated
stonewalled Gov. Greg Abbott’s The results are a vindication for the by challenger Mike Olcott by 26 points.
(R-TX) efforts to enact school governor, who took the unusual step of In House District 11, longtime incumbent
choice in the Lone Star State. It is a mes- endorsing challengers to sitting lawmak- state Rep. Travis Clardy received a meager
sage Republicans everywhere should ers of his own party. Next year, Texas will 37% as opponent Joanne Shofner romped
hear. probably become the most populous in to victory with 63%.
In the primary races for seats in the the nation with universal school choice. Other ousted representatives includ-
Texas House of Representatives, 10 Re- The margin by which many lawmakers ed District 2 state Rep. Jill Dutton, Dis-
publican incumbents who helped block lost is a warning from voters that others trict 55 state Rep. Hugh Shine, District
122 state Rep. Steve Allison, District 18
state Rep. Ernest Bailes, and District 62
state Rep. Reggie Smith. Additionally, an-
ti-school choice state Reps. John Kuem-
pel, Justin Holland, DeWayne Burns, and
Gary VanDeaver face Republican voters
again in runoff races where no candidate
secured a majority.
Abbott’s success is notable, but he is
not the first Republican governor to ex-
pend political capital to defeat members
of his own party beholden to teachers
unions. In 2022, Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-
IA), after anti-school choice legislators
defeated her bill, wrote the playbook that
AMANDA MCCOY/FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM/ TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE VIA GET T Y IMAGES
Abbott followed in Texas. She endorsed
primary challengers to each anti-school
choice lawmaker, voters took her advice,
and in January 2023, Iowa passed univer-
sal school choice.
Iowa and Texas Republican voters
show that lawmakers who side with the
teachers unions, seek their endorsement,
and take their PAC money are asking for
an early end to their political careers.
School choice is now a litmus test for Re-
publican candidates.
State lawmakers in Missouri, Tennes-
see, Alabama, and Georgia are consid-
ering similar legislation. In all of them,
Republicans have unified control of the
state government. The only obstacle to
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaks to students, parents and staff at Nolan Cat- school choice is Republican recalcitrance.
holic High School while trying to build support for his school choice plan on It needs to end, or voters should throw
April 19, 2023. them out. 
2 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

MARCH 12, 2024
28 Artificial Intelligence Failures

It’s time for Congress Life & Arts
to step in on AI regulations
Volume 30, Number 9 By Andrea Ruth 46 Books The Uncontroversial Iraq
War
Washington Briefing 48 Books The Slick Lauren Oyler
31 Michigan Democratic infighting 49 Books Joan Acocella’s Valedictory

tests strength of 2020 Biden
Editorials coalition 50 Sports Resurrecting One of
Baseball Writing’s Old-Time Greats
1 Unanimous Supreme Court rightly 34 Lawmakers want to drag authorities
rejects ballot chaos away from roundup of wild horses 52 Film Dune’s Beauty and Horror
2 Big win for school choice in Texas 35 The reddest of states are expanding 53 On Culture The Finest Plastic
Medicaid through Obamacare Watch $270 Can’t Buy
Letter From the Editor 36 Harris isn’t Biden’s biggest problem 53 TV Accepting Reality TV
6 Biden-Trump rematch? 38 Fearing the US is becoming an 56 Long Life Revenge Is a Dish

How about a do-over? increasingly unreliable ally, Europe Best Served Salty
charts its own course
Your Land The Columnists

Business
7 A Philadelphia Love Story « Does 57 Byron York Haley loss another
That Star-Spangled Banner Yet 42 SpaceX blasts off from Delaware reminder: GOP can’t go back
Wave? No. « Godless in Seattle « courts. Other companies keep
Miami Vice landing there 58 Daniel J. Hannan Run, Nikki, run!
44 Tiana’s Take How the international 59 Dominic Green The realpolitik

11 The Week That Was economy fueling the invasion at the of fools
Southern border
60 Michael Barone Are voters
Features recoiling against disorder?
12 Why Haley Lost 61 Timothy P. Carney Kyrsten

Republicans aren’t in Sinema, a lobbyist’s legislator,
the mood for civility exits for greener pastures
By Peter Tonguette
62 Kimberly Ross Biden wants
16 His Own Fetterman GOP voters. They shouldn’t
The Pennsylvania senator take the bait
embraces Biden despite
centrist rebrand
By David Sivak Obituary
20 Dan Quayle Reconsidered 63 Chris Mortensen, 1951-2024
The former vice president
could even be a model for the
2024 GOP running mate pick 64 Crossword
By Tevi Troy
ON THE COVER: Illustration by
24 Republicans Bet It All Dean MacAdam
On Trump
Primary voters have decided COMING NEXT WEEK
to gamble on a familiar
« Baby Bust
but risky nominee
« Which Way, GOP?
By W. James Antle III

HUGO GURDON: LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Biden-Trump rematch? Editors

Editor-In-Chief Hugo Gurdon
How about a do-over? Managing Editor Chris Irvine

Deputy Managing Editor Liam Quinn
P
News Editor Marisa Schultz
Associate Editor Hailey Bullis
resident Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are Commentary Editor Conn Carroll
two of the most lamentable candidates ever presented to Executive Editor (Magazine) W. James Antle III
Managing Editor (Magazine) David Mark
voters for admission to the White House. We don’t yet know Policy Editor Joseph Lawler
which one of them will win, but the public has already said it Congress & Campaigns Editor David Sivak
wants neither. Investigations Editor Sarah Bedford
Digital Engagement Editor Maria Leaf
In some ways, the two men are similar — both, for exam- Trending News Editor Heather Hamilton
ple, are outstanding fabulists and braggarts. But their records in the im- Breaking News Editor Max Thornberry
modesty department have been sufficiently well documented to require Associate Breaking News Editor Keely Bastow
Night News Editor Conrad Hoyt
no further rehearsal here. Homepage Editors Peter Cordi, Lily Larsen
More interesting and less commented on is a category of character Life & Arts Editor (Magazine) Nicholas Clairmont
in which they are complete opposites. And, ironically, each makes the Production Editor Joana Suleiman
Chief Web Producer Stacey Dec
nation tremble by being utterly unlike the other in this respect. It is the
Deputy Commentary Editor Quin Hillyer
extent to which they ignore or listen to advice or buckle to pressure Restoring America Editors Kaylee McGhee White, Tom Rogan
from those gathered around them. Contributors Editor Madeline Fry Schultz
Biden came to office promising to be a strong centrist who would Design Director Philip Chalk
Deputy Editor (Magazine) J. Grant Addison
hold the moderate line against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Eliza-
beth Warren (D-MA), and their ilk. Those two militant pols were, in the Columnists & Writers
ancient history of 2020, regarded as being on the radical ideological edge Senior Columnists: Michael Barone, Paul Bedard, Timothy P. Carney,
Byron York
of the Democratic Party. (What sweet, innocent days those were, when Senior Writers: Barnini Chakraborty, Jamie McIntyre, Mabinty Quarshie,
it was plausible to think the worst from the fringe was a phenomenon so Salena Zito
outré that it was referred to only tentatively as “self-styled” socialism.) Staff Reporters: Jack Birle, Mike Brest, Christian Datoc, Kaelan Deese,
Breanne Deppisch, Gabrielle Etzel, Joel Gehrke, Luke Gentile, Anna
Once in office, however, Biden collapsed without resistance to wave Giaritelli, Jenny Goldsberry, Zachary Halaschak, Christopher Hutton,
after ideological wave rolling in from the Left. He proved no stronger Emily Jacobs, Gabe Kaminsky, Brady Knox, Naomi Lim,
than a sandcastle facing an incoming tide. On every issue — systemic Cami Mondeaux, Asher Notheis, Ashley Oliver,
Annabella Rosciglione, Samantha-Jo Roth, Rachel Schilke,
racism, open borders, climate alarmism, immiserating deficit spending, Misty Severi, Breccan Thies, Eden Villalovas, Nancy Vu, Haisten Willis
gender-bending, et cetera — Biden floated along on the left-wing flood. Commentary Writers: Zachary Faria, Tiana Lowe Doescher, Jeremiah
He burbled and bumbled, and you can still see the bubbles rising to the Poff, Christopher Tremoglie
Contributors: T. Becket Adams, Daniel Ross Goodman, Dominic Green,
surface where his principles were once thought to be. Daniel J. Hannan, Graham Hillard, Rob Long, Jeremy Lott,
By contrast, it was hoped and believed four years earlier that Trump, John O’Sullivan, Philip Terzian, Peter Tonguette, Tevi Troy,
the outlandish president-elect, would shed his extraordinary crudity, Robert Woodson
bullying, and indifference to facts after arriving in office. Guided by Design, Video & Web
wise counsel and constrained by global realities, he would govern more Senior Designer: Amanda Boston-Trypanis
like a mainstream Republican than he’d ever seriously indicated before. Production Designer: Tatiana Lozano
Designers: Barbara Kyttle, Julia Terbrock
But he didn’t. No adviser, no constitutional principle or tradition, Senior Web Producer: Tim Collins
no precept of civilized modesty or code of conduct ever ameliorated Web Producers: Robert Blankenship, Zach LaChance, Alexis Leonard,
his harshness or calmed the chaos of his administration. It is true that Chris Slater, Robert Stewart
Director of Video: Amy DeLaura
he achieved much — on taxes and the economy, federal courts, and the Videographers: Justin Craig, Arik Dashevsky, Shaan Memon,
Middle East — despite being hounded by a savage and unconscionable Timothy Wolff
political opposition. So his grating self-pity and persecution complex are Photographer Graeme Jennings
somewhat understandable. But all expectations that he could be success-
MediaDC
ful without shattering beneficial conservative norms were dashed. Chairman Ryan McKibben
That leaves the problem America now has with the presidential Chief Executive Officer Christopher P. Reen
choice it seems inescapably to face. Trump or Biden? The devil or the President & Chief Operating Officer Mark Walters
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less and less able or willing to draw the line at each fresh lunacy foist- IT Director Mark Rendle
ed on the nation by the extremist Left. Or it can reinstall the previous Director of Strategic Communications and Publicity Carly Hagan Brogan
occupant of the Oval Office, whose adamantine armor of defensive Advertising

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Does That Star-Spangled Banner Yet
Wave? No. P. 8  Godless in Seattle P. 9
 Miami Vice P. 10
A Philadelphia
Love Story
D
espite being a seven-time Pro football last week. “Heading out after- through the opening, an aura around her.”
Bowl selection and one-time ward with a bunch of my teammates to “I think it is no coincidence that I have
Super Bowl winner, Phila- Buffalo Billiards where my life would enjoyed the best years of my career with
delphia Eagles center Jason change forever.” Kylie by my side,” Kelce said. “Every ac-
Kelce says the biggest mo- “That night, I’d meet my future wife,” colade I have ever received has come with
MAT T ROURKE/AP
ment of his life happened off the field. Kelce continued, fighting back tears. “I her in my life. She has brought the best
“I won’t forget the Eagles Christmas still remember the moment she walked out of me through love, devotion, sup-
party in 2014,” Kelce said at a press con- through the door. The first instance is port, honesty, intelligence, and of course
ference announcing his retirement from burned in my retina. It was like she glided a swift kick in the ass from time to time.”

YOUR LAND
But success on the field turned out

not to be the greatest gift Kelce’s wife
gave him. “She has also given me three
Does That
beautiful girls and a life that increasingly Star-Spangled Banner
brings me more fulfillment off the field Yet Wave? No.
than it does on,” he said. “I think one of
the best things a person can be in this
A
world is a father. A father who is present, “fish story” is a very American
devoted, and loving is the greatest gift a sort of legend. The fish story
child could ask for in our society.” doesn’t need to involve fish, but
Positive stories about love and mar- it does need drama and most of all big-
riage are not shared enough in popular ness. A fish story triggers the B.S. alarm
culture today, which is why it is so im- of all but the most credulous listener, and
portant to share Jason and Kylie’s history. unlike some legends, the moral or import
We can’t all be all-star professional of a fish story isn’t always clear.
football players, but we can choose to America, which exudes bigness,
build our lives around a loving and sup- coined the term “fish story,” the Oxford
portive marriage, which evidence shows English Dictionary concedes. Arguably,
is the true path to a life well lived. On the home of the fish story is the most
average, married fathers are far more folksy and maritime corner of the coun-
likely to consider themselves “very hap- try, Down East Maine.
py” compared to unmarried and child- Out of Columbia Falls in Washington
less men. And children born to married County comes a grand fish story these
parents are far more likely to graduate days.
high school, have a job, and stay out of At first, the tale might look like a small
jail than those born outside of marriage. story of small-town petty bureaucracy.
With more people now living in un- “The family that unsuccessfully tried
married households than at any oth- to build a patriot-themed flagpole park
er time in history, there are few better in Washington County,” reported the
things we can do to improve society Bangor Daily News, “has paid back just a
than celebrating a culture of marriage fraction of the associated planning costs
and fidelity. spent by Columbia Falls, despite previ-
Now if only Jason could convince his ously offering to reimburse the town for only some of the costs the town incurred
brother Travis to pop the question to that spending.” by throwing up roadblocks to Worces-
that girl Taylor he’s been dating. Yes, the media are hounding proper- ter’s plans: a privately funded park he
—By Conn Carroll ty owner Morrill Worcester for repaying wanted to build on his own land in order
to honor American war veterans.
That much is true, and it’s very Amer-
ican, involving litigiousness, private en-
terprise, and patriotism.
But the details make the story more
complicated — and harder to believe.
Worcester described his planned park
as “part national monument, part histor-
ical adventure, part immersive museum, RENDERING COURTESY OF FL AGPOLE OF FREEDOM PARK/BL ACK FLY MEDIA
and part architectural wonder.”

If that sounds like it might be beyond
the scope of a park for tiny town in rural
Maine, you’re starting to get a glimpse at
the size of this fish.
The flagpole at the center of Worces-
ter’s “Flagpole Freedom Park,” would be
not only the tallest flagpole in the world.
It would be taller than the Empire State
Building. And the flag that would fly atop
it was to be larger than a football field —
by about 50%.
The park was to include its own ver-
sion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial,
but it would have the name of every fall-

YOUR LAND
The Flagpole of Freedom would have idents identify as nonreligious, putting

stood 1,461 feet tall, slightly higher it even above San Francisco as the least
than the Empire State Building. religious city in the country.
Seattle’s conundrum comes from it
being a city of young Democrats. In 2022,
42% of Seattle residents were between
the ages of 18-39, the least religious of
age demographics. In 2023, the Seattle
Times declared that data showed the city
“is more liberal than ever.” Such a young
liberal population is great for Democrat-
ic city leaders and activist groups, but
not so much for churches.
This isn’t to say that Seattle is being
punished for its lack of faith. But no doubt
that a city that allowed a rapper warlord
to take over a couple of blocks or cen-
ters its drug policies on enabling addicts
to keep using would benefit from the
shared sense of community that religion
can bring. Maybe then the city wouldn’t
have to worry so much about young “rev-
olutionaries” causing $3.6 million in riot
damages because the only sense of com-
munity they can find is with fellow Black
Lives Matter LARPers on Instagram.
Fewer activist influencers and a few
more trips to church on Sunday may not
seem like much, but look around. Surely
whatever it is that Seattle residents are
doing to find their purpose now isn’t
working, unless it is on the verge of be-
en veteran in every single American war ty, Maine? Do fishers throw mackerels coming a college football town.
from the Revolutionary War until today. in the air with abandon? Do innocent —By Zachary Faria
All of this in a town of 476 people. passersby get struck in the nose by fall-
It’s a plan big enough to set off B.S. ing flounder? This story was getting bet-
detectors, but it’s also big enough to spur ter every minute.
local bureaucrats into action. I reached out to Dixon to ask her the
The mandarins of Columbia Falls meaning of her fishy metaphor. She told MADE BY JIMBOB.
moved instantly to block the develop- me she was misquoted. She says she
ment. Then they set about crafting far spoke about fists, not fish.
more comprehensive land-use codes than Alas, nothing ruins a good fish story
Columbia Falls had ever believed it would like checking it.
need. Eventually, Worcester scrapped the —By Timothy P. Carney
plans for the park, but the town continued
with its regulatory overhaul.
The public was agitated, not mere- Godless in Seattle
ly by the prospect of a Tower of Babel
looming over them, or its loss, but also
J
that the new codes would curb their own oke as you may about hippie lib-
property rights. eral cities being godless, but it just
Aga Dixon, an attorney hired by the so happens to be true, at least as
town, stood up at a January town meet- far as the residents of those cities are
ing to note that most rights, including concerned.
property rights, have limits. The Maine Seattle, Washington, is evidently the
Monitor quoted Dixon’s argument: “My most godless city in the country, some-
father used to say, ‘Your right to throw thing you could probably guess from the
fish in the air is unfettered until it hits drug overdose deaths, regular riots, and
my nose.’ “ tolerance of an “autonomous zone” run
Is this a thing in Washington Coun- by a warlord. Nearly 64% of Seattle res-

YOUR LAND
Miami Vice
I
n the infamous words of Vice Presi-
dent Kamala Harris, Miami officials
have a message for would-be tourists:
“Do not come.”
“Hey Spring Break, we’re over,” the
City of Miami Beach account posted on
X on March 1, along with a video of lo-
cals asking rowdy spring breakers to stay
home.
“Our idea of a good time is relax-
ing on the beach, hitting up the spa, or
checking out a new restaurant,” it said.
“You just want to get drunk in public and
ignore laws.” Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announces the support of his administration to the City of
Last year, things took a dark turn Miami Beach during a news conference about spring break on March 5. After three
in the coastal city known for its night- consecutive years of spring break violence, Miami Beach officials are implementing
life: Revelers became so disruptive that monthlong security measures aimed at curbing the chaos, including parking
the city saw 488 arrests and 230 felony restrictions for non-residents and closing sidewalk cafes on busy weekends.
charges. Two people were killed in Mi-
ami Beach shootings.
This year, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL)
is cracking down in advance, announc- the 1980s was the place to be for teen- and member of the task force charged
ing that he is deploying state troopers to agers on spring break but not families with snuffing out debauchery.
popular spring break hubs. “We’re a law- or more subdued travelers. In 1985, the Today, Miami’s PSA takes a similar
and-order state,” DeSantis said. “You city cracked down on overpacked bars, approach. “Just so you know we’re seri-
are going to pay the price and be held open containers, underage drinkers, ous, this March, you can expect things
accountable if you’re coming for reasons and more, resulting in thousands of like curfews, bag checks and restricted
other than to have fun. That is not gonna arrests. beach access, DUI checkpoints, $100
fly in the Sunshine State.” “The kids got the message real quick parking, and strong police enforcement
This isn’t the first time drunken col- that Fort Lauderdale doesn’t want us for drug possession and violence,” warns
lege students have sparked fear and re- anymore,” said Ina Lee, president of the video.
sentment in locals. Fort Lauderdale in TravelHost of Greater Fort Lauderdale One may wonder what went so wrong
with today’s young people that a region
with a $20 billion tourism industry is
begging them not to visit, but if the his-
tory of Fort Lauderdale is any indication,
there have long been drunken revelers
causing problems for those around them.
With any luck, Miami will turn out like
Fort Lauderdale and end up with a more
subdued vacation scene. Partiers with
undeveloped prefrontal cortices and a
lack of law and order make for a danger-
ous combination.
“Maybe we can talk when you’re done
with your spring break phase,” says one
speaker in the PSA. “But until then…”
Until then, Miami can implement a sim-
PEDRO PORTAL/MIAMI HERALD VIA AP
ple test to see whether a tourist is old

enough to drink responsibly: If he or she
can name one song featuring Pitbull, the
rapper born in Miami, then he or she is
almost certainly a millennial (no younger
than late 20s). Generation Z, meanwhile,
will have to stay home.
—By Madeline Fry Schultz

The Week That Was
STAT OF THE WEEK QUOTE OF THE WEEK
$150,000
The founder of a Washington,
It’s fairly common for a
presidential candidate
and the RNC to integrate
D.C., non-profit that served but I feel right now what’s
homeless LGBTQ youths – happening is not an
particularly Latin transgender
people – has been charged with
integration, it’s something
Former
stealing $150,000 in taxpayer- between a purge and President
backed pandemic relief funds – a takeover and that’s Donald Trump
two years after fleeing the U.S. on Super
to El Salvador amid swirling questions about the a concern for me. Tuesday
group’s finances. Ruby Corado, 53, the founder — Republican National Committee member and Vermont GOP Chair
of Casa Ruby, Inc., was arrested by FBI agents Paul Dame, on Former President Donald Trump’s impending takeover
at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, last week after of the RNC that could give him access to a big new pile of cash at a time
unexpectedly returning to the U.S. when he is beset by legal bills, making some committee members nervous.
PHOTO OF THE WEEK // MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Members of the Armed Forces including the National Guard patrol Grand Central terminal in New York on March 7.
Gov. Kathy Hochul is deploying the National Guard to the New York City subway system to help police search passengers’
bags for weapons, following a series of high profile crimes on city trains.

Why Haley Lost
I
n her easily foreseen and entire-
ly unsurprising defeat on Super
Republicans aren’t in Let us call him the Friendly Fella
Candidate: the sort of politician whose
Tuesday, Nikki Haley did not the mood for civility temperance, mildness, and friendliness
merely become the latest Re- would make him an ideal neighbor, a fa-
publican presidential contender By Peter Tonguette vorite camp counselor, and maybe even
to fall to Donald Trump. In this, the likable mayor of a small town but
there is no particular shame. From Sen. No, Haley came up short in state after whose very qualities of niceness and ap-
Ted Cruz (R-TX) to Gov. Ron DeSantis state not for trying and failing to capture parent moderation make him singularly
(R-FL), many worthwhile and robust- the profane dynamism of the 45th pres- unsuited for contending with the deep
ly Republican candidates have proven ident but for striving, and succeeding all state, Big Tech, and the woke regime that
themselves unable to find their footing too well, at emulating an entirely differ- presently dominate seemingly all of our
against the strength, star power, and un- ent, and discredited, species of Republi- institutions.
deniable common touch of Trump. can presidential aspirant. In word, deed, and affect, Haley

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley
announces the suspension of her campaign in
Daniel Island, South Carolina, on March 6.
emerged as a variant of this type: an up- ly enduring myths in Republican politics

beat problem-solver who embodied uni- — curious because it has, election after
ty, youth, and vigor. She claimed to be a Nikki Haley came election, been disproved: that the path to
tough-minded realist about foreign pol- victory runs straight down the middle.
icy, but in her presentation, she seemed up short in state For well over half a century, a small but
to belong more to the Kumbaya school of after state not for loud segment of American conservatism
governing. The problem was not that Ha- trying and failing to has proven vulnerable to this assertion.
Remember that famous four-minute
ley was not like Trump but that she was
too much like Jon Huntsman, Jeb Bush, capture the profane campaign ad from 1964, “Confessions
and John Kasich. If those earlier Friend- dynamism of the of a Republican”? Therein, a fey, halt-
ly Fella Candidates sometimes called to
mind the Little League coach next door,
forty-fifth president ing, glasses-wearing young man insist-
ed on his Republican bona fides before
Haley had the manner of the soccer mom but for striving — and lashing out at the alleged radicalism of
who was always first in line to offer to succeeding all too Barry Goldwater, that year’s Republican
carpool the kids. Both types are neces- presidential nominee. “When we come
sary for our social fabric. Neither has the
well — at emulating to Sen. Goldwater, now it seems to me
grit, stamina, or brute instincts to do bat- an entirely different, we’re up against a very different kind of
tle with the enemies of America, within and discredited, a man,” he said. “This man scares me.”
and outside. Despite the fact that Goldwater is
Like her milquetoast forebears, Haley species of Republican widely acknowledged as creating the
was seduced by one of the most curious- presidential aspirant. environment in which Ronald Reagan
Photograph by Chris Carlson/The Associated Press March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 13
Barry Goldwater John B. Anderson Jon Huntsman
won the White House in 1980 and that dle-of-the-road, go-along-to-get-along sembles is Kasich: Both were Republi-
neither Goldwater nor Reagan turned candidates began infiltrating Repub- cans in good standing who could boast
out to be scary, this brand of puritani- lican presidential primaries. In 2012, successful governorships in important
cal fearmongering has proven resilient. Huntsman cast himself as the reason- states, but when they came to bat with
For decades, it has manifested itself in able choice beside, who? That noted the presidential nomination on the line,
third-party presidential campaigns op- radical Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT)? The they gave into the temptation to present
erating under the delusion that a major- rest is history: Huntsman advanced no themselves as the kinder, more normal
ity of voters lack strong convictions, or further than third place in New Hamp- candidate when contrasted to the Big,
at least strong convictions in any one shire, while Romney turned out to be a Bad Trump. Left unexplained is how
direction. In 1980, this was the position slightly more hale and hearty version of kindness or normalcy, in and of them-
staked out by independent candidate Huntsman — conservative, decent, good selves, are equal to the threats posed by
John B. Anderson, who, in adopting a on policy, utterly feeble. an open border, crime in big cities, or the
hash of right and left positions, ended Then Trump, through his sheer force mutilating horrors of transgender ideol-
up just where you might expect: in third of ungovernable personality, ironically ogy. Kasich’s hugs and Haley’s talk of
place, with about 5.7 million votes and breathed new life into the argument for unity just won’t cut it.
nary a state carried, behind Reagan and courtesy and civility in our politics. Nu- Of course, who wouldn’t wish to live
Jimmy Carter. merous candidates sought the position in the aspirational world of Haley? It
Though long forgotten by the time of the candidate possessing the sound- sounds so nice. That’s why the idea of
of his death in 2017, Anderson’s wishy- est mind and kindest heart next to the a truly bipartisan, consensus-building
washy approach to national politics brash billionaire. Bush gravely predicted candidate will probably keep rearing its
arguably informed the various “centrist” chaos, and Kasich proceeded as though head. Mike Bloomberg perceived the op-
or “bipartisan” political organizations the hugging of strangers was the answer portunity, briefly, in 2020, and Sen. Joe
that emerged just before and during the to what ails us. The same actor who ex- Manchin (D-WV) did, equally briefly,
Obama years, including Unity08, Ameri- pressed fear in Goldwater in ’64 came last year. But Haley, like Huntsman and
cans Elect, and No Labels. However well back to warn us about Trump, this time Kasich before her, put the proposition to
intended, these groups’ leaders failed to in the form of a campaign ad for Hillary a test — and, though the legacy media
grasp that most voters would rather be Clinton! (“But Donald Trump, he’s a can count her votes in the states she lost,
right than united and, in fact, prefer la- different kind of man. This man scares the fact remains that she won exactly
bels to apathy. The voter persuaded of me.”) Incidentally, the likes of Bush and as many contests on Super Tuesday as
the criminality of border crossings, the Kasich, as well as the anti-Goldwater ac- heretofore unknown Democratic candi- LEF T: FERD KAUFMAN/AP; CENTER: JACK SMITH/AP; RIGHT: MEL EVANS/AP
wrongness of abortion, or the immoral- tor, do the work of the Left for it: They date Jason Palmer: one.
ity of rampant recreational drug use is make candidates whose policy positions In defeat in their respective parties,
not seeking compromise with the other are perfectly rational and eminently perhaps Haley and Palmer can form a
side. Strongly held convictions are not sensible, including both Romney and unity ticket. Maybe they can co-author
bargaining chips to be traded by parties Trump, appear unhinged, unsafe, slightly a book. Haley will certainly find a seat
or candidates seeking an imagined con- deranged. With friends like these... on CNN. (Palmer will simply be forgot-
sensus. Like those radical gender identity In 2016, Republican voters were too ten.) But Republican voters have again
adherents who claim to be “nonbinary,” smart to fall for such shameless vir- shown their preference for brawling, not
ideology-free politics is a flight from real- tue signaling, even when it came with bedtime stories, and action, not words.
ity: Just as we are either male or female, a conservative imprimatur. They saw, In the end, you fight fire with fire, not
we either support the police or support in Trump, a rough, shrewd dude who fire with sugar and spice and everything
defunding it. There is no middle way. shared their interests, if not their good nice. 
It’s easy enough to dismiss woebe- Republican manners. They rewarded
gone outfits such as Americans Elect him with the presidency. Peter Tonguette is a contributing writer to
and the like, but at some point, mid- Sadly, the candidate Haley most re- the Washington Examiner magazine.

His Own
Fetterman
The Pennsylvania senator embraces Biden
despite centrist rebrand
By David Sivak
L
oyalty to the president is distanced himself from the “progressive” executive authority to secure the border.
not exactly a hallmark of label in December by invoking a mantra Fetterman has shown some inclina-
the Democratic centrists of Ronald Reagan: “I don’t feel like I’ve tion to do that. He all but chided Senate
in Congress. left the label. It’s just more that it’s left Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY)
Look no further than me,” he said. for not pressuring scandal-plagued Sen.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D- His apparent transformation — Fet- Bob Menendez (D-NJ) to step down.
WV), who has assert- terman disputes he’s evolved at all — has Yet the critiques of his colleagues are
ed his independence by Republicans giddy. somewhat unusual for a Democrat in a
standing in the way of He says the Democrats calling for a swing state such as Pennsylvania. Rath-
President Joe Biden’s legislative agenda. cease-fire in Gaza lack “moral clarity” er than distance himself from Biden, he
Yet Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), and that border security is a matter of uses them as a defense of the president.
seemingly the newest addition to those common sense. Most recently, he raised That’s clearest when it comes to Is-
ranks in the Senate, has done the polar eyebrows when he said he’s “willing to rael’s war with Hamas. Fetterman calls
opposite in his first year, running head- go pretty far” on H.R. 2, the House bor- Biden “courageous” for resisting calls
long toward the president despite his der bill that Democrats have declared a for a cease-fire, though the president has
own maverick streak. nonstarter. begun to pressure Israeli Prime Minister
Biden has faced unending criticism “The new and improved Fetterman Benjamin Netanyahu as the death toll
from the Left over his support for Israel can wear whatever he wants if he keeps mounts in Gaza.
and tack toward the right on immigra- talking like that,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) Fetterman also gave Biden space to
tion, while his low approval ratings have told Fox News, referring to Republicans negotiate a Senate deal on immigration
establishment figures openly calling for a upset over his decision to wear a hoodie earlier this year even as Latino activists
new generation of leadership. and shorts at the Capitol. panned it as xenophobic. “It’s a rea-
Many expected Fetterman to be an- The tactic is a common one for Dem- sonable conversation, and Democrats
other headache for Biden when he arrived ocrats in purple or red states: signal should engage,” he said at the time.
in Washington. His campaign fashioned that you’re not a rubber stamp for par- At first blush, Fetterman seems in-
him as a progressive icon, and he drew ty leadership through your rhetoric and tent on moderating what he sees as the
the endorsement of movement leaders your votes. Just the other week, Sen. Jon worst impulses of the Left. He is in fa-
such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Tester (D-MT), running for reelection in vor of marijuana legalization and raising
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY). deep-red Montana, took a hard line on the minimum wage but has bucked pro-
But he disappointed liberals when he immigration by urging Biden to use his gressive orthodoxy on policies that fall

‘I don’t chase and I
don’t pander to the
fringe,’ Fetterman said
of his political outlook.
As for Biden inching
to the left on Israel:
‘I don’t give him any
advice. Certainly not
about fashion, either.’
flat with voters. “Standing with Israel is

compatible with being a good Democrat,
and that’s what I consider myself, but if I
get some flak for that, then I welcome the
smoke,” he told the Washington Examiner.
That analysis, however, is incomplete.
He’s also defended Biden from the es-
tablishment types wringing their hands
over whether he can win a second term
as president.
He’s flatly told Democratic strategist
James Carville to “shut the f*** up” for
warning that Biden will lose in Novem-
ber and took Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-
CA) to task last year for what he saw as
his shadow campaign for president.
“I’d like to remind anybody, the last
time there was a hot s*** governor that
thought he could take out Trump, you
know, Florida Man got dropped into the
wood chipper,” he said in an interview,
referring to the failed candidacy of Gov.
Ron DeSantis (R-FL).
Even there, Fetterman’s criticism ex-
tends to progressives. He has scolded
“Squad” Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for
leading a protest vote against Biden in
Michigan’s presidential primary.
Yet Fetterman’s punches clearly speak
to a desire to defend Biden regardless of
what corner of Washington his criticism
comes from, going so far as to call him
“my guy.” “He is my guy,” he said. “You’re
goddamn right, I’m proud of him.”
Fetterman taunts the House GOP’s
impeachment inquiry into Biden as a
farce and warns Democrats the same
discontent that cost Al Gore and Hillary
Clinton the presidency in 2000 and 2016
could come back to haunt them in No-
Illustration by Thomas Fluharty March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 17

vember. “So go ahead, f*** around and
find out in ’24,” he said.
That hardly means he’s blindly acqui-
escent. Fetterman clearly has an easier
time stomaching the border reforms the
president has resisted and declines to go
as far as Biden in his criticism of Netanya-
hu. But his rebrand seems to be as much
about being a party man as it is about
shaking off the progressive label.
“I don’t chase and I don’t pander to the
fringe,” he said of his political outlook. As
for Biden inching to the left on Israel: “I
don’t give him any advice. Certainly not
about fashion, either.”
There were indications that Fetterman
was not a down-the-line liberal. On the
campaign trail, he signaled his support for
both Israel and tougher border security.
His embrace of fracking had also alienated
him with environmentalists.
“There really isn’t an evolution,” he
told the Washington Examiner. “For years,
I’ve been very clear on the positions that Fetterman jokes with President Joe Biden in Philadelphia, June 17, 2023.
I have on these kinds of things. And it re-
ally isn’t a surprise to anybody that’s been
following my career and especially, you Once he returned, he overcame ques- Democrat, however. He seemed genuine-
know, my race in ’22.” tions about his fitness with the same trol- ly unsure when asked if he sees himself
Nonetheless, most voters are not fa- lishness that defined his Senate campaign, as a future deal-maker in the Senate now
miliar with his rise to political stardom. joking about conspiracy theories that the that several of them, most recently Sen.
In four short years, he catapulted from John Fetterman roaming the halls of Con- Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), will retire at the
being the mayor of a small town to Penn- gress is actually a body double. end of the year. “I don’t know. All I can
sylvania’s lieutenant governor to a United And the difficult patch for his family be is just clear about where I’m at,” he
States senator. What’s more, he came out has led him to extend compassion to oth- said.
of his 2022 Senate race branded a “radi- er lawmakers undergoing crises of their Biden wore that mantle proudly in his
cal” by Republicans. own. He attracted headlines this month more than three decades in the Senate,
Fetterman has five years before he for discouraging the “recreational cruelty” and Fetterman does appear to see the
will again face voters, and he won his of those relishing in the arrest of firebrand president in himself. He drew a parallel
first contest by 5 points. Yet a knock-on Rep. Lauren Boebert’s (R-CO) son. between the gravity of his 2022 race —
effect of his outspokenness is that he’s re- But the chief way Fetterman has found Democrats expanded their 50-50 majority
setting his image. Fetterman entered the his footing is by marrying his centrist because of him — and Biden’s success in
Senate in the throes of a health crisis. He streak with a shock-jock level of punditry. flipping the White House.
suffered a stroke on the campaign trail He’s mocked Menendez as “Bobby Gold “They put me to the wall, and he was
that left him with auditory processing Bars” ever since federal authorities found running for president in 2020, and he’s
problems and just weeks into his term a small fortune at his home and refers to held every line that he’s needed to hold,”
checked himself into the hospital to be his vanquished 2022 opponent as that he said.
treated for depression. “weirdo from New Jersey.” “He is the only person in America that
He clearly wants to use his voice to beat Trump,” he added, ”and he’s going to
make an impact in the Senate. After all, do that again.”
one of the reasons he’s considered a cen- Asked if there are policy areas on which
trist and not merely an unorthodox Dem- he disagrees with Biden, Fetterman joked,
ocrat is because he’s so willing to draw a “Well, when I found out that he was old,
public contrast with his colleagues. I was troubled,” alluding to the renewed
Biden wore a ‘deal- It’s a shrewd move politically. A Janu- focus on the president’s cognitive abilities.
maker’ mantle proudly ary poll from Quinnipiac University found “But no, he’s a great president,” he
a third of Pennsylvania voters viewed him said. “You can disagree with someone on
in his more than three
MANUEL BALCE CENETA / AP
more favorably for siding with stricter im- an issue, but you can still be 100,000%
decades in the Senate, migration policies, for example, compared committed to them, and that’s where we
and Fetterman does to the 9% he turned off with that stance. should be on that.” ★
His call-it-as-I-see-it persona does
appear to see the not mean he will be more inclined to David Sivak is Congress and campaigns
president in himself. work with Republicans than any other editor at the Washington Examiner.

Dan Quayle
Reconsidered
The former vice president could even be a model
for the 2024 GOP running mate pick
By Tevi Troy
A
s Donald Trump Birch Bayh in a run for Senate, buoyed in lines ever leveled in a vice presidential
seeks a vice pres- part by Ronald Reagan’s landslide victory debate. His opponent, Texas Sen. Lloyd
ident for his 2024 over President Jimmy Carter. Bentsen, famously answered Quayle’s
presidential run, Entering the Senate at 33, Quayle assertion that he served for as long as
he could do far was dubbed a rising star. He was young, John F. Kennedy in Congress with the
worse than look handsome, and articulate, with an easy- premeditated, and decidedly cruel, re-
at J. Danforth going manner that earned him friends joinder: “Senator, I served with Jack
“Dan” Quayle as on both sides of the partisan divide. He Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack
a model. Quayle was also a workhorse. He quickly be- Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator,
deserves study for two reasons, one came an expert in both missile defense you’re no Jack Kennedy.”
practical and one cautionary. First, he and job-training programs, showing Besides running into the buzz saw of
balanced the ticket and compensated knowledge of both national security and the Washington establishment, Quayle is
for his running mate’s weaknesses. Sec- domestic policy. His moment arrived remembered as vice president for getting
ond, he is a warning that if the selection in 1988, when Republicans nominated caught under the treads of pop culture,
process and announcement are handled George H.W. Bush for president. After with every blunder or misstep obsessed
poorly, the decision could be needlessly eight years as Reagan’s vice president, on and magnified. In May 1992, Quayle
damaging for all players. Bush, a World War II pilot with deep criticized TV character Murphy Brown’s
Quayle was born in Indianapolis in roots in the GOP establishment, want- decision to have a child out of wedlock,
1947, the grandson of newspaper mag- ed a running mate who represented the for which he was widely mocked by elites.
nate Eugene Pulliam. He grew up in conservative movement, the heartland, Then in June 1992, Quayle misspelled
Indiana and Phoenix and attended the and the next generation. Quayle, 41 and “potato,” reading “potatoe” as it was writ-
Indiana University law school, which his already a 12-year veteran of Congress, ten on the card he was given by a teach-
wife, Marilyn, was also attending when was his choice. er, when visiting a school spelling bee,
they met. They married in 1972. Ambi- To the extent that people know any- leading to more mockery. Given such ad-
tious and personable, Quayle ran for and thing more about the story, it is usually verse coverage, some urged Bush to drop
won a seat in Congress in 1976, at age 29. the following: Quayle was on the receiv- Quayle from the ticket in 1992. Bush re-
In 1980, he defeated longtime incumbent ing end of one of the most devastating fused and lost the election to Bill Clinton.

Quayle joins George Bush onstage in New Orleans after being announced as Bush’s vice presidential pick, Aug. 16, 1988.
Of course, reality is far more nuanced sented those who were smarter than him
than partisan media coverage. Quayle — he brought them into his circle.” Top
was, in fact, a good vice president. He hires included national security adviser
represented the administration well Carnes Lord and chief of staff Bill Kris-
externally, prepared for engagements, Quayle was, in fact, a tol, who both had Ivy League doctorates.
was highly accessible to the media, and Quayle also read widely, and he was
was thoroughly versed in policy. He was good vice president. always open to learning new ideas. He
well liked inside the administration and He represented the read Paul Johnson’s Modern Times, a
much respected by conservatives out-
side the administration. Perhaps most
administration well history of the 20th century that Quayle
called “the best book I’ve certainly read.”
importantly, Bush liked and trusted him, externally, prepared He also read biographies of Douglas
which explains why Quayle remained for engagements, was MacArthur and Winston Churchill and
on the 1992 ticket. Quayle then waged a
consistently strong campaign and put in
highly accessible to Richard Nixon’s book Leaders, recount-
ing meetings that Nixon had with prom-
a spirited, effective performance against the media, and was inent 20th century figures such as David
BET TMAN ARCHIVE / CORBIS / GET T Y
Al Gore in the vice presidential debate. thoroughly versed Ben-Gurion, Nikita Khrushchev, and
One lesson presidents should learn Zhou Enlai. In addition to learning from
from Quayle’s story is to choose a vice
in policy. He was his reading, Quayle brushed up on pol-
president who will select a top-notch well liked inside the icy during the presidential transition by
staff. Quayle did that. As presidential administration and meeting with the likes of Jeane Kirkpat-
historian Stephen Knott told me, “His rick, Henry Kissinger, Nixon, and Edward
team as VP, as you know, was first rate. … much respected by Teller. As vice president, Quayle stayed in
[Quayle] was not a political figure who re- conservatives outside. touch with top conservative thinkers and

columnists Irving Kristol, William Sa-
fire, and George Will. These interactions
helped inform his thinking and his efforts
as the Bush administration’s liaison to
the conservative movement.
His preparation helped him in his
job of representing the administration.
In December 1989, for example, Quayle
got great marks for a speech he gave
at Yeshiva University. In discussing the
speech, the liberal, and very arch, New
Republic noted that the speech, which
referred to Albert Einstein, the Talmud,
and George Washington’s famous let-
ter to the Hebrew Congregation of
Newport, “went over brilliantly,” not-
ing that Quayle received “a prolonged
standing ovation.”
Quayle’s Yeshiva University speech
also had an important policy purpose.
Quayle announced for the first time the
Bush administration’s intent to repeal
the United Nations’s infamous “Zion-
ism is racism” resolution. As the New
York Times’s A.M. Rosenthal wrote, in
launching the repeal efforts, Quayle had At left, Quayle campaigns in Huntington, Indiana, Aug. 19, 1988; at right, speaking
“honored his country, himself, the sup- to the Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation in Washington, D.C., Jan. 25, 1989.
portive Bush-Baker diplomacy — and
given the nations a chance to undo a
great wrong.” The Bush administration bying on behalf of the successful repeal. described his reasoning as follows: “No.
successfully moved to repeal the resolu- Quayle’s efforts gave him credibility 1, his basic values are right. No. 2, his po-
tion two years later, in December 1991, with conservatives. Gary Bauer, head litical judgment is solid. No. 3, he is not
with Quayle heavily involved in the lob- of the Family Research Council, said in wrapped up in the trappings of office or
1990, “There is now a sense that Quayle those things that would cloud his judg-
is a force to be reckoned with within the ment. And No. 4, while young ... he has
administration.” Quayle earned points had an experience that is very significant.”
outside the conservative world as well. The “perception problem” was a
Liberal scientist Bruce Murray was im- genuine challenge, but it also meant
pressed with Quayle’s knowledge of that the actual Quayle caught people off
space policy, saying after a dinner with guard. While still in the Senate, analyst
him that “Quayle has done a surprisingly Alan Ehrenhalt put Quayle on a list of
good job.” most underrated senators. During the
His ‘perception Quayle got great marks within the ad- administration, New Hampshire Sen.
problem’ was a genuine ministration as well. Bush granted him Warren Rudman called Quayle “vastly
walk-in privileges, which meant that he underestimated.” The Washington Post’s
challenge, but it also could walk into the Oval Office whenever David Broder undertook what was ex-
meant that the actual he wanted. He also had lunch with Bush pected to be a hit piece but found that LEF T, BET TMAN ARCHIVE / CORBIS / GET T Y; RIGHT, DENNIS COOK / AP
Quayle caught people weekly and participated in daily national

security and agenda meetings, as well as
“six months of reporting on Quayle re-
vealed [he is] a more complex and re-
off guard. While still regular policy and strategy meetings with sourceful politician than the comic-strip
in the Senate, analyst Bush. Bush did not include Quayle out of caricature that emerged during the 1988
Alan Ehrenhalt put a sense of obligation. He genuinely liked
his vice president. Republican National
campaign.” And years later, Knott, who
interviewed Quayle for the Miller Cen-
Quayle on a list of Committee Chairman Lee Atwater, who ter on the Presidential Oral History Pro-
most underrated was close to Bush, said of Quayle during gram, recalled that he “was ‘blown away’
the administration that “the president by Quayle within minutes after our inter-
senators. During the and his wife are crazy about him.” view began,” adding that Quayle “was as
administration, New Quayle had other fans besides the sharp as could be.” According to Knott,
Hampshire Sen. Warren president. White House chief of staff Sam this interview was one that “revealed to
Skinner acknowledged that Quayle had a me just how often the standard ‘take’ on
Rudman called Quayle “perception problem” but still thought he a public figure was off the mark.”
‘vastly underestimated.’ should be heir apparent to Bush. Skinner So with all this positive press and

was down at about the eighth paragraph
because it was on values and they could
see that we were going to put values front
and center in the campaign.” The print
media saw it as no big deal, but, Quayle
said, “The electronic media were the
ones that just went ballistic. I think they
felt that somehow I was attacking televi-
sion journalists, and they’re so sensitive
that they would make that stretch, that
somehow this is an attack on them.” The
story would have likely blown over in a
normal world, but the electronic media
were both newly important — CNN be-
came a phenomenon during the 1990
Gulf War — and hypersensitive since
the fictional newscaster Brown was one
of theirs. As Quayle recalled of the elec-
tronic media, “They’re the ones who just
blew this thing way out of proportion,
and the print media ... caught up in the
next couple of days.”
Compounding Quayle’s bad luck was
the “potatoe” incident, which took place
in June 1992. The tone of the coverage
Quayle gestures as he chats with Britain’s Prince Charles on the porch went from “how dare he?” to “how dare
of the vice president’s residence in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17, 1989. someone who can’t spell ‘potato’ lecture
us?” with the attendant late-night co-
median mockery to follow. Even though
these good reviews from colleagues, own tailored plan. the Atlantic ran a cover story called “Dan
what went wrong? Why did Quayle de- A second problem Quayle faced was a Quayle was right” on single-parent fam-
velop such a negative reputation? And lack of backing from within the campaign. ilies, the story didn’t appear until April
what is the lesson from Quayle for a As Knott put it, “There’s no doubt in my 1993, by which time Bush and Quayle
president looking for a running mate? mind that James Baker and other Bush had become private citizens.
Much of Quayle’s problem started 41 cronies who didn’t want Quayle on With the Trump pick looming and
with the selection and announcement the ticket sabotaged him from the start, in the shadow of President Joe Biden’s
process. The assumption within the including when he had to fight his way misstep in his selection of the unpopu-
campaign and the expectations from the through the crowd to be introduced as lar and awkward Kamala Harris as vice
media were that Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, Poppy Bush’s running mate.” What this president, it is worth looking to the
the runner-up to Bush in the primaries, means is that whoever Trump picks as a Quayle episode for suggestions on how
was going to be the pick. (Interesting- running mate will have to have the sup- to proceed.
ly, Trump also offered himself up as a port of both Trump and his senior cam- The lessons for the Trump team in
running mate at the time.) To the extent paign advisers. This is hard to pull off, looking into vice presidential picks seem
there was any preparation for the vice especially in a famously fractious Trump clear. Be sure that there is an appropriate
presidential announcement, the Bush world. However, Trump’s new campaign rollout plan as well as alignment within
campaign prepared for it for to be Dole. team seems to be doing a good job at the campaign from the outset. Bad luck
Dole was a known player, someone who tamping down internal conflict and show- is always a possibility in politics, but
had been in Republican politics for three ing discipline throughout the operation. handling things right, especially know-
decades. There was no need to introduce Perhaps it can do a better job with the ing you will face partisan media, could
him to the public. 2024 nominee than the Bush campaign mitigate problems. It sure would have
Quayle, however, was a different sort did in keeping the long knives away from made a difference for Dan Quayle. ★
of animal. As someone who was up and Quayle. If the nominee is undercut by
coming, he was, by definition, not yet leaks and bad-mouthing in the press, he Former senior White House aide Tevi Troy
widely known. Having the same out- or she could face the same fate as Quayle. is a contributing writer at the Washington
reach plan for both men made no sense. A third problem that Quayle faced Examiner, a senior fellow at the
Quayle needed his own outreach and was bad luck. He gave his Brown speech Bipartisan Policy Institute, and a senior
announcement plan, something that the in May 1992. As Quayle recalled in his scholar at Yeshiva University’s Straus
BOB DAUGHERT Y / AP
Trump campaign should keep in mind oral history, the Brown comments made Center. He is the author of five books on
whenever it is making its vice presiden- little noise initially in the New York Times the presidency, including the forthcoming
tial announcement. It may have multiple and the Washington Post. According to The Power and the Money: The Epic
possibilities for who might be the nomi- Quayle, while the speech made the front Clashes Between American Titans of
nee, but each one should have his or her pages, “the Murphy Brown reference Industry and Commanders in Chief.

Republicans
Bet It All
on Trump
Primary voters have decided to gamble
on a familiar but risky nominee
By W. James Antle III
R
epublicans are about down by the same baggage that plagued by a pair of runoff election defeats in
to take a leap of faith. his last two presidential campaigns. He Georgia as Trump went around com-
Their presumptive is broadly unpopular, especially among plaining the presidential race was rigged
nominee is familiar. college-educated suburban voters and against him, claims that are at the center
This will be the third women. His unfavorable rating is 54.1%, of one federal criminal case and a second
consecutive election according to a RealClearPolitics polling in Fulton County, Georgia. His endorsed
in which former Presi- average, compared to 42.1% who view candidates contributed to the GOP’s un-
dent Donald Trump is him favorably. Trump never had a higher derperformance in the 2022 midterm elec-
their standard-bearer job approval rating than 49% during his tions. Trump lost the popular vote in his
in the race for the White House. But the term, not even during periods of relative successful 2016 campaign, becoming only
situation is unprecedented. peace and prosperity. the second president to do so since 1888.
Trump faces 91 criminal counts There are millions of voters who don’t The Biden campaign greeted Trump’s
across four cases in multiple jurisdic- like the way Trump talks, the way he impending nomination with glee. “Don-
tions. He is facing civil judgments that posts or uses social media, the way per- ald Trump limps into the general election
threaten his vast business empire and sonal vendettas affect or distract from as a wounded, dangerous and unpopular
personal fortune. Nevertheless, Trump is his governance. Many of these voters candidate,” Biden campaign chairwom-
seeking to become only the second pres- reside in the Republican Party, including an Jen O’Malley Dillon and campaign
ident elected to nonconsecutive terms its congressional leadership teams. manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote
(the first being Grover Cleveland) and Moreover, Trump has presided over in a memo the morning after Super
also the second to take office older than previous electoral setbacks for his party. Tuesday. “The Republican nominee is
Ronald Reagan when he left (the first be- Republicans lost control of the House cash-strapped, beleaguered by a host
ing Joe Biden, the incumbent). during the midterm elections in 2018. of external issues, and is running on an
While facing unprecedented legal They lost the White House and Senate extreme agenda that is already proving
headwinds, Trump remains weighed during his reelection bid in 2020, capped to be a significant liability for key voting

Trump speaks in Palm Beach, Florida, after the Supreme Court rejected state attempts to ban him from 2024 presidential
primary ballots, March 4, 2024.
blocs that are critical to the pathway to his first term, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, and I&I/TIPP have Biden up by just 1 point.
270 electoral votes.” nearly nine years of controversies that Bloomberg and Emerson College
“On the metrics that matter, Team individually, much less cumulatively, both separately found Trump sweeping
Biden-Harris is roaring into the general would have ended most political careers. the swing states. This includes winning
election on firm footing, with Donald Yet against all odds, what Republicans back Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania,
Trump and the MAGA extremists run- are asking of Trump may not be impossi- Michigan, and Wisconsin. Trump leads
ning his operation on shaky ground,” ble. Recent polls by the New York Times-Si- in the RealClearPolitics polling average in
they added. ena College, the Wall Street Journal, Fox Nevada, the only battleground state he
That ground includes the diversion of News, CBS News, and the Economist-You- has never carried.
considerable resources away from beat- Gov show Trump leading Biden nationally. New York Times chief political analyst
ing Biden to paying legal defense costs, a The two exceptions, Morning Consult and Nate Cohn practically marveled over
liability faced by none of the Republicans Trump’s numbers after one of his news-
who had been running against Trump. paper’s polls gave the former president a
“Donald Trump and the Republican 5-point national lead. “That’s the largest
Party enter the general election cash- lead Mr. Trump has ever had in a Times/
strapped and straddled with insur- Siena national poll,” he wrote. “In fact,
mountable costs,” Dillon and Rodriguez
wrote. “In January, Trump’s campaign
Trump’s leads in it’s the largest lead Mr. Trump has held
in a Times/Siena or Times/CBS poll since
raised $8.8 million while spending the polls are not first running for president in 2015.”
around $11.5 million, ending the month insurmountable. But These leads are not insurmountable.
$2.6 million in the hole. His super PAC
is further in the hole: in the entire month
they are incredibly But they are incredibly demoralizing to
Democrats who always viewed Trump
of January, it spent more than it raised.” demoralizing to as unfit and hoped he had been perma-
In short, Republicans are betting on Democrats who always nently discredited by the 2020 election
Trump to beat the rap, history, and Biden aftermath. To some in Biden’s party,
viewed Trump as unfit
REBECCA BL ACKWELL / AP
all in one fell swoop, against the back- Trump should be incapable of achieving
drop of unrelentingly negative media and hoped he had a national polling lead at all.
coverage and simmering feuds with nu- been permanently Trump rarely led Hillary Clinton be-
merous leaders of his own party. All this fore his big upset in 2016. He never led
after two impeachments, a Trump-Rus- discredited by the 2020 Biden in the most reputable polls at any
sia investigation that consumed much of election aftermath. point in the 2020 campaign, which ended

with him pulling to within 43,000 votes who was one of the GOP’s greatest suc-
in three states of a second consecutive cess stories in an otherwise disappoint-
term. Trump is either on the cusp of his ing election cycle. He won reelection in
biggest political victory yet, if — and it is a 20-point landslide in what had up until
a big if — these numbers hold through recently been a swing state. DeSantis led a
November. Or, as his detractors in both real red wave in Florida, and Republicans
parties insist, something has gone seri- preferred his pandemic record to Trump’s.
ously wrong with the polls. Trump looked threatened. While he
Biden’s camp is seemingly retreating was dissuaded from announcing his
from the view that the polls are skewed 2024 presidential campaign before the
against its candidate, however. “Nation- midterm elections, he declared his can-
al polling, eight months out, confirms didacy at a big Mar-a-Lago event before
what we know to be true: this will be a the month was out. With a near-universal
very close general election contest like all name ID and a previous stint in the White
modern presidential elections are — but, House, Trump had little reason to declare
we have a clear path to victory,” Dillon so early, far in advance of any rivals. His
and Rodriguez wrote. “Beyond Donald speech was ridiculed as “low energy” by
Trump’s demonstrated inability to ex- former supporters. He looked to be run-
pand his appeal beyond the MAGA base, ning for lack of better things to do.
which this memo covers in detail below, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama suf-
upwards of 10% of voters remain unde- fered worse midterm election losses than
cided, much larger than the current mar- Trump did in 2018. Trump remained
gin between Trump and Biden in polling.” A fan at a Super Tuesday election party competitive under horrible political
If the election is winnable for Republi- in Palm Beach, Florida, March 5, 2024. conditions, a pandemic accompanied
cans with Trump at the top of the ticket, by business closures that halted the eco-
how winnable would it be with a nominee nomic boom that was his best case for
who didn’t have any of these problems? significant hit when his interventions in reelection, in 2020. Republicans actually
What is beyond serious dispute is that the midterm elections mostly failed. gained House seats that year, just as they
Trump has won big among Republican pri- Republicans appeared ready to move picked up Senate seats two years earlier.
mary voters. And he did so in part because on. They had won in Georgia after rebuff- Plus, he had convinced many of his sup-
he was so besieged. Rank-and-file GOP ing Trump-endorsed primary challengers porters, and perhaps himself, that he’d
members believed the charges against him to popular GOP incumbents. The one ex- actually won.
were politically motivated, blatant election ception was nominating Trump-backed The 2022 midterm elections made
interference designed to deprive them of former football star Herschel Walker, who Trump look like a loser for the first time
their preferred presidential choice. in turn was the only Republican to lose to people previously inclined to think of
Trump swept the early states of Iowa, statewide in 2022, giving the Democrats him as a winner. Instead of winning or
New Hampshire, South Carolina, Neva- an outright majority of the Senate. coming close in elections he was project-
da, and Michigan. He recorded the largest All that was needed was a viable alter- ed to lose badly, Trump helped blow elec-
victory margin in the Iowa GOP caucuses native. Enter Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), tions Republicans expected to win. And
in history, more than double the previous with the notable exception of Kari Lake
record, and came within one vote of car- in Arizona, none of the high-profile losers
rying all 99 counties. Trump received the blamed voter fraud or widespread Dem-
most raw votes ever in New Hampshire. ocratic cheating for the surprise result.
He won Michigan by more than 40 points. Republicans could have nominated
In all, Trump won all but two of the someone different. This time last year, it
first two dozen contests. He received Trump won big among was plausible that they would do so. De-
76% of the vote on Super Tuesday, losing Republican primary Santis closed the gap to within 13 points
only Vermont. By the time his last major
opponent dropped out, Trump was less
voters, in part because of Trump in the RealClearPolitics average
at the beginning of 2023. They were just
than 200 delegates away from securing he was so besieged. 4 points apart in a CNN poll that March.
the nomination. He is easily on track to Rank-and-file GOP The Florida governor was on the verge of
clinch it before the end of March.
This puts Trump on a path toward one
members believed positioning himself as Trump’s successor.
Then it all fell apart. Trump was rein-
of the greatest political comebacks in U.S. the charges against vigorated by the prospect of a DeSantis
history, rivaling his defeat of Clinton or him were politically challenge. Trump made the moment he
the return of Richard Nixon in 1968, eight first realized “that son of a b**** is run-
motivated, blatant
REBECCA BL ACKWELL / AP
years after losing to John F. Kennedy. ning against me” a standard part of his
Trump left office in disgrace after his un- election interference stump speech, a parable of disloyalty star-
successful and unsubstantiated election designed to deprive ring the governor he had endorsed in 2018.
protests culminated in disaster on Jan. Speaking at an Alabama GOP fundraising
6. He recovered some in the following them of their preferred dinner with Lee Greenwood sitting in the
months, but his reputation took another presidential choice. audience, Trump suggested the country star

write a song about this supposed betrayal. we’ve seen and we are presenting a posi-
Almost a year ago, Manhattan District tive vision for the future, we will win the
Attorney Alvin Bragg made history with presidency and we will have a chance to
the first Trump indictment. Republicans turn the country around,” DeSantis said.
rallied behind the former president and “If, on the other hand, the election is not
against a man they saw as a partisan about Jan. 20, 2025, but Jan. 6, 2021, or
Democratic prosecutor. Bragg was soon what document was left by the toilet at
joined by federal special counsel Jack Mar-a-Lago, if it’s a referendum on that,
Smith and Fulton County District Attor- we are going to lose.”
ney Fani Willis in indicting Trump, but “We have to stop with the chaos. We
the New Yorker’s hush money case was have to stop with the drama,” Haley said.
widely viewed as the weakest. “We have to stop with the bad sound
Trump was able to frame the indict- bites that keep happening over and over
ments as election interference and an again, and we have to listen to the Amer-
example of a “weaponized” or “two- ican people.”
tiered” justice system that endangered But the “chaos candidate” argument
Republicans more broadly. “We have a has been failing with the GOP primary
Justice Department that wants to limit electorate since Jeb Bush unveiled it in
free speech and free process of thought 2015. And it failed again on Super Tuesday.
because they have a difference of opin- A final dilemma for Republicans with
ion on election results,” Alabama GOP Trump as the nominee: He has attracted
Chairman John Wahl said last year low-propensity voters to the party while
of Smith’s 2020 election case against Trump sneakers on display in Palm repelling the more reliable suburban-
Trump. “They will prosecute a man just Beach, Florida, March 5, 2024. ites. That is a worthwhile trade-off if it
because he does not share their rhetoric.” means high-turnout presidential election
“And if they will do that to a former wins and an expanded multiracial work-
president,” Wahl continued, “they will do sounded like a Democrat to the Repub- ing-class political coalition.
that to you.” lican base. Haley much more than De- Yet Trump has been reluctant to em-
Trump spoke after Wahl at the Ala- Santis came to count on crossover votes brace practices that turn out lower-pro-
bama Republican fundraiser that night. from outside the party to stay competi- pensity voters, even as polling suggests
“They want to take away my freedom be- tive with Trump. In some states, exit polls his chances of winning are improved by
cause I will never let them take away your found Haley voters approved of Biden’s identifying and activating certain voters
freedom. It’s very simple,” he said. “They job performance more than the general who stayed home in 2020 and 2022.
want to silence me because I will never let electorate does. It would be an irony if Trump main-
them silence you. In the end, they’re not Still, both DeSantis and Haley amply tained his grip on the Republican nom-
after me, they’re after you, and I just hap- warned Republican primary voters about ination by remaining adamant that he
pen to be standing in their way.” the risk they were taking. “This may be was the rightful 2020 winner, only to
As Trump regained his footing, DeSan- his survival mode to pay his legal fees and have this cost him in 2024.
tis’s campaign gradually imploded. But as get out of some sort of legal peril, but this Barring some unforeseen event,
DeSantis declined, former U.S. Ambassa- is like suicide for our country,” Haley told Trump will be the nominee. Republi-
dor to the United Nations Nikki Haley rose. the Wall Street Journal. cans will have to hope he can avoid a
A confident and polished speaker, she was “If the election is a referendum on felony conviction before Election Day.
the only candidate to take advantage of Joe Biden’s policies and the failures that A battleground state poll late last year
Trump’s absence from the debate stage found that around 6% of voters in Ari-
and improve her standing in the polls. She zona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Penn-
is now the only Republican besides Trump sylvania, and Wisconsin would switch
to win any primaries this cycle. from Trump to Biden if he is convicted
DeSantis is 45 and Haley is 52. Both — possibly enough to flip those electoral
could more fully capitalize on the 81-year- votes. Exit polls in recent primaries also
old Biden’s age and mental acuity, major Trump is on a path show Trump could lose support under
concerns even among Democratic voters, toward one of the this scenario.
than 77-year-old Trump. Haley in partic-
ular raised the question of mental com-
greatest political Trump has thrown all caution to the
wind, as is his wont, and appears to have
petency tests and a generational change comebacks in U.S. won the argument that this is a worth-
in leadership, while DeSantis suggested history, rivaling his while gamble for Republicans to make. His
Trump was past his prime. whole public life has been a testament to
Haley nevertheless soon ran into the
defeat of Clinton or the the belief that fortune favors the bold.
same fundamental problem as DeSantis. return of Richard Nixon The likely nominee and his party will
WILFREDO LEE / AP
If you hewed too closely to Trump, you in 1968, eight years take this plunge together. ★
looked like an imitator. Why should pri-
mary voters not just go with the genuine after losing to John F. W. James Antle III is executive editor of the
article? But if you attacked Trump, you Kennedy. Washington Examiner magazine.

Artificial
Intelligence
Failures
It’s time for Congress to step in on AI regulations
By Andrea Ruth
A
rtificial intelligence it produced “Greek” people who were portant. Known merely as the “Chevron
took the world by storm Indian women and a Native American doctrine,” the 1984 case Chevron U.S.A.,
with the release of the man. One person asked for a generation Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council,
ChatGPT chatbot and of images of a “white family.” Gemini Inc. resulted in federal judges giving
image generators such declined, saying it could “not generate deference to federal agencies when in-
as Midjourney. Aside images that specify ethnicity or race,” terpreting federal statutes. In short, it
from scattered stories but it proceeded to create images of a let lower court judges off the hook, giv-
about fraud, deep fakes, and occasional “black family” when asked. ing bureaucrats the authority to “inter-
silliness, it appeared the AI revolution Still, that is the private sector and pret” federal law. The Supreme Court
was upon us. a mishap of Google’s own making. It’s seems poised to overturn the 40-year-
Then Google launched its AI chatbot the public sector and government regu- old decision, much to the chagrin of
Gemini, and the result was far more di- lation where AI stands to lose the most, those who think the “experts” should
sastrous than anyone could imagine. especially if Congress does not step up make such decisions.
Gemini results, so obviously teth- to the plate. The decision will mark a welcome
ered to the Democratic politics and It might seem odd to call for Con- change. For one, bureaucrats at federal
embrace of intersectionality, were an gress to stick its nose in and make up agencies are less likely to issue certain
embarrassment. In one particularly bad some rules, but without clear guidance regulations, knowing they’d have to
instance, someone prompted Gemini from the lawmaking body in the U.S. get past a federal judge. Second, it will
to create images of German soldiers in government, AI stands to get regulat- prevent the wild policy swings that go
1943 and it produced four images, two ed by a patchwork of state government from one administration to the next.
of which were an Asian female and a rules and overstepping by federal bu- Congress, not the executive branch, will
black male dressed in German military reaucrats with a political agenda. have to do its job. Members of Congress,
uniforms. In another, someone asked It is why the Chevron case the Su- of course, while often caterwauling
for images of Greek philosophers and preme Court took up this term is so im- about executive power, share much of

the blame in giving the executive branch
the power to make policy, a duty once
reserved, with some exceptions, almost
entirely to the legislative branch.
The people who would rather it get
left up to them to make those decisions
include Lina Khan, the head of the Fed-
eral Trade Commission and someone
who hasn’t met a lawsuit she didn’t want
to file or a merger she didn’t oppose. It’s
Christina Montgomery, chief privacy and trust officer at IBM; Gary Marcus, professor
not as though she never laid out her emeritus at New York University, and Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, are sworn in
agenda. In a paper she wrote while a stu- during a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law
dent at Yale Law School in 2017, she said oversight hearing to examine artificial intelligence on May 16 in Washington, D.C.
she wanted to broaden FTC scrutiny of
business and wrote that “antitrust laws
must take political values into account.”
During a talk at Stanford Universi- discrimination protections,” saying, “You chaos, stifling innovation and costing
ty last November, Khan already set her should not face discrimination by algo- consumers more as companies deploying
sights on generative AI, saying the FTC rithms, and systems should be designed AI tools would have to recoup the costs of
“will be cleareyed in ensuring that claims in an equitable way.” adhering to various types of legislation in
of innovation are not used as cover for The American Civil Liberties Union, 50 different states.
lawbreaking.” Then in January, the agen- an organization once devoted to protect- Considering the likelihood the Su-
cy announced it “issued orders to five ing constitutional rights and morphed preme Court will overturn the Chevron
companies requiring them to provide in- into another left-wing advocacy organi- ruling, it becomes that more critical for
formation regarding recent investments zation, wrote a commentary piece, “How Congress to do its job and create legisla-
and partnerships involving generative artificial intelligence can deepen racial tion that is specific and supersedes most
AI companies and major cloud service and economic inequities.” state laws to create an environment in
providers.” A digital publication called Access which AI can thrive while maintaining a
Others on the Left are already advo- Now defines itself as one that “defends modern legal framework that judges can
cating as well. Despite the data revealing and extends the digital rights of people use when faced with presiding over law-
AI chatbots lean leftward as expressed and communities at risk,” complete with suits related to the technology.
by their responses, left-liberal organi- an image of a raised fist. An example ar- It would also provide the opportu-
zations are already taking note of the ticle at the site had the title, “Computers nity for Congress to lead in keeping the
“threat” AI poses to minority groups and are binary, people are not: how AI sys- Left from interfering with AI innovation
the LGBT community. tems undermine LGBTQ identity.” through its absurd habit of looking at ev-
In October 2022, the White House re- At Salon, a published article was titled, erything through a lens of race and gender
leased a “blueprint for an AI bill of rights,” “Expert: Misinformation targeting Black identity. How does one go about design-
one of which addressed immigration. In voters is rising — and AI could make it ing an AI tool in an “equitable way,” as the
language that would assuage people such more ‘sophisticated.’” The “expert” in the White House wants? It is nonsensical.
as DEI-monger Ibram X. Kendi, one of story was an attorney with the left-wing AI is not all about asking a chatbot to
the blueprint items targeted “algorithmic advocacy group Southern Coalition for write a cover letter for an employment ap-
Social Justice. plication or to generate images of ducks
With advocacy groups going after playing football. AI has made strides in
AI and the lack of congressional action, healthcare, law enforcement, tax filing,
states are jumping in and creating their entertainment, and limiting bank fraud.
own legislation. One piece of legislation In one case, researchers used AI to deci-
AI is not all about introduced in California would prohib- pher ancient Roman texts carbonized in a
asking a chatbot to it companies from releasing AI tools
without first testing them for “unsafe”
deadly Mount Vesuvius eruption.
Congress must stop playing games.
write a cover letter behavior and providing a mechanism to Holding hearings to berate Google exec-
ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP VIA GET T Y IMAGES
for an employment shut the technology down completely if utives over whether the Biden adminis-
application or to necessary.
Another piece of legislation would re-
tration had a role in creating Gemini is
performative nonsense, aimed at stoking
generate images of quire “developers and deployers of auto- anger and garnering social media engage-
ducks playing football. mated decision tools (ADTs) that use AI ment. Congress has to get to work and do
to complete an annual assessment for the its job. If members of the House and Sen-
AI has made strides Civil Rights Department to describe the ate don’t, then those like Khan and Gov.
in healthcare, law purpose, uses, and context of the technol- Gavin Newsom (D-CA) will. 
enforcement, tax filing, ogy in making 'consequential decisions
impacting natural persons.'” Andrea Ruth, a writer from the Pacific
entertainment, and A patchwork of laws that differ from Northwest now living in West Virginia, is a
limiting bank fraud. state to state would create nothing but contributor to the Washington Examiner.

Congress P. 34
Healthcare P. 35
White House P. 36
National Security P. 38
CAMPAIGN
Michigan Democratic
infighting tests strength
of 2020 Biden coalition
The president’s campaign is shrugging
off dissent, at least publicly
By Naomi Lim
President Joe Biden addresses UAW

members during a campaign stop at a
phone bank in the UAW Region 1 Union Hal
in Warren, Michigan on Feb. 1.
EVAN VUCCI/AP

WASHINGTON BRIEFING
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators march during a visit by President Biden in Warren, Michigan, on Feb. 1.
D
EARBORN, Michigan — Po- votes needed to win the White House. sea,” a longtime rallying cry of terrorist
litical fallout from the deadly After Trump narrowly won Michigan in groups such as Hamas and the Popular
Israel-Hamas war is reverber- 2016, cracking the longtime “blue wall” Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
ating strongly 6,000 miles away when combined with his upset victories
in this Detroit suburb, and it’s in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Dem- LOW DEMOCRATIC ENTHUSIASM?
possibly threatening President ocrats came roaring back in 2020, with But even if Biden did address all of such
Joe Biden’s reelection chances. Biden beating Trump 50.62% to 47.84%. concerns with the Israel-Hamas war
Dearborn, with about 110,000 resi- Yet key demographics that helped and U.S. foreign policy regarding Israel,
dents, has the largest proportion of Arab Biden’s 2020 winning coalition in the he still has to contend with low enthu-
Americans in the United States. People of state are now creating electoral complica- siasm for his candidacy among Michi-
Middle Eastern or North African ancestry tions. A protest vote against Biden orga- gan’s important black and working-class
make up the majority of the city’s popula- nized by members of Michigan’s Arab and constituencies.
tion, 54.5%, per 2020 census data. Muslim community, supported by many The Middle East conflict “is a prob-
Many are none-too-happy with the younger Democrats, dominated headlines lem for Joe Biden. I just don’t think it rep-
Biden administration’s support for Isra- regarding the state’s Democratic primary resents the largest problem, even within
el in its defensive war against Hamas in last month. this community, for Biden in November,”
Gaza after the Oct. 7 attacks in the na- More than 110,000 Democrats marked Michigan State University Institute for
tion’s southern tier claimed about 1,200 themselves as “uncommitted” in Michi- Public Policy and Social Research Direc-
lives. An estimated 30,000 Palestinians in gan’s Feb. 27 primary, which Biden won tor Matt Grossmann said in an interview.
Gaza have been killed amid Israel’s efforts with 81.1% of the vote. The “uncommit- That’s because black Michigan Dem-
to root out Hamas from the area, though ted” column constituted 13.2% of the ocrats, though sympathetic concerning
Israel says a significant minority of those vote. the humanitarian crisis for Palestinians
killed are Hamas terrorists. That was more than 10 times the in Gaza, are emphasizing other priorities.
Some locals in Dearborn and sur- modest aim of the “Listen to Michigan” “The black community, the problem
rounding southwestern Michigan com- campaign, the highest-profile protest is violence, guns, unemployment, etc.,”
munities are threatening to withhold vote effort. Listen to Michigan was led by Detroit-based Democratic political com-
support from Biden in the looming re- Layla Elabed, sister of Israel-hostile Rep. mentator Adolph Mongo said.
PAUL SANCYA/AP
match against his vanquished 2020 Re- Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), the only Palestin- “The Gaza Strip is at 11th, 12th, 13th,
publican rival, former President Donald ian American in Congress. Tlaib was re- or the 20th in line,” Mongo said in an in-
Trump. Michigan is key to any Democrat- cently censured by the House in part for terview. “The people that I talk to think
ic plan to nab the 270 Electoral College using the phrase “From the river to the about, they’re thinking about how we

can stop 11-year-olds from getting shot
in their homes by drive-bys, high incar-
ceration rates, drugs running rampant.
Those are the issues that we need to be
addressed.”
NO PLACE FOR DEMOCRATS TO GO

The Biden campaign, while keeping a
watchful eye on Michigan, like other swing
states, doesn’t seem particularly worried
about defections to Trump or even damp-
ened Democratic voter participation in
the general election. Supporters know the
alternative would be another Trump term.
Trump, as president, oversaw the “Mus-
lim ban” of people to the U.S. from cer-
tain countries, which the Supreme Court Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud speaks during an election night gathering
upheld in its third iteration. And Trump’s in Dearborn, Michigan, on Feb. 27. Some Democratic voters pledged to vote
foreign policy was arguably even more ‘uncommitted’ in that day’s primary to let President Biden know they aren’t happy
pro-Israel than Biden’s has been. with his support for Israel and its response to the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas.
Although Vice President Kamala Har-
ris recently called for a ceasefire between zona, New Hampshire, Nevada, Pennsyl- Former Republican Michigan Rep.
Israel and Hamas, the Biden campaign vania, and Wisconsin. Pete Hoekstra has tried to replace her.
appears confident that “uncommitted” Swaths of Michigan Democratic voters, And Hoekstra, U.S. ambassador to the
Michigan Democrats will back the presi- such as Jackie Kelly-Smith, are ready to Netherlands during the Trump adminis-
dent. While those associated with the Lis- support Biden. She’s broken with a former tration, has been endorsed by the former
ten to Michigan campaign have indicated one-term Democratic congressman from president and the Republican National
that is a possibility, those with the Aban- the area, Andy Levin, who is a sharp critic Committee.
don Biden campaign have underscored of Israel over its military tactics in Gaza. “We will have a strong campaign effort
the opposite. That thinking also does not “The situation that’s going on with to assist candidates up and down ballot,”
account for Democrats or independents Israel and Palestine breaks my heart. But Hoekstra said in a text message. “Lots of
who decide not to vote at all when, in poll- I’m not in agreement with some Demo- groups willing to help. We have a unique
ing that considers third-party candidates, crats, like Andy Levin, suggesting that we opportunity to be successful in 2024.”
Trump averages a 4-point lead over Biden vote uncommitted. Because anything that The party infighting comes on top
in the state, 46% to 42%. can give Donald Trump an opportunity to of already desultory election results for
“I’m not going to be scared into voting become our president again is detrimen- Michigan Republicans in recent years.
for Biden, and I think it’s a real insult to tal to my family,” said Kelly-Smith, Ma- Since Trump’s upset win in 2016, Mich-
Muslims in the United States to act as if we comb County Democratic Committee’s igan “has moved back toward the Demo-
don’t know what living through a Trump black caucus chairwoman and a retired crats,” the Almanac of American Politics
presidency would mean,” said Samra’a UAW worker. 2024 notes.
Luqman, the Abandon Biden campaign “First in the 2018 midterm elections,
Michigan co-chairwoman. “What the pri- MICHIGAN REPUBLICANS when the Democrats flipped the offices of
maries showed is that we are already suc- ARE A MESS governor, attorney general and secretary
cessful, and if this continues, Biden will Democrats in 2024 aren’t facing the most of state; then in 2020, when Joe Biden
definitely lose Michigan.” organized bunch when it comes to the defeated Trump in the state by 154,188
That’s likely wishful thinking, with Republican opposition. Any advantage votes,” the almanac says. “And finally in
support for Israel strong nationally and in Trump may have in Michigan could be 2022, when voters recoiled at the pros-
most other parts of Michigan. Votes lost undermined by disunity within the state’s pect of reimposition of a 1931 abortion
to those angry over Biden administration Republican Party. The Michigan GOP is ban and at a Republican ticket enmeshed
support for Israel are likely to be made up grappling with a civil war between two in election denialism, handing Democrats
for and then some by suburbanites in and pro-Trump people claiming they are unified control of state government for
CARLOS OSORIO/AP
around Detroit, Lansing, Grand Rapids, chairperson after complaints the original the first time in 40 years.” ★
and other Michigan cities. And that could chairwoman, 2022 Michigan Secretary of
extend to suburban voters, prized by both State nominee Kristina Karamo, misman- Naomi Lim is a White House reporter at
parties, in other swing states such as Ari- aged the group. the Washington Examiner.

WASHINGTON BRIEFING
said at the time he was “proud” to support

CONGRESS the legislation and argued it would protect
the animals from the “dangerous round-
Lawmakers want to drag ups” which put the lives of horses and bur-
ros at risk.
authorities away from “The Wild Horse and Burro Protection

Act encourages humane and cost-effec-
roundup of wild horses tive alternatives to capture wild horses

and ensure they can continue to flourish
in Arizona and other western states,” Sch-
weikert said.
The American Wild Horse Conserva-
tion has been a champion of the proposed
legislation and has led the fight to ban the
practice from the Bureau of Land Man-
agement. Suzanne Roy, executive director
of the group, has called for the bill to be
passed and “refocus” efforts by the agency
The Bureau of Land Management to round up wild horses and burros.
“In 1971, Congress unanimously grant-
counters that wrangling the animals ed wild horses federal protection akin to
with helicopters is effective and safe the bald eagle,” Roy said in a statement.
“Sadly, successive administrations have
By Jack Birle failed to uphold America’s promise of free-
dom for these iconic animals. It’s time to
W
halt the helicopters and refocus on sustain-
ild horses and burros roam killed this year due to deadly helicopter able in-the-wild conservation.”
free throughout several roundups in Nevada, and thousands more The Bureau of Land Management
states in the Western part have been confined to overcrowded, dis- pushes back on the claim that wrangling
of the country under the ease-spreading holding corrals throughout wild horses and burros is “inhumane,”
supervision of the Bureau the West,” said Titus, who represents the claiming it is a myth and that the practice
of Land Management. eastern Las Vegas area 1st Congressional is effective and safe.
But lawmakers are saying nay to one of District. “BLM gathers have proven to be more
the agency’s methods of rounding up the It’s an under-the-radar issue compared humane, effective, and efficient than other
animals. to pressing congressional matters like aid types of gather methods when large num-
BLM has been responsible for manag- for Ukraine and Israel, border security, bers of animals need to be removed over
ing herds of wild horses and burros since and many others. The phrase “wild hors- wide areas or rugged terrain, and they lead
1971. Yet incidents of mismanagement es” more likely conjures thoughts of the to lower rates of injury and mortality than
involving rounding the herds with heli- Rolling Stones’s 1971 song about turning comparable capture operations for native
copters are sparking bipartisan outrage. around a burned-out relationship, with its big game species,” the federal agency says
A contingent of House Democratic and signature refrain, “Wild horses Couldn’t on its website.
Republican members are pushing for leg- drag me away/ Wild, wild horses/ We’ll “Helicopters start the horses moving
islation to ban the practice. ride them some day.” (The magazine Roll- in the right direction and then back off
Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV) has led the ef- ing Stone in 2021 ranked the tune 193 in its sometimes one-quarter to one-half mile
fort to pass H.R. 3656 — titled the “Wild “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list.) from the animals to let them travel at their
Horse and Burro Protection Act of 2023” On Capitol Hill, Titus’s bill has 19 own pace; horses are moved at a more rap-
— and renewed her call to commemorate co-sponsors — 16 Democrats and three id pace when they need to be turned or as
National Horse Protection Day on March 1. Republicans — from a variety of states. they reach the entrance to the capture site.”
“On National Horse Protection Day, Reps. Steve Cohen (D-TN) and David Sch- The legislation has been assigned to the
we call attention to the Bureau of Land weikert (R-AZ) were original co-sponsors House Subcommittee on Federal Lands,
Management’s disastrous wild horse and when the bill was introduced in May 2023. under the House Natural Resources Com-
burro roundup practices that needlessly Schweikert represents a district encom- mittee, where it awaits further action. ★
GET T Y IMAGES
harm these icons of the West,” Titus said passing the northeastern part of Maricopa
in a statement. County, Arizona, one of the 10 Western Jack Birle is a breaking news reporter for the
“Dozens of horses have already been states with a wild horse population. He Washington Examiner.

WASHINGTON BRIEFING
healthcare It came as somewhat of a surprise when

the Mississippi House of Representatives
The reddest of states on Feb. 28 passed the Healthy Mississippi

Works bill, which would expand Medicaid
are expanding Medicaid

coverage to 210,000 state residents. The
vote in the House was 98-20, receiving no
vocal opposition.
through Obamacare The champion of the expansion was
Republican House Speaker Jason White.
Mississippi is moving forward while He told reporters, “As I have traveled across
this state, visiting with business leaders,
the Alabama state House speaker community officials, and ultimately vot-
is sounding more favorable ers, the most consistent message I hear
is the demand to address the shortfalls in
By Andrea Ruth our healthcare accessibility and availability
in Mississippi. I found the desire to keep
W
Mississippians in the workforce and out
h en President Barack on March 31, 2023. As of our emergency rooms transcending any
Obama signed the Patient such, 10 states “un- political party and impacts all regions of
Protection and Affordable winded” the expansion: Al- abama, Flor- our state. Our determination to improve
Care Act, aka Obamacare, ida, Georgia, Kansas, Mississippi, South access to healthcare is a vital piece of the
in March 2010, one Repub- Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, economic puzzle as a healthy workforce
lican in the House voted for and Wyoming. These states based their supports a healthy economy.”
it and it received zero Senate GOP votes refusals to continue on soaring costs, ef- The bill now goes to the state Senate,
amid a strong Democratic majority. The fectiveness, and ideological opposition to where it will probably pass. The one hur-
Republican mantra from that day forward more government-funded healthcare. dle is Gov. Tate Reeves (R-MS), who is a
was “Repeal.” Practical and political realities, howev- staunch opponent of Medicaid expansion.
Over the next six years, Republicans at- er, have started to create some cracks in the However, should the Senate pass the bill
tempted to repeal all or parts of Obamacare opposition. The rise of former President with a veto-proof majority as it did in the
over 50 times. When the GOP finally suc- Donald Trump and his populist approach House, Reeves’s view won’t matter.
ceeded in mustering up the necessary votes to politics created a shift in the party, with In Alabama, Republican state House
for a full repeal in January 2016, Obama, the GOP now appealing to more work- Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter said the state
not surprising anyone, vetoed the bill. ing-class voters. In 2012, Obama defeated has “got to have the conversation” about
After Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) fa- GOP presidential rival Mitt Romney with expanding Medicaid coverage. Georgia
mously gave a thumbs down to a “skinny voters who made under $50,000 by 22 implemented a narrow Medicaid expan-
repeal” of Obamacare in July 2017, the ef- points, 60% to 38%. By 2020, that gap nar- sion, but critics say it still leaves hundreds
fort was all but dead. rowed between Trump and President Joe of thousands without coverage. In Kan-
One of the significant features of Biden to 11 points, 55% to 44%. Obama sas, Gov. Laura Kelly (D-KS) attempted
Obamacare is Medicaid expansion. Typ- won those without college degrees in 2012, to persuade the Republican-controlled
ically, Medicaid had limited eligibility for but Trump claimed that demographic in legislature to expand Medicaid by offering
certain low-income children, pregnant 2016 and 2020. to include a work requirement. Still, law-
women, parents of dependent children, Antipathy toward Obamacare has fad- makers balked, with Republican House
older adults, and people with disabili- ed. In July 2014, Obamacare had a favorable Speaker Dan Hawkins saying in an inter-
ties. The expansion allowed states to of- rating of only 37%, with 53% disapproving. view that “Medicaid should be reserved for
fer Medicaid to people based on income In February of this year, that flipped entire- only those truly that need it, the children,
alone. States had to opt in to get the federal ly, with the public giving a favorable opin- the elderly, the disabled.”
matching funds for the expansion. ion of 59%, while 39% disapproved. Whether the holdouts continue remains
As expected, “blue” states went all in, The other issue is that most of these to be seen. If expansion passes in Missis-
while many “red” states declined. Congress working-class voters in “red” states live in sippi, it could get taken as a green light for
passed the Families First Coronavirus Re- rural areas, where hospital closures have some other states to follow suit, especially
sponse Act in 2020, requiring expanded become a significant problem. Eight of Mis- heading into the 2024 elections. ★
Medicaid coverage in all states. Still, Con- sissippi’s rural hospitals have closed since
gress delinked the continuous enrollment 2009, and five more have gone into bank- Andrea Ruth, a writer from the Pacific
provision from the COVID-19 public health ruptcy proceedings since then, according Northwest now living in West Virginia, is a
emergency, ending continuous enrollment to the Mississippi Hospital Association. contributor to the Washington Examiner.

WASHINGTON BRIEFING
white house
Harris isn’t Biden’s do-COVID-19 shutdown, meaning inter-

national travel was limited and, as a result,
biggest problem
Harris got off to a slow start, according to
Goldstein.
Besides her historic status as the first
black woman to be vice president, Harris
has been the most visible spokeswoman for
the administration on the world stage.
She’s been sent to Auckland, Paris,
Munich, and a spate of Asian and South-
east Asian countries to speak on Biden’s
behalf. She, like vice presidents before her,
hasn’t been on the trips that draw eyeballs
— Biden rode the train into a war zone in
Ukraine and flew to Israel following the
Oct. 7 attack by Hamas — but her role as
the messenger about Biden’s priorities to
the world shows the president has placed a
tremendous amount of trust in her.
Sometimes that role has meant she can
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks before walking with others across the stick her elbows out on geopolitics with
Edmund Pettus Bridge commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday which Biden is constrained at home.
voting rights march in 1965 in Selma, Alabama on March 3, 2024. Harris recently sent a fiery message de-
manding an immediate ceasefire to address
the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.
Plus, her approval dent Donald Trump. “People in Gaza are starving, condi-
Trump-skeptical Republicans don’t ap- tions inhumane, and our common human-
ratings are at least pear ready to hold their noses to vote for ity compels us to act,” Harris told a crowd.
somewhat on the rise the incumbents, seeing the elevated risk of
Harris remaining a heartbeat away from
“Given the immense scale of suffering in
Gaza, there must be an immediate cease-
By Max Thornberry the presidency when Biden appears frailer fire for at least the next six weeks, which is
than ever.
L
However, beneath the headlines and
ike so many vice presidents be- poor polling, Harris appears to be doing the
fore her, Kamala Harris has one administration’s most important work and,
of the hardest jobs in Washing-
ton. She is an unpopular No. 2
despite his frustrations, a trusted member
of Biden’s government.
In Harris’s case, people
to a historically unpopular Pres- Joel Goldstein, a scholar of the vice are looking at Harris,
ident Joe Biden. She’s simultane- presidency, told the Washington Examin- and they’re sort of
ously serving as Biden’s point woman on
the most important pieces of his agenda
er Harris has been distinctive as a histor-
ic figure and a public spokeswoman and
measuring her against
and is the face of a reelection campaign making herself the center of attention an ideal of a vice
that is bleeding support with young and internationally. president. At some
minority voters. “Every vice presidency differs depend-
Harris’s struggles as a presidential can- ing upon what the needs of the administra-
point, when Trump
didate date back to 2019. Her limitations tion are,” said Goldstein, professor of law picks somebody, it’s
as a retail politician are well documented. emeritus at St. Louis University. “I think not going to be Harris
The former California attorney general isn’t one of the things that’s important in think-
a media darling. Her on-camera appearing about those persons is that what they’re against some ideal.
ances are often marred by curious word trying to do is to add value, and adding val- It’s going to be Harris
AP PHOTO/MIKE STEWART
salads and meandering answers to simple ue, to some extent, means filling in gaps.” against an actual
questions. And Biden has plenty of gaps that need
Republican presidential candidate Nik- to be filled. human being.
ki Haley made Harris a part of her stump When Biden and Harris came into the –Joel Goldstein, a scholar of the vice
speech as much as Biden or former Presi- White House, the world was still in a pseu- presidency.

as being, you know, more popular than the
president.”
That’s a problem for Biden if he is rely-
ing on Harris playing a significant role in
putting him over the top in a likely rematch
with Trump in November.
But as much as he relies on Harris as a
spokeswoman and a bridge, most voters
aren’t looking past the first name on the
ticket. And Goldstein pointed out that if
Harris is going to have any impact on the
2024 contest, she has room to grow.
what is currently on the table.” Mike Pence, Biden, Dick Cheney, and Al “People can make their judgments be-
However, voters don’t seem to share Gore. tween Biden and Trump,” Goldstein said.
Biden’s trust. As of Jan. 23, Harris had a Comparing polls from now to vice pres- “In Harris’s case, people are looking at
55% unfavorable rating, according to the idents 20 years ago isn’t exactly comparing Harris, and they’re sort of measuring her
Los Angeles Times. Her favorable/unfa- apples and oranges, Goldstein said. He against an ideal of a vice president. At some
vorable ratings swapped places when she pointed to the increasing polarization in point, when Trump picks somebody, it’s
fumbled her first big-ticket assignment of politics as a factor that is going to skew re- not going to be Harris against some ideal.
addressing the “root causes” of surging im- sponses and complicate analysis. It’s going to be Harris against an actual hu-
migration that has evolved into a signature “Biden’s approval ratings are down, and man being.” ★
crisis for Biden. vice presidents tend to sort of track the
And she has polled worse than any of president’s approval rating,” he said. “It’s Max Thornberry is a breaking news editor
the four other most recent vice presidents: hard for a vice president to be perceived for the Washington Examiner.
AP PHOTO/JACQUELYN MARTIN

WASHINGTON BRIEFING
national security
Fearing the US is becoming an increasingly

unreliable ally, Europe charts its own course
Trepidation over prospect of Trump redux has spooked NATO allies
By Jamie McIntyre
F
rench President Emmanuel Ma- gets in as president, pulling America out “I think it is also the signals that we
cron ignited a fierce debate last of NATO. It’s no secret that he despises are sending to Russia, that we are not
month when, after a gathering NATO … and I am 100% certain that he ruling out different things,” Kallas said.
of European leaders in Paris, will try it on this time around,” Shirr- “Because all the countries have under-
he suggested that the option eff said, expressing a widespread Euro- stood that we have to do everything so
of sending Western troops to pean opinion. “Now, in my view, is the that Ukraine wins and Russia loses this
Ukraine should not be ruled out be- time that the West, that Europe should war.”
cause “we will do everything needed so be, in a sense, smashing the glass on the “Nothing can be taken off the table.
Russia cannot win the war.” fire alarm [and] start making assump- No option can be rejected out of hand,”
Although the United States and tions that it will have to fight without Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabriel-
several key NATO countries, including American support.” ius Landsbergis said. “Times like these
Germany and the United Kingdom, were “It’s our future. It’s Europe’s that’s require political leadership, ambition,
quick to push back against the notion at stake. It’s up to Europeans,” Macron and courage to think outside the box.
of sending troops to Ukraine, even in a said. “We have to be able to continue [Macron’s] initiative … is well worth
noncombat role, Macron’s pointed mes- without them. Not out of defiance. Not considering.”
sage amounted to a cri de coeur that the out of pessimism. Not because we’re As Macron traveled around Europe
very real prospect of former President afraid. Just because it’s up to us. It’s last week, warning against “coward-
Donald Trump returning as U.S. presi- what we have to do.” ice” in the face of Putin’s threats of
dent means America may no longer be Not every NATO nation was as quick retaliation if NATO troops appear on
a reliable ally. to dismiss the idea of sending troops to Ukrainian soil, the French president
“If we consider that this war deter- provide logistics and training support to found a kindred spirit in Petr Pavel,
mines our future, which I deeply believe war-weary Ukrainian soldiers. president of the Czech Republic.
because our security as Europeans is at Among the tasks NATO troops could “I endorse searching for new ways,
stake, should we give over our future to perform without being in direct combat including continuing the discussion
the American electorate?” Macron said include “demining, cyber operations, or about a possible military presence in
at a post-meeting news conference. “My arms production,” according to French Ukraine,” Pavel said in a joint appear-
answer is no. No matter how they vote. Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne. ance with Macron. “Let’s not impose
So, we don’t need to wait for the result.” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja limits on ourselves if we do not have to.”
There is a growing fear in Europe Kallas told Politico’s Power Play pod- “The war in Ukraine has been a
that the tide of the Ukraine war is turn- cast that “everything” must be on the turning point for European defense,”
ing in Russian President Vladimir Pu- table to help Ukraine beat Putin. Charles Fries, deputy secretary-gener-
tin’s favor and that Americans, in the al in the European Union’s diplomatic
thrall of Trump, the GOP presidential arm, said in a recent Center for Stra-
nominee-in-waiting, are turning their tegic and International Studies online
backs on Europe. discussion.
“We do not want to see President The only real military “The EU is Ukraine’s largest financial
Trump back as president because that lifeline is the one from supporter, €88 billion [$95.8 billion]
would really be an existential threat to so far, with €50 billion [$54.4 billion]
the alliance,” retired British Army Gen. the United States, and in addition agreed between now and
Richard Shirreff, who served as NA- as we all know, that 2027,” Fries said. “In parallel, the EU
TO’s deputy supreme allied command-
er from 2011-2014, said in an interview
one is, shall we say, has launched its largest military mis-
sion in its history to train the Ukrainian
on Sky News last month. on pause right now. army. The EU will have trained 60,000
“There is real risk of Trump, if he –U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates soldiers by this summer.”

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Feb. 26. More than 20
European heads of state and government and other Western officials are gathering in a show of unity for Ukraine, signaling to
Russia that their support for Kyiv isn’t wavering as the full-scale invasion grinds into a third year.
The billions in European economic ensky, well aware Trump has publicly “Europe will say, ‘Hey, the United
assistance have been a real lifeline to threatened that, if elected, he would cut States is not with us. We’re not going to
Ukraine, helping to pay for pensions off aid to Ukraine to force it to make be with them. If there’s something they
and salaries to keep the government peace with Russia on Putin’s terms, want to do in the Pacific, for instance,
solvent, former U.S. Defense Secretary has been busy signing separate security let them deal with China,’” Romney said
Robert Gates said. agreements with more friendly nations. in an appearance on CNN. “We need to
“The problem is the Europeans just So far, six countries — the U.K., Ger- make sure that the world knows we will
don’t have much in their stockpiles, and many, France, Denmark, Canada, and stand with Ukraine. I can’t guarantee,
they say they’re going to do more and Italy — have made defense pacts with as J.D. Vance indicates, that this is go-
produce more, increase the production Ukraine. ing to mean that Ukraine is successful
of these weapons and ammunition and There are many Republicans in Con- on the battlefield. But I can guarantee it
so on, but it won’t appear on the bat- gress who say it’s high time Europe shows the world that we’ll stand by our
tlefield until 2025 or perhaps even be- stepped up and did more heavy lifting friends.”
yond,” Gates told a recent Washington when it comes to Ukraine and argue the “All these people are watching to
Post forum. “The only real military life- U.S. shouldn’t be making open-ended see — can you count on America? Or
line is the one from the United States, commitments to fund the war forever. is America so isolationist it doesn’t
and as we all know, that one is, shall we In comments at the Munich Secu- care what happens to the rest of us?”
say, on pause right now.” rity Conference last month, Sen. J.D. Romney said. “If that’s the case, by the
“We need to go the extra mile,” ad- Vance (R-OH) said the $61 billion sup- way, if we cede leadership, if we’re no
mitted Fries, who said a newly unveiled plemental aid for Ukraine bottled up in longer the leader of the free world, if
defense industrial strategy will aim to the House would not “fundamentally we’re no longer the arsenal of democ-
GONZALO FUENTES/POOL VIA AP
increase European production capacity change the reality on the battlefield.” racy, then the world is going to look
beyond ammunition and missiles. But that misses the larger point, for different leaders. And I know at
“I think it’s a new illustration that countered Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), least one player that’s happy to step
Europe makes progress only in very dif- who argues the loss of credibility would into that role. And that’s China.” ★
ficult circumstances when I would say come back to bite the U.S., especially if
when Europe has a knife at the throat.” America needs help from NATO allies Jamie McIntyre is the Washington Exam-
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zel- countering China in the future. iner’s senior writer on national security.

SpaceX’s mega rocket
Starship launches in
Boca Chica, Texas.
corporate governance
SpaceX blasts off from Delaware courts.

Other companies keep landing there.
Elon Musk’s move draws attention to whether to reform aspects of its corporate
franchise,” wrote Wilmington-based writ-
the First State’s unique corporate laws er Karl Baker. “We might democratically
decide not to. And, that’s OK. But with a
By Jeremy Lott public debate, at least we are clear eyed
moving forward.”
H
Washington Examiner magazine inter-
al Weitzman is a professor governance. The state has about 1.6 mil- viewed Weitzman by email in early March
at the University of Chicago lion registered companies and just under about billionaire Elon Musk’s decision to
Booth School of Business 1 million residents, Weitzman reports. pull his SpaceX out of Delaware’s corpo-
and editor-in-chief of the What’s the Matter with Delaware? How rate governance, along with a wider view
Chicago Booth Review. Before the First State Has Favored the Rich, Pow- of the state’s corporate history. What fol-
Weitzman came to academia, erful, and Criminal — and How It Costs Us lows is an edited version of that exchange.
he was a journalist whose work formed All was credited by the local publication
ERIC GAY/AP PHOTO
the core of books and book chapters on Delaware Call with encouraging an over- Washington Examiner: Elon Musk
Latin American prosperity, the develop- due debate. “[The book] shows why Dela- recently moved where SpaceX is incor-
ment of financial derivatives, and most ware needs to have a public conversation porated from Delaware to Texas after
recently Delaware’s system of corporate now and regularly into the future about a Delaware judge voided his Tesla pay

package. This was an unusual move for understaffed and under-resourced.
Delaware courts, correct?
Washington Examiner: In your estima-
Hal Weitzman: Do you mean the de- tion, how much does it matter that Pres-
cision itself? It’s rare that they strike ident Joe Biden spent so many years as a
down a pay package, but it’s not so rare senator from Delaware?
that the Chancery Court takes the side
of shareholders against management. Weitzman: That’s not what keeps the
It’s happened periodically. Delaware is system going. [Retiring senator and for-
business-friendly, but that doesn’t mean mer Democratic Delaware Gov.] Tom
it always sides with management. If Carper played a much bigger role in de-
they always ruled against shareholders, fending the incorporation industry. In his
shareholders would never go to court Hal Weitzman Senate career, Biden did cast crucial votes
in Delaware because they’d assume in favor of credit card companies (eg, lim-
they would lose. So it’s in the Chancery bolstered its position in the early 1980s iting personal bankruptcy) but that is a
Court’s interest not to be too predictable, by scrapping interest-rate caps for credit different issue than incorporations.
and it isn’t. cards, allowing the companies to charge
usury rates. Nowadays, it makes it ex- Washington Examiner: You were able
Washington Examiner: Do you think tremely easy and convenient to set up a to write What’s the Matter with Delaware?
Tesla will move its incorporation as well? company, and requires minimal docu- after you made the jump from journalism,
mentation. It’s harder to get a library card as a reporter for the Financial Times for a
Weitzman: My understanding is that than to set up an LLC. number of years, to academia. There are
Tesla needs a shareholder vote to do so, a lot of journalists who are being pushed
and Musk has said he wants to hold one. Washington Examiner: You write that out currently, by the contracting state
America’s corporate code is not written in of the industry. Do you have any good
Washington Examiner: Where on the Washington, D.C. Does it tend to surprise thoughts for journalists who are trying to
ideological spectrum are critics of Dela- people when they learn that? figure out where to go next?
ware typically situated?
Weitzman: Those that didn’t know about Weitzman: Are you asking for a friend?
Weitzman: It depends on the nature of Delaware are surprised. Those that know It’s a tough time, but effective reporting,
the criticism, but it’s not really a left-right are surprised that anyone is surprised. writing, and editing skills will always be
issue. Transparency campaigners tend in demand in a variety of industries, even
to be more liberal, but not necessarily. Washington Examiner: In your book, in the age of ChatGPT.
More transparency means markets work you write about how Delaware courts
more efficiently, so capitalism performs typically made it hard for federal agents to Washington Examiner: The title of
best if information is widely dispersed. pry into companies suspected of drug-re- your book echoes Thomas Frank’s What’s
And there are national security reasons lated offenses. Has that changed at all? the Matter with Kansas? Why? And what
to improve transparency — anyone, any- did you think of that analysis?
where in the world can set up an anony- Weitzman: Not Delaware courts, but the
mous U.S. company with essentially no Delaware system of forming companies Weitzman: Well, Thomas Frank himself
ID checks. Governance activists aren’t (run by the Executive branch — the Sec- borrowed that title structure from a 1970s
necessarily liberal or conservative either. retary of State’s Office), which essentially horror film, What’s the Matter With Hel-
collects no information. What’s changed en? starring Shelley Winters and Debbie
Washington Examiner: To back up a is that this year, the Corporate Transpar- Reynolds. My title is not in homage to
bit, you have written the book What’s the ency Act comes into effect. Companies the Frank book (or the horror film). But I
Matter with Delaware? How did Delaware have to register with the U.S. federal gov- think his book is an interesting read and
end up with more companies registered ernment, and law enforcement has access he’s a great writer. A big structural differ-
there than people? to those files. But a court just ruled that ence is that Frank was writing about Kan-
the CTA is unconstitutional so the whole sas as an example of what was happening
Weitzman: Originally New Jersey was thing is up in the air right now. Even if across America. My book is focused on
the home of U.S. incorporations. Dela- that ruling doesn’t stick, it’s far from clear Delaware and its global importance in the
ware actually copied New Jersey’s laws, the registry will work. It depends on in- business world. H
and then New Jersey disavowed the in- teragency cooperation, and places a huge
dustry in the early 1900s, so it went to burden on FinCEN, the financial crimes Jeremy Lott is a contributor for the
neighboring Delaware. Delaware then unit of the Treasury, which is grossly Washington Examiner.

BUSINESS
TIANA’S TAKE
How the international economy is fueling
the invasion at the southern borders
F
ormer President Donald Trump Africans crossing into the southern Belated efforts by the Biden adminis-
has called the influx of immi- border increased by more than 300% in tration to compel Colombia into halting
grants into the country an “in- the past year alone, with a plurality hail- boat trafficking across the Darien brief-
vasion,” which has triggered ing from Mauritania, an Islamic theocra- ly went into effect, with Colombian law
charges of demagoguery. But it’s cy that still enslaves roughly 10% to 20% enforcement arresting two captains from
an accurate description of our of its population. The New York Times the companies transporting immigrants.
state of affairs about the U.S. borders did a deep dive into the “luxury route” But after a five-day strike by the compa-
with Mexico and Canada. to the U.S. from Africa, discovering that nies, the boat companies resumed, a re-
Southern border encounters reported immigrants pay human traffickers about lief to the Colombian towns that claim
by the Border Patrol more than doubled $10,000 for travel packages that are ad- they lack the infrastructure to sustain
from 2019 to fiscal 2023, while northern vertised on social media. One of the main the buildup of immigrants waiting to
border encounters are up a staggering thoroughfares between the hemispheres cross the Darien. (In a tragic note unre-
600% since President Joe Biden took is now the flight between Istanbul and lated to the economic story, the sexual
office. With nearly 10 million total im- Bogota, thanks to the Colombian govern- abuse of immigrants crossing the Darien
migrant crossings documented, immi- ment’s decision to suspend visa require- is up sevenfold, according to Doctors
grant crossings nationwide are at their ments for a number of African citizens. Without Borders.)
highest point in history with little sign Immigrants then fly to Nicaragua, where There are indeed “root causes” of the
of abating. left-wing dictator Daniel Ortega has sim- immigrant crisis, but they aren’t the ones
And as the Washington Examiner re- ilarly slashed visa requirements in retali- Vice President Kamala Harris seemed to
peatedly forewarned, this immigration ation for American sanctions. blame at the start of her tenure as the
influx is no coincidence. It began when But El Salvador’s law-and-order Pres- border czar. Anti-American dictatorships
Biden ripped up the two crucial dip- ident Nayib Bukele has proven a prime have realized relaxing visa requirements
lomatic deals brokered by Trump that partner for the U.S., even as the Biden are useful cudgels against our sanctions,
staunched the multinational flow to the administration has hesitated to em- while human traffickers use Chinese-op-
U.S.-Mexico border. brace the pro-Western Bukele. Late last erated platforms such as TikTok to cajole
First, the “Remain in Mexico” deal, year, Bukele imposed a $1,130 “airport vagrants across continents to give cash
which only allowed asylum-seekers into improvement fee” on travelers from 57 to airlines, boats, and even tour guides
the United States once their applications largely African and Asian countries. The by little trod-upon trails.
were actually approved. And then, a se- tariff has evidently succeeded in building Meanwhile, emerging powers such
ries of “safe third country” agreements up a backlog in the Bogota airport, where as El Salvador have demonstrated that
that forced immigrants to apply for asy- the New York Times reported, “People the power of the purse can be used to
lum in the first safe country they reached. sleep in a corner, or kneel in Muslim persuade would-be illegal immigrants
Now, an entire international economy is prayer, using airplane blankets.” from using its infrastructure to go to the
both incentivizing and funding a surge Those aiming to cross from South to U.S. No president, not even Trump, will
characterized by human and child traf- Central America by land can be similar- be able to put Pandora back in the box
ficking, illegal drug trades, and the pro- ly serviced by tourism packages adver- easily just by reversing Biden’s removal
liferation of potential terrorism. tised on social media. Human traffickers of “Remain in Mexico” and “safe third
For decades, the “how” of southern on TikTok advertise “safe passage 100% country” deals, given the now-global
border crossings was straightforward guaranteed” through the notoriously origins of immigrants coming for our
enough. The overwhelming majori- dangerous Darien Gap, the land bridge borders. But the bourgeoning economy
ty of immigrants encountered at the connecting Colombia to Panama. The fueling the craze provides a blueprint
U.S.-Mexico border were either Mexican terrain, which includes swamp, moun- for how to empower our allies to help us
or citizens of the neighboring Northern tains, and forest, is so treacherous that it staunch the flow, once we decide restor-
Triangle nations of El Salvador, Guate- comprises the only gap of the Pan-Ameri- ing American sovereignty is a priority
mala, and Honduras. But as of 2023, the can highway, yet even so, more than half a once more. ★
GETTY IMAGES
majority of immigrants encountered at million immigrants attempted to cross it

the southern border are not from Mexico by foot and boat last year, including more Tiana Lowe Doescher is an economics
or the Northern Triangle. than 3,000 unaccompanied minors. columnist for the Washington Examiner.

Books The Iraq War passes into history, P. 46
On Culture The downmarket watch collector entrance exam, P. 53
TV How to stop sneering and learn to love trashy reality TV, P. 54
Also: Critical voice of her generation Lauren Oyler criticized  Critical voice of her generation Joan Acocella
eulogized  Baseball writing voice of his generation Ring Lardner remembered  The dramatic delivery
“Denis Villeneuve now takes his place as the most consistently

WARNER BROS.
excellent world-builder currently going.”

Graham Hillard, P. 52

LIFE & ARTS
sumptions about American power had

at least as much to do with that misun-
derstanding as the failures of U.S. intel-
ligence and the U.N. inspections regime.
“After 1991, Saddam assumed the CIA
knew that he had no WMD, and so he
interpreted American and British accu-
sations about his supposed arsenal of
BOOKS nukes and germ bombs as merely propa-
ganda lines in a long-running conspiracy
The to get rid of him,” Coll writes. “A CIA
Uncontroversial capable of making a gigantic analytical

mistake on the scale of its error about
Iraq War Iraqi WMD was not part of Saddam’s

worldview.”
Saddam was a paranoid man with
By Andrew Bernard
much to be paranoid about. He believed
throughout his presidency that America
S addam Hussein’s 24-year rule over and the “Zionists” (in the form of Israel
Iraq comprised an almost singular or a global cabal of international Jewry
reign of megalomania, mass slaughter, or both) were fixated on his destruction.
gangsterism, kleptocracy, and national That twisted ideological obsession could
self-destruction. Libyan strongman give him oddly prescient insights about
Muammar Gaddafi was more cartoon- his foes. When the CIA approached Sad-
ish, Syria’s Bashar al-Assad might yet dam in 1982 to offer support for his di-
rack up a higher body count, and the sastrous war against Iran, he accepted,
Kims of North Korea actually got their even though he assumed the United
hands on nukes. But there hasn’t really States and Israel were also backing the
been anyone like Saddam since. To the mullahs against him. When the Iran-
extent that he warrants comparison to Contra scandal broke in 1986, reveal-
Hitler, Hitler came as trag- ing huge U.S. arms sales
edy and Saddam as dark, to Tehran, Saddam felt
monstrous farce. vindicated.
Steve Coll’s riveting “I swear, I am not
new history, The Achilles surprised,” Saddam told Likewise, the dream of settling the
Trap: Saddam Hussein, the his advisers. He knew a Arab-Israeli conflict through a water-
C.I.A., and the Origins of Jewish plot when he saw shed deal with a large, hostile Arab state
America’s Invasion of Iraq, one, and he saw them did not begin with the Biden administra-
is a definitive and surpris- constantly. It didn’t mat- tion’s efforts to get Saudi Arabia to join
ingly timely account of the ter that Iran-Contra was a the Abraham Accords. In 1995, an ad-
decadeslong effort to con- debacle for the Reagan adviser to Jordan’s King Hussein proposed
tain or depose Saddam. As ministration: “What many to Saddam that the king travel to Bagh-
in his previous books, Coll Americans understood as dad with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak
is adept at telling a com- staggering incompetence Rabin to “enlarge the Oslo negotiations.”
plicated historical story in their nation’s foreign Four years after Saddam received one
with dozens of characters The Achilles Trap: policy, Saddam interpret- of the most lopsided ass-kickings in the
Saddam Hussein,
over the course of decades The C.I.A., and the
ed as manipulative genius,” history of warfare, his response should
while maintaining the pace Origins of America’s Coll writes. be instructive to anyone who doesn’t
of a great spy novel.` Invasion of Iraq Saddam was also not understand how Hamas might yet try to
The central question By Steve Coll alone, then or now, in claim victory in Gaza by merely staying
of The Achilles Trap is how Penguin Press mistakenly seeing Israel in power. “Defeatists” like Jordan, Sad-
576 pp., $35.00
RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP VIA GET T Y IMAGES
Saddam and four succes- as the cause and poten- dam said, “need people to be defeated
sive American administra- tial solution to all Middle with them in order to see that they are
tions, starting with Reagan, could have Eastern problems. Coll recounts how not alone in that defeat. For Iraq, this is
so fundamentally misunderstood each two months after Saddam invaded Ku- impossible.”
other, culminating in the Bush admin- wait, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev Coll has access to these strikingly
istration’s incorrect belief that Saddam thought he could still avert a wider war candid remarks from Saddam and his
retained weapons of mass destruction with the U.S. “by launching a new effort closest subordinates thanks to a trove of
and the subsequent invasion of Iraq. to resolve the Arab-Israel conflict,” what- Iraqi transcripts, recordings, minutes, and
As Coll shows, Saddam’s false as- ever that meant. other archival materials taken by Coali-

LIFE & ARTS
Coll has chosen. Of the book’s 484 pages,

fewer than 100 are devoted to the period
after 9/11. By focusing on the 1980s and
1990s, it’s easier to see George W. Bush’s
actions in the context of why both his
father and Bill Clinton pursued regime
change in Iraq, even if they stopped short
of a ground invasion.
Saddam was a pariah not only be-
cause he used “special bombardments”
of chemical weapons against the Iraqi
people but also because he was a con-
ventional mass murderer. “The Corps
Commands shall carry out random spe-
cial bombardments using artillery, heli-
copters and aircraft at all times of day or
night in order to kill the largest number
of persons present,” wrote “Chemical”
Ali Hassan al Majid in a 1988 directive
to gas Kurdish civilians. “All persons in
these villages shall be detained because
of their presence there, and they shall
be interrogated by the security services,
and those between the ages of 15 and 70
must be executed.” About 100,000 Kurds
were gassed, bombed, or shot in the 1988
massacre.
Smoke covers government buildings in Baghdad on March 21, But the failure to find WMD in Iraq
2003, during a massive U.S.-led airstrike on the Iraqi capital, also seems less scandalous in a world
part of what was billed as a “shock and awe” campaign. where Bashar al Assad was allowed to
stay in power despite crossing the chem-
ical “red line” set by the Obama adminis-
tration and where Yemen’s Houthi rebels
are now lobbing heavily modified SCUD
tion forces after the fall of Baghdad. Some Donald Rumsfeld at their 1983 meeting missiles, provided by Iran, at Israel. Cut-
of these were previously available publicly in Baghdad when the Reagan admin- ting the other way, the very concept of
but no longer are, while others Coll gained istration was pursuing better relations “WMD” has been sufficiently tainted by
for the first time from the Pentagon with Syria. “The tape showed several the Iraq fiasco that when rogue states
through a Freedom of Information Act minutes of ‘amateurish footage,’ as and terrorist groups actually possess and
lawsuit. The result is a rare example of a Rumsfeld recalled, in which Syrian pres- use WMD, it doesn’t register as a global
contemporary history of the Middle East ident Hafez al-Assad inspected troops threat.
where the author has at least as good if and applauded. Then it depicted ‘people The somewhat clunky title of The
not better access to the thoughts of Arab purported to be Syrians strangling pup- Achilles Trap refers to a mistaken belief
leaders as to Israeli or American ones. pies’ followed by a ‘line of young women that an adversary has a simple, low-cost
The picture of Saddam that emerges biting the heads off of snakes.’ The tape weakness that can bring about their
is complicated. He was a tedious, ideo- was edited to suggest that Assad was destruction. Saddam believed in 1990
logical, self-deluded micromanager who present and applauding. The gift under- that the U.S. would fold over Kuwait if
frequently executed subordinates for standably struck Rumsfeld as bizarre.” the U.S. suffered even minor casualties,
expressing minor dissent. But he could More than 20 years after the inva- while the U.S. thought Saddam was one
also be charming, sardonic, or even self- sion of Iraq, it’s striking how much of rogue general’s coup attempt away from
deprecating, particularly when speaking The Achilles Trap feels uncontroversial, losing power. Today, as excellent books
to foreigners or those few Iraqis he felt perhaps even part of an emerging politi- surveying the recent history of Middle
were not potential threats to his rule. cal consensus. After the rise of ISIS and Eastern power politics and war emerge,
Future French President Jacques Chirac investigations like the United Kingdom’s it seems worth asking which Achilles
first met Saddam in Paris in 1975 and Chilcot inquiry, one can now say on the traps Hamas and Iran have fallen into
found him “even rather nice.” one hand that Bush didn’t “lie” to bring about Israel and the U.S. and which
Coll has a journalist’s eye for color us into war and on the other that the war we’ve fallen into about them.
in a story that might otherwise be op- was nonetheless a catastrophe of plan-
pressively dark, as when he describes ning and execution. Finding a consensus Andrew Bernard is a correspondent for the
Saddam’s parting gift of a videotape to view is made easier by the scope that Jewish News Syndicate.

LIFE & ARTS
BOOKS to take, to soften an unflattering obser- lying on anonymous sources at the peak
vation, to ease our way into a difficult of the Trump era, “requiring readers to
The Slick conversation.” In our daily post-Seinfeld trust editors and reporters to make a
Lauren Oyler existence, it is the white flag of self-

consciousness, of “worrying about what
set of judgments about the legitimacy of
their sources, the way one might trust a
other people think.” But for the critic, well-connected friend to relay the tale of
By Chris R. Morgan it has a greater existential implication. a disintegrating high-powered couple.”
What is the value of criticism in a cul- But power grabs can be met with actual
L auren Oyler’s No Judgment is the ture where the audience already knows
kind of book that comes with cer- what it wants?
tain quality assurances that read like “I don’t really know why I write criti-
authority. The maker of the “Shitty Me-
dia Men” spreadsheet could not control
who saw it, including people on the list,
wine-tasting notes. The essays con- cism,” our noted critic writes. “It’s prob- who sued her. Gawker overplays its hand
tained therein will “bring to mind” the ably a bit too much about the illusion and gets sued themselves, into oblivion.
oaky aromas of Sontag, the citrusy tang of justice for me, really.” Justice, along Forum posters get tried for insurrection.
of Kael, and the sharp chocolate hints of with its bratty sibling revenge, preoccu- What this means for critics is that
Terry Castle. And like real tasting notes, pies Oyler enough in these essays for the the most empowered in this anarchy
the promised sensations may or may not two to constitute unifying themes, and are they who click. Any critic fond of his
actually be there. But why question the she says as much. There is no shortage of or her survival would do well to follow
vintage? Oyler does share the traits of people in the book seeking the one and their lead, validating their prejudices and
her elders: graceful and rigorous in style, taking the other. One author revenges boosting engagement. “Because of web
erudite and illuminating in substance, another by gaming Goodreads’s algo- traffic metrics and the simple validation
and dramatically savage when the mo- rithm to become a top-rated reviewer. that comes from being able to very ap-
ment calls for it (which, at least in this An entirely different author reads an proximately quantify readers through
volume, is not as often as her “swash- ungenerous review of her book on the social media response, a professional
buckling” reputation suggests). With same site and stalks its writer, causing critic’s greatest achievement … is to pub-
the ability to extract fresh insights like other Goodreads users to get revenge lish a review a lot of people read, which is
no other of her generation, evidently, no against the author. Women in media use much more likely if you’re talking about
topic — Gossip! Travel! Anxiety! Vulner- gossip to seek justice for the misbehav- Taylor Swift.” And if you’re not a “popti-
ability! — is too rote. ior of their male counterparts. Celebri- mist,” you are railing against poptimism
Oyler, for her part, is ties use vulnerability to with a fury somewhere between that of
aware of this, at least to evade various forms of a Lutheran thesis and a mass shooter
the extent that it puts her justice, like failure — and manifesto.
in a bind. It places her criticism. But the fact that Oyler is not one for manifestos, but
within a tradition, one these happen is less com- she will occasionally rise to assert a
where self-doubt is built pelling than what makes principle. Sometimes she is right: “For
in. “Critics like me are them possible and why my money, there are few things more ful-
perennially regretting the they’re hard to contain filling than encountering a difficult text,
deterioration of criticism,” or satisfy. Revenge and film, or work of art and then spending
she writes, “before noting justice only get us so far some time thinking about it, discussing
that critics have long re- compared to their respec- it, and uncovering the meaning of it.”
gretted the deterioration tive synonyms: power and Sometimes she is dead wrong: “I hate
of criticism.” But what if authority. books and films that aren’t realistic, that
that tradition is not simply Critical authority may don’t reflect the nuanced realities of the
in doubt or even deterio- have always been illusory, real world, which I believe to be truly
rating? What if it’s declin- No Judgment: Essays but encased in stable pre- infinitely fascinating.” Often, however,
By Lauren Oyler digital institutions, it was her prose gives way to the very self-con-
ing at a sharper incline and
HarperOne
and more intense velocity? a compelling and enviable sciousness behind her title. She does not
288 pp., $28.99
What if it is superfluous? one. Rebellions against it deploy “no judgment” but has mastered
This dilemma is illus- certainly seemed just, but the millennial dramatic aside — “This
trated by the way Oyler sets about ex- that justice was flimsy in a digital era is also not new. (Nothing is!)” — and
plaining the choice of title — helpfully, where power, in the “might makes right” one-line shrug paragraph — “Just kid-
as on its own it has at least two other sense of the word, was more operable, ding. Sort of.” I never liked this kind of
meanings. “This book is called No Judg- not to mention fluid. If gossip empow- rhetorical second-guessing, even when I
ment because the phrase has become a ers #MeToo to clean institutions of cor- sympathized with it. In addition to being
discursive shield” against the tensions ruption, real or perceived, it empowers disingenuous about the writer’s humil-
that arise between “thought and feeling, QAnon to undermine institutions alto- ity and presumptuous about the read-
reason and impulse.” It always follows gether. The chaos has reached behind er’s ignorance, it produces a discordant
“awkward conversations that you know the walls as well. Oyler notes that the rhythm, of thoughts being piled upon
your interlocutor might not like. We use New York Times could hire a public edi- and obscured by counterthoughts.
it to preface advice a friend won’t want tor to check reporter bias while overre- As to how the kind of substantial

LIFE & ARTS
criticism Oyler represents might survive days? art is about and what the person who
this chaos, she offers some tantalizing Indeed, the golden age of the critic made the art is about, too. It is her in-
demonstrations. Her essay on living in seems to have passed. Pauline Kael is terest in the latter quality that sets her
Berlin has a light, absurd humor remi- dead. So is Anatole Broyard. Joan Didi- apart from many contemporary so-
niscent of Charles Lamb as she negoti- on, John Leonard, and Hugh Kenner — called critics, who are happy to dismiss
ates being an American “hegemon” in that cadre of critics who got their start books, movies, or plays because of the
cities where globalization melts them at, or were associated with, National alleged misdeeds of their makers but are
“like overpriced candles threatening to Review — are each gone. The last chari- firmly opposed to understanding those
vanish and leave behind only the stylish table, trustworthy film critics to serve at works through the lives and worldviews
containers they came in.” Her essay on the New York Times, Vincent Canby and of their makers. From this, Acocella dis-
autofiction offers little novelty in the de- Janet Maslin, resigned from their posts sents. In a wonderfully concise introduc-
cades worth of ethical quandaries over in 1994 and 1999, respectively. Imagine, tion to the essays here, she locates the
using reality for fictional purposes. At a quarter-century without solid movie origin of the present disinterest of “the
the same time, it is formless, meander- reviews at the Gray Lady! artist’s inner life” to the modernism of
ing, and refuses to end, having an almost And now, we must mourn long-ten- T.S. Eliot. “In the 1980s, the notion of an
sly resemblance to autofiction itself. One ured New Yorker staff writer Joan Acocel- artwork undefiled by the artist’s experi-
can dream, anyway. la, who died of cancer in January at age ence gave birth to an even weirder child,
In Oyler’s effort to confront cultural 78 and who may have been the last regu- the postmodern idea — or, in any case,
tensions, whether between reason and lar contributor to make the once-august Roland Barthes’s idea — of the ‘death of
feeling, authority and power, or reader publication founded by Harold Ross still the author,’” she writes, but instead of ar-
and critic, she may have happened upon worth picking up from time to time. Al- guing the point on its merits, she more or
a new one. While at the outset, she priz- though ballet and dance were widely re- less spends much of the rest of the book
es stronger judgment against “worrying garded as her areas of expertise, Acocella establishing just how very relevant and
what other people think,” it is more dif- was capable of writing engagingly and vital “the author” still is.
ficult to overcome in practice. It may, at credibly about countless cultural topics. How did Agatha Christie become the
times, be beneficial to go against con- Her latest and now final collection of re- 20th century’s chief creator of detec-
ventional wisdom. That, presumably, is views and essays has just appeared. tive stories? In a piece occasioned by a
where judgment comes most in handy. Even if the new book were not forced pair of books about Christie, Acocella
Yet not worrying as a matter of principle to serve as a valedictory for Acocella, reckons it may have had something to
risks falling into fatalism. What good it would still have func- do with the writer’s soli-
is judgment when you’re beyond being tioned as a last gasp of tary childhood (“She also
judged? The consciousness of being the sort of criticism in communed, for long peri-
judged, and the impulse to judge in re- which Acocella excelled: ods every day, with imagi-
taliation, is the core of anxiety; it is also open, intelligent attempts nary companions: kings,
the seed of our moral life. to engage with personali- kittens, chickens”), her
ties and ideas with which morbid disposition (“She
Chris R. Morgan writes from New Jersey. the critic may or may not adored funerals”), and,
His Twitter handle is @cr_morgan. be in personal sympathy. frankly, the commercial
We aren’t always sure, appeal of the genre itself
and it never matters. She (beloved by the common
BOOKS calls balls and strikes. man but also venerated by
Joan Acocella’s Her equitable sensibility
is on vivid display in the
Auden and Eliot). These
biographical insights only
Valedictory title essay, a meditation
on Bram Stoker’s Dracula
The Bloodied
Nightgown and
enhance our understand-
ing of the novels, of which
By Peter Tonguette and its enduring cultural Other Essays Acocella is a keen observ-
currency. At one point, By Joan Acocella er: Few have exotic locales
T Acocella goes on for two Farrar, Straus & Giroux (“Most of them are set in
hese days, we have no shortage of
368 pp., $35.00
writers who earn their wages by of- paragraphs about the vari- plain old England”), and
fering opinions, reviews, and hot takes, ous defects of the novel, its scarcely any give their kill-
but those belonging to the higher calling overstuffed plot and overdone oratory, ers unusual motives (“Rather boringly,
of the critic are in short supply. The critic but then changes course and admits its the most common motive for homicide
does not merely opine but observes his “psychological acuity.” “We cannot help in Christie is money”). But nearly all
or her subject intently, fairly, and merci- but be impressed by Stoker’s representa- manage to confound while they are un-
lessly. The critic may specialize in one tion of the amoral contrivances of love, folding, as any detective story should. “I
subject but ought to be conversant in or of desire,” she writes. And when a read all sixty-six of Christie’s detective
many. The critic is unbowed by consen- critic so evenly presents her objections novels, and I have guessed exactly two
sus, editorial influence, reader feedback, to and defenses of a given work, we know of the culprits,” Acocella writes. “I’ll bet
or social media outrage. Well, do you we are in good hands. that this is a fairly typical record.”
know of anyone who fits the bill these Acocella aims to get across what the There is nothing typical about Aco-

LIFE & ARTS
cella’s wide range of subjects, which fleet and cutting in her judgments. About player Jack Keefe.
include everything from the Book of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women se- Lardner died in 1933 at age 48. Few
Job to Richard Pryor. She has the gift quel Jo’s Boys, Acocella writes: “You can people today are familiar with his unique
of plunging herself into the world she sense how bored she is, and how much writing style, sharp tongue, and satirical
is writing about and reporting back on she wants to go upstairs and take a nap.” wit. His columns, particularly on base-
it with authority. One of the best pieces Not infrequently, Acocella’s summaries ball, have largely been forgotten with the
here is a review of a family history of five of the subjects of the biographies she is passage of time. But now, we have former
generations of the Waugh family, each sometimes reviewing are better than the sports columnist and NPR commentator
member more fascinating than the last. biographies ostensibly under consider- Ron Rapoport’s exquisite book, Frank
For example, there is biographer Arthur ation. She is far funnier, sharper, and Chance’s Diamond: The Baseball Jour-
Waugh, whose exorbitant affection for more astute about Edward Gorey than nalism of Ring Lardner, aiming to change
his eldest son Alec (“He seems to have the Gorey biography she is charged with this. If anyone is to understand a sports
spent almost every hour of his nonwork considering, about which she says this: writer, it would be another sports writer.
time talking to the boy, reading to him, “[Biographer Mark] Dery’s book is often Then again, Lardner was far from a
taking walks with him”) is contrasted fun, but that’s mostly because Gorey was conventional sports columnist. He “pur-
with his freezing out of his youngest, fun.” sued parallel careers,” writing short sto-
the great novelist Evelyn. Again, biogra- One persistent theme in these pages ries while working as a full-time journalist
phy informs criticism: Evelyn, the most is how artists tend to get weaker as they who covered topics including politics and
ruthless of satirists, exacted revenge by get older. We hear about how Elmore opera. Meanwhile, a common feature in
parodying his father Arthur in the form Leonard began losing his edge near the Lardner’s fiction and journalism was
of “the most boring and sinister charac- end and how Evelyn Waugh was keen something that’s regularly frowned upon,
ter in all his fiction,” the illiterate pedant to die. For her part, Acocella didn’t and namely “literary aberrations as ungram-
Mr. Todd in A Handful of Dust. wasn’t. And for our part, we were far matical dialogue, misspellings, haphaz-
Blessedly, Acocella reads writers of from ready to say goodbye. ard punctuation, and odd abbreviations.”
the past through the prism of their time, Rapoport suggests this trait must have
not ours. The profoundly politically in- Peter Tonguette is a contributing writer to “driven his copy editors crazy,” which
correct Waugh, Acocella writes, “didn’t the Washington Examiner magazine. would be a massive understatement.
just make fun of today’s targeted minori- Nevertheless, Lardner’s baseball
ties; he made fun of everyone.” Besides, writing, analysis, and his prose style
the Europeans come off worse than the captured the public’s imagination. He
Africans in Waugh’s brilliant satire Black focused on legends such as Ty Cobb and
Mischief, she adds: “When, at the end of Babe Ruth. He shone a light on lesser-
the book, Lady Courteney’s nympho- known players such as Frank Schulte
maniac daughter is eaten for dinner at and Heine Zimmerman. He reported on
a tribal gathering, we don’t cry for her.” some of the game’s biggest controversies
In the present collection, Acocella is and scandals. He tore apart the game like
particularly good in dealing with writers none before him, and very few after him.
whose work was saturated with religious SPORTS Frank Chance’s Diamond is an ode to
convictions, especially newfound ones.
Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene are Resurrecting old-time baseball. It’s the purest form
of a love letter by Lardner to America’s
among those Catholic converts who
perceived, as Acocella puts it, that the
One of Baseball game, from the regular season to the
World Series. The sights, smells, and
church “would provide a suitably august
arena for the transition to another sort
Writing’s sounds of the ballpark come to life, and
the personalities of players and manag-
of religion: doubt, anxiety, existential-
ism.” She properly diagnoses Greene’s
Old-Time Greats ers are on full display, warts and all. The
game he covered was segregated, mean-
central concern: the intersection of the By Michael Taube ing unsavory attitudes about race and re-
“torments of the soul” with the “fren- ligion were prevalent. While he may have
zies of the flesh.” But she is equally good
with the intensely Protestant American
novelist Marilynne Robinson. “Robinson
R ing Lardner was one of America’s
finest sports columnists. His work
appeared in more than 100 newspapers
been a product of his times, he had quite
the time discussing every minutiae of the
sport that infatuated him so.
writes about religion two ways,” Acocella and was consumed by millions of faithful Let’s start with “The First Game,”
writes. “One is meliorist, reformist. The readers. His admirers included authors written on Sept. 28, 1913, for the Chi-
other is rapturous, visionary. Many peo- such as H.L. Mencken, F. Scott Fitzger- cago Tribune by A. Athlete (who was
ple have been good at the first kind; few, ald, and Virginia Woolf. He also wrote apparently “unassisted”). This young
today, at the second kind.” It’s the sec- short stories (“Haircut,” “Gullible’s Trav- ball player’s description of a day on
ond kind that distinguishes Robinson’s els”), plays (Elmer, the Great, June Moon), the baseball diamond was somewhat
work. poems, Zigfield Follies skits, and script- crude, pedestrian, and bloody hilari-
Perhaps because of these pieces’ ori- ed a comic strip, You Know Me Al, based ous. Some classic lines included “that
gins as magazine pieces, Acocella can be on his popular novel about fictional ball little bum couldn’t hit a curve ball with

LIFE & ARTS
a mattress,” “I ain’t no pitcher, but I bet I

know as much about pitchin’ as some of Sportswriter
them pitchers,” and “I never seen a team Ring Lardner
have the luck break for ‘em like it does
for them big slobs.” This is the type of
chatter and bluster that used to reel in
newspaper readers time and time again!
Lardner’s assessment of baseball’s
heroes is superb. A June 1915 article for
The American Magazine contained many
memorable descriptions of Cobb. One
gem: “He’s got a pretty good opinion
of himself, but he ain’t no guy to really
brag. He’s just full o’ the old confidence.
He thinks Cobb’s a good ball player, and
a guy’s got to think that way about him-
self if he wants to get anywheres.” Ruth
wasn’t one of Lardner’s favorites, but his
Aug. 8, 1920, Bell Syndicate column noted
the best way to stop the Bambino from
hitting home runs “is to refuse to pitch
when its your turn.” In Lardner’s view,
“the most useless thing in the world
when this guy’s up there to bat is the
opposeing catcher, because if you can
throw a ball past Mr. Ruth why it don’t
make no difference if its catched or not
whereas if you try and throw one over
the plate, it won’t never get as far as the
catcher.”
There’s a mesmerizing
section on Lardner and
the World Series, featuring
a description of New York
Giants pitcher Christy
Mathewson’s heartbreak-
ing loss in Game 7 of the
1912 World Series. As he
wrote in his Oct. 17, 1912,
Chicago Examiner column,
“the tears streaming from
his eyes, a man on whom
his team’s fortune had
been staked and lost and Frank Chance’s
a man who would have Diamond: The history, he described that ner wrote, “and then the ground keeper’s
proven his clear title to Baseball Journalism final World Series game in staff could rush out and roll him out of
trust reposed of him if his of Ring Lardner an Oct. 9, 1919, Bell Syndi- the way like a canvas infield cover.”
mates had stood by him in By Ron Rapoport (ed.) cate column as “the most Ah, the number of fans who would
Lyons Press
the supreme test.” This is scandalous and death deal- have agreed with this assessment back
358 pp., $24.95
baseball writing at its fin- ing story ever wrote about in the day would surely have reached in
est. An Oct. 8, 1917, Chicago a world serious ball game.” the millions! Similar to the number who
Tribune column titled “The Modern Vol- Couldn’t have been much closer to the devoured every word Lardner wrote in
taire” and written “at the French front” truth had he tried. his baseball journalism. And now, mod-
HULTON ARCHIVE/GET T Y IMAGES
in fractured French is an unconventional In the book’s final chapter, Rapoport ern readers have the same chance.
masterpiece. “Il est the unanimous ver- selected a July 23, 1922, Bell Syndicate
dict autour de here that les Giants are column, “Kill the Umpire,” with a pro- Michael Taube, a columnist for four pub-
the most consistent world’s series in found concluding paragraph. “Every ball lications (Troy Media, Loonie Politics,
le monde,” he humorously concluded. park should ought to be equipped with National Post and Epoch Times), was a
As for the infamous Black Sox betting a expert sniper that could pick off the speechwriter for former Canadian Prime
scandal that was a blight on baseball umps the minute he was wrong,” Lard- Minister Stephen Harper.

LIFE & ARTS
FILM
Dune’s Beauty
and Horror
By Graham Hillard
L et us not mince words. The plot

of Dune: Part Two is so arcane, so
shamelessly ridiculous, that to describe
it is to risk discrediting the project. A
messianic figure roams a planet teem-
ing with psychotropic dust. Drowned
worms excrete a magic potion. Christo-
pher Walken is emperor of the galaxy. By Timothée Chalamet
rights, both the new picture and Dune, and Austin Butler in
its 2021 prequel, ought to be among the Dune: Part Two.
stupidest moviemaking ventures ever
conceived. That the films are instead
masterpieces is nothing short of a cin-
ematic miracle. See them back to back,
on an enormous screen if possible, and purely secular terms. Though he doesn’t possibilities fail to arise. It is tempting,
settle in for one of the great fantasy epics quite want the “normal” life imagined by lingering among the Fremen, to pic-
of our time. Scorsese’s Jesus, neither does he wish to ture oneself with Afghani Mujahideen,
Like its prequel and source novel, assume the spiritual leadership of a res- fending off Harkonnen Soviets (or, less
Dune: Part Two takes place on the plan- tive, uncivilized, and fanatical tribe. comfortably, Americans). Other viewers,
et Arrakis, where a pair of noble families How, given our material age, does notably those at the Gospel Coalition,
have lately struggled for dominance. In such crudely pietistic material work on have framed the movie as a “post-Chris-
the 2021 film, the savage House Har- screen? Any answer has to begin with di- tian artifact” that condemns religion by
konnen struck the ruling Atreides clan, rector Denis Villeneuve, who now takes portraying it as a tool of social control. I
murdered its patriarch, and stranded its his place as the most consistently excel- am not opposed to these “readings” any
survivors in a vast desert. As the new lent world-builder currently going. As in more than I reject those who think the
movie opens, heir Paul Atreides (Timo- previous films, not only Dune but Blade Scooby-Doo gang were draft dodgers.
thée Chalamet) and his mother, Jessica Runner 2049 and the surrealist Enemy, But the film doesn’t need them. Ville-
(Rebecca Ferguson), have joined the no- Villeneuve presents his universes’ quirks neuve’s enterprise has its own dramatic
madic Fremen people and must master as faits accomplis rather than opportu- consistency and rigor. It is not merely a
their ways before plotting revenge. nities for exposition. Searching for Atre- canvas on which contemporary anxieties
From this narrative soil comes a small ides holdouts, Harkonnen troops fairly can be painted.
forest of seedlings. Having caught the eye soar up mountains, powered by technol- Sustaining this narrative vision is a
of a Fremen girl (Euphoria’s Zendaya), ogy that is its own visual explanation. casting regimen that, as in the 2021 pre-
Paul must prove himself worthy of her Fremen elders extract water from enemy quel, has produced near-perfect results.
affection. So, too, must he navigate his corpses with hardly a word. Villeneuve’s As the movie’s protagonist, Chalamet
new companions’ religious obsessions, world feels, in short, like a place whose captures both Paul’s dawning maturity
chief among them the belief that Paul is existence predates our interest. It has its and the ferocity with which he learns to
a long-awaited savior. If the Dune pic- own rough-hewn reality. The rationalist deal with his foes. Zendaya does beauti-
tures’ visual progenitors are Lawrence of may squirm at the movie’s mythologiz- ful work as Chani, the Fremen girl who
Arabia and the Mad Max movies, their ing, but he will find it difficult to roll his loves and distrusts our hero in equal
closest thematic relative may well be eyes. measure. Stealing the show, however, is
WARNER BROS.
The Last Temptation of Christ. Wracked This is not to say that the film offers an unrecognizable Austin Butler (Elvis)
with visions of a holy war fought in his audiences nothing practical, nor that as House Harkonnen’s ruler-in-waiting.
name, Paul understands his destiny in it is so self-contained that allegorical Shorn of even his eyebrows, Butler in-

LIFE & ARTS
ON CULTURE
The Finest
Plastic Watch
$270 Can’t Buy
By Jack Baruth
‘T ell us about your collection so far.

... What do you know about these
watches? Do you know why this one is
sought after? If you were going to sell it,
not that you would, but how much do
you think it would sell for? Why should
we sell this to you instead of the next
person to walk through the door?”
It was a conversation eerily familiar to
anyone who has ever tried to buy a Rolex
“Daytona” at an authorized dealer. The
list price for a plain stainless-steel Day-
tona is $14,800, and that’s what the deal-
er is supposed to charge, but the minute
you hit the parking lot, you’re free and
clear to sell it for between $25,000 and
$29,000 online. For that reason, the
“ADs” (authorized dealers) who sell Ro-
lex have turned the process of buying a
Daytona into something between an Ivy
habits a character at once brutal and tended the film’s release. My own take League entrance exam and a scene from
baffling. Look for his introduction, gladi- is that the opposite is true. So precise a John Frankenheimer film. Would-be
atorial combat filmed in menacing black is its director’s visual aesthetic that the owners are forced to demonstrate their
and white, to be among the most memo- movie demands and rewards one’s full enduring fidelity via the purchase of
rable scenes of the year. attention. “You’ll see the beauty and the other, less desirable watches. They’re
Little remarked upon in the early horror,” Jessica tells Paul after drinking threatened with blacklisting should
Dune: Part Two coverage has been the a mind-expanding elixir. Like all the best their individually serialized watch hit
movie’s compositional strangeness. fantasy sagas, Villeneuve’s creation con- the resale market. In some cases, they’re
Despite its obvious debt to “hero’s jour- tains both. expected to prove their continued own-
ney” and “dark messiah” archetypes, the A question for film historians will be ership of the Daytona and, in exchange,
picture resists the predictable beats that why the French Canadian’s adaptations are given a chance to buy another one.
define, say, the latest Star Wars film. In of Frank Herbert’s classic have succeed- However, in this case, the question-
part, this is a consequence of the story’s ed so mightily while David Lynch’s 1984 and-answer session took place not in
fullness. In addition to the plot points version failed. Both men are cinematic the hushed display area of an upscale
mentioned above, we get Jessica’s cult visionaries. Both clearly love Herbert’s jeweler but on the floor of the New York
of witches, a talking fetus, and galactic book. The difference is that Lynch’s style New York casino. The watch being dis-
politics par excellence. (Florence Pugh is too peculiar even for Dune — too “per- cussed had a retail price of just $270 and
does a convincing turn as the emperor’s sonal,” to borrow the late David Foster sported the odd name of “Mission To
calculating daughter.) Yet the epic form- Wallace’s diagnosis of the filmmaker. In Neptune.” The interrogator was a bored
lessness on display is more than a con- Villeneuve, conversely, we have an art- young woman earning retail wages, not
cession to narrative necessity. A mood ist whose expansiveness so matches the a canny jeweler trying to sniff out a five-
piece as much as a chronicle of inter- material that dissonance hardly feels figure flip. However, make no mistake. At
cosmic events, Dune: Part Two pauses, possible. Here is the perfect marriage least in terms of percentages, this was an
breathes, lingers, then races ahead in of idea and execution. My advice to the opportunity to humble any Rolex resale.
bursts. It doesn’t so much spin a yarn moviegoer: Enjoy it. This was what happened when someone
as stake off a (literal) sandbox for Ville- I know tried to buy a rare Swatch.
neuve to play in. Graham Hillard is a Washington Exam- The story thus far: On March 26, 2022,
Is the resulting production boring? iner magazine contributing writer and the Swatch Group released a series of 11
Some critics have said so despite the editor at the James G. Martin Center for plastic, battery-powered watches that
generally glowing reviews that have at- Academic Renewal. aped the look of the far more expensive

LIFE & ARTS
and prestigious Omega Speedmaster. It initially proved to be the case. $500-plus, but once you wear it, you’ll
was the biggest news in the business that However, shortly after the Moon- be hard-pressed to get more than $350,
year, and for good reason. There is always Swatch introduction, Swatch realized largely because the transparent plastic
the risk of a Swiss watchmaker making a that the blue-dyed “Mission To Nep- “crystal” covering the face of the watch
profitable but image-destroying move tune” was staining wrists and clothing. is depressingly easy to scratch.
downmarket. Right now, the least expen- It was pulled from the market to fix the (Which is vintage-correct, in a way.
sive Vacheron Constantin costs $12,700 problem, which started a frenzy among The original Omega Speedmaster worn
— if you can get it for that price, which the collectors whose goal of having all on the moon had a plastic crystal in-
you can’t. However, at any moment, 11 MoonSwatches had just hit a serious stead of the sapphire-glass crystal found
Richemont, which owns the brand, could bump in the road. Resale prices soared in most good Swiss timepieces because
put Chinese-made “Vacherons” on the to $2,500 and beyond, the equivalent NASA didn’t want to run the risk of shat-
shelves at Target for $99 a pop. of a Daytona selling for $150,000. And tered glass in zero gravity.)
In 1984, Omega was acquired by the Daniel Craig wore a Neptune to one of Readers who are inspired to try a
company that would eventually become his film premieres. After about a year, MoonSwatch of any planet or color by
the Swatch Group. For 38 years, anxious Swatch returned an improved Neptune this article will find out that there’s a
Omega owners dreaded the day that to the lineup but in limited and uncer- nice watch behind all the hype. It weighs
someone would look at their $34,700 tain quantities. It has continued to fetch almost nothing, it’s accurate, and it’s
Sedna Gold Moonphase Speedmaster good money in resale, as collectors work fun to wear. “What kind of idiot wears a
and ask, “Did you get that at the mall?” to finish their sets of the original 11. $270 plastic fake Omega when he has a
Yet when the “Omega x Swatch Moon- One of those collectors is my brother, real one at home?” I wondered, prior to
Swatch” finally appeared in a very small who owns over a dozen “real” prestige giving in and buying a “Mission To Sat-
selection of Swatch retail shops, it proved watches from Omega, Tudor, and Grand urn.” The answer: the kind of idiot who
to have an opposite Seiko but also has an unpublishable wants to ride mountain bikes or spin a
effect. The Swatches number of Swatches from deep vintage wrench on a car or do any of the many
were reminiscent of, to the brand-new “Blancpain x Swatch” other tasks that are made less pleasant
but hardly identi- collaboration that leverages another by wearing a nine-ounce chunk of eas-
cal to, the real Swatch Group brand into the mass mar- ily damaged stainless steel. This is the
thing. Over ket at the even more ambitious price genius of the MoonSwatch, both today
a million of $400. (The fact that the Blancpain and on the day the collectors eventually
were sold Swatch is derived from the original and cool their jets: Unlike its $15,000 coun-
in the first legendary “Fifty Fathoms” Swiss watch terparts in the luxury boutiques, it’s per-
year, many has earned it the dismissive but affec- fectly suited for all those missions that
to people tionate nickname of “Thrifty Fathoms.”) never leave the ground.
who were A few weeks ago, he visited a Swatch
“test driv- boutique to buy a few new models, a trip Jack Baruth was born in Brooklyn, New
ing ” the he makes about a dozen times a year. He York, and lives in Ohio. He is a pro-am
idea of some- was particularly hoping to get the new race car driver and a former columnist for
thing besides an “Ocean of Storms” Blancpain tribute. Road and Track and Hagerty magazines
Apple or Sam- Which wasn’t available, but … would Sir who writes the Avoidable Contact Forever
sung watch and be interested in a Neptune? newsletter.
who then went on Yes, Sir would. It was the only one of
to buy real stain- the original 11 he didn’t own. Cue the ar-
less-steel Ome- rival of a store manager and the qualifying TV
gas. Sales at Omega
boutiques jumped by as much as 50%.
interview that heads this article. “I was al-
ready wearing a Swatch Ocean,” he noted, Accepting
A lot of smart people expected that,
to be honest. What nobody expected
“which I think helped. And I had photos
of my collection.” A few more awkward
Reality TV
was that one of the original 11 of these questions later, he was out the door with By Kara Kennedy
Swatches would turn out to be a collec- the distinctive blue “Mission To Neptune”
tors’ item selling for up to 10 times the
original retail price. The MoonSwatches
are made from Bioceramic, a patented
box in a new Swatch vinyl bag.
“Are you going to sell it?” I inquired,
which was meant to be hilarious be-
W hen it comes to trash TV, there are
two types of men. A few months
back, I met one of the first kind — the
material that is about half castor-bean- cause, although my brother has bought ones who open their heart to the com-
derived polymers and about half ceramic a hundred watches, I’ve never seen him plexities of unscripted television unapol-
powder. That material is then dyed into figure out how to sell one. ogetically, who dive in headfirst to the
one of 11 different colors. Popular opin- “Not a chance.” In truth, the gradual raw emotion, the heartache, the unbri-
ion was that the gray-dyed “Mission To trickling of Neptunes into the market has dled joy that comes from watching hys-
The Moon” would be the most sought- depressed the price a bit. Transaction terical middle-aged women sometimes
after MoonSwatch since it was closest prices in the secondary market are sink- physically fight for views. At this friend’s
in appearance to a real Omega, and that ing. A new-in-box model can still fetch house, he recommended we watch Below

LIFE & ARTS
Captain Lee Rosbach and

his crew on the hit reality
TV show Below Deck.
Deck, a show about horny yacht crews decades means anything for the culture herself into a retreat for “mental health
that spend weeks at sea serving million- and the people who love it, thinking of and trauma therapy.” Pretty standard
aires and spend days off shagging their it as a guilty pleasure instead of a genre. stuff for Bravo. But the season wrapped
captain while blind drunk. Five episodes When critics take note, it’s to scoff. And up the year as the most-watched cable
in and I was hooked. It’s a good thing the they’re right, of course, in part. It’s mind- series of 2023, with 11.4 million viewers
show has seven franchises to keep me less crap! But any time millions of people and two Emmy nominations.
going. Between the flagship Below Deck love something and want to spend their It’s pretty clear that after years of crit-
and Below Deck: Mediterranean alone, time and attention and money on it, only ics giving up on the genre before diving
there are nearly 300 episodes. very incurious or very stupid or very in, Scandoval reminded the world that
Then there’s the other type of guy, the status-conscious cultural elites would watching somebody else’s life collapse
one who says things like, “I can feel my- insist they aren’t interested in why that into disaster is an attractive option for
self losing brain cells,” when they catch is at all. Think of it like WWE or NAS- how to spend a night. Self-implosion is
even a glimpse of a Bravo trailer. He loi- CAR, sports phenomena that are both as certainly the reason that women, and
ters around the living room when they objectively important as they are objec- the few men who admit it, tune in to
hear the theme tune to The Bachelor or tively ignored. Bravo and similar drama-mongering
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, nev- That’s changing, somewhat. This past networks. Just this week, on the final
er sitting to watch it (that’d be obvious) year, Bravo-bingers have been vindicated episodes of season 12 of The Real House-
GREG ENDRIES/BRAVO/NBCU PHOTO BANK/NBCUNIVERSAL VIA GET T Y IMAGES
but always standing intently. Through- after reality TV plotlines dominated the wives of Beverly Hills, Kyle Richards, the
out, he’ll say things like, “How can you headlines of serious publications, for only housewife to survive all 12 seasons,
watch this crap?” but he’ll slip up with example with coverage in the New York announced her separation from her hus-
comments that make you realize he’s Times Magazine going to one particularly band of nearly 30 years on screen. Not
enthralled. “Does she really think that notable affair, later dubbed “Scandoval,” only was it announced on the show, but
diamond is worth $2 million?” or “What that became such a defining moment in the whole thing was also explained to
on earth is Erika Jayne wearing?” pop culture that PR companies are now their four daughters for the first time in
We unashamed consumers of reality clueing up clients on what they call the a room full of cameras. Normally I’d call
TV are the happier ones, be we men or “Scandoval Effect.” Scandoval, in hind- bull, but the wailing cries of her children
women. We binge seasons we’ve already sight, was nothing special. A longtime were certainly authentic. “This is sick,”
seen 10 times and have group chats dedi- cast member of Vanderpump Rules, a my husband remarked. Finally, he was
cated to different franchises. (I person- reality show starring the staff of exclu- starting to understand the fascination:
ally have three.) While reality TV ratings sive Hollywood restaurant SUR, cheated The main takeaway you want to get from
have always shown there to be a huge de- on his longtime girlfriend with another, any good reality TV is I am better than
mand for this sort of thing, people have younger cast member who, when caught this, these people are monsters. And it’s
always been hesitant to admit the suc- out in the entanglement, changed her that first clause that really counts.
cess of reality TV over the past several name from Raquel to Rachel and checked Speaking of monsters, there’s one

LIFE & ARTS
show I binge that I haven’t got any male head in your direction and says in a slow,
friend on board with: 1000-Lb Best low-register whisper, “... deeply erratic.”
Friends is a show about four women Really? We needed a lean-in, drop-
battling obesity. And the show, which voice maneuver for that? And yet, when he
premiered in 2022, was so captivating did this recently at a party, we all nodded
that when my mother recently came gravely as if he had just said something ter-
to visit from Britain, after not see- ribly weighty. It wasn’t until a few moments
ing each other for nearly a year, we sat later that I looked up from my drink and
next to each other on the couch star- LONG LIFE realized we had all been sucked into his
ing at these 500-pound women for two little moment of drama. He had delivered
weeks straight, communicating only in Revenge Is a Dish an utterly unoriginal thought with exactly
disturbed looks when one of the women
would run off from their personal train- Best Served Salty the right kind of razzle-dazzle drumroll.
He had played us like a professional.
ing session to scoff on a sandwich or the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, it is said,
occasional dry heave when one of the la-
By Rob Long would glide through social occasions,
dies would get naked. The show was so speaking in a breathy, barely audible whis-
compelling that we ended up consoling
each other in tears when it ended, and
I still think about all four women daily.
M y brother sent me this text recently:
“Please call ASAP.” This is the kind
of message you only send someone when
per. Everyone else was obliged to lean
in to hear her. The result was that every
exchange felt like a private, juicy confes-
With reflection, maybe there wouldn’t you have urgent, and probably bad, news. sional. She had solved the timeless social
be so much hostility to reality TV if the It is not the kind of message you send problem of being an interesting conversa-
reality TV-loving world thought a little someone when you need the name of the tionalist by surrounding boring words with
harder about why men don’t open their place we went to that one time that had enough manipulative technique that it
hearts to reality TV: because they could those extra dark and salty pretzels. didn’t matter what inane or pointless thing
never connect with anybody on screen On the call, I pointed out, in what I she was whispering — thoughts about the
enough to care about whether they lost promise was a helpful and restrained tone weather, meditations on what kind of hat
the 40 pounds needed to quality for of voice, that when you send someone a to wear — because when the most glamor-
gastric band surgery, and they wouldn’t terse, urgent text like that, his or her mind ous woman in the world pulls you in with
think twice about the intricate relation- instantly reels with disaster scenarios and a whisper, you feel privileged and special.
ships between deck hand and captain prepares for the worst. The next time you “That’s called charm,” a friend explained
when out at sea for a week in tense cir- have a question about pretzels, I told him, to me. “It sounds more like psychological
cumstances. Or, they can, but if we’re maybe lead with that instead of implying warfare,” I said. She shrugged. “What’s the
honest about gender differences, track- that something terrible has happened to difference?”
ing the cues and names and expressions one of the loved ones we have in common. My brother, it goes without saying, is
and tones that drive changes in inter- “God,” he huffed. “You’re so dramatic.” not the most glamorous woman in the
personal relationships is like straining a How am I the one being dramatic? I world. Getting a text from him isn’t some-
weak muscle for them, whereas it’s like asked. You’re the one who sent the cryptic thing on my bucket list. He just knew deep
flexing a strong one for most women. text. I defy anyone to read your message down that if he had asked me directly
That’s probably where the scorn comes and expect it to be about snacks, I said. about the pretzels, I would have ignored
from, and that’s OK. Everything doesn’t In my mind, I mean. I said that in my his text for weeks. Or worse, I might have
have to be for everybody, and we’d all be mind. Out loud, I think I mumbled some- texted back, “Busy, no idea,” and left it at
a lot better off if the battle of the sexes thing bitter and then hung up. I know from that. But by creating the illusion of a crisis,
could go back to being a conflict waged decades of experience that when your de- he got me to drop everything and call him
at the level of the rivalry between bar- bating position is, basically, Hey, that’s not back. It’s a trick he’s been playing on me
room pals who are Yankees and the Red me, that’s you, you’re the one doing the thing for years.
Sox fans rather than between the Union you’re saying that I’m doing! you’ve lost. In On the other hand, I am currently sit-
and the Confederacy. (Not unrelatedly, the first place, there are too many words in ting at my desk with a couple of deliciously
the same sort of underlying differences there to be snappy and convincing. And in dark and salty pretzels to my left, pretzels
that explain why men are less likely to the second place, it’s more or less what I’ve which I promised my brother I had no
gravitate to Bravo fare explain why a sta- been whining to him since 1974. No point memory of and no way of obtaining. “Don’t
tistically greater number of men like the in giving it another round. remember those, but if I come across them
MLB or NFL.) There are people in our lives who simply again, I’ll let you know,” I told him. Now,
But still, we’re talking about mindless cannot resist turning every exchange into crunching my way through a couple of
entertainment that makes you feel better the most dramatic kind of announcement. them feels like sweet revenge. So, I guess
about yourself here, and anyone can en- I have a friend who has a habit of leaning we both have a flair for the dramatic.
joy “reality” for what it is, if we’re at least in during a conversation, lowering his voice
honest about it. as if he’s about to say something deeply in- Rob Long is a television writer and producer,
sightful, and then it’ll be something like, including as screenwriter and executive pro-
Kara Kennedy is a freelance writer living in “You know, I’m beginning to think that ducer on Cheers, and he is the co-founder of
Washington, D.C. Donald Trump is ...” and here, he tilts his Ricochet.com.

The Columnists
YORK see the Obama administration as ignoring

them and their needs. Yes, Romney won
the 2012 Republican nomination in
Haley loss another the old-style line of succession, but he
did it by defeating another candidate,
reminder: GOP Rick Santorum, who recognized that
can’t go back something was happening in the

Republican electorate. Santorum simply
couldn’t believe that in a time of growing
populist revolt, the GOP would nominate
a man who made a fortune in private
W
equity. Indeed, in the 2012 primary race,
a lot of Republicans were jumping up and
hat does Nikki Haley’s win the nomination, George W. Bush down, waving their arms, and yelling, “We
loss in the Republican defeated a challenger, McCain. In 2008, don’t want Romney!” But Romney is what
presidential primaries, the next open nomination race, McCain, they got.
a loss in which she the man who finished second the last There was a growing
gathered a substantial time, became the GOP nominee. To divergence between the party’s
amount of votes but win the nomination, McCain defeated leadership and its grassroots. It
was able to win only a challenger, Romney. In 2012, the next was a situation ready for a blowup,
in Vermont and Washington, D.C., tell open nomination race, Romney, the and that is what Trump delivered in
us about the Republican Party? Among man who finished second the last time, 2016. But it’s important to remember
other things, it tells us, as if we needed became the GOP nominee. that the Republican Party was
another reminder, that the GOP cannot It was a well-defined way of choosing changing before Trump came down the
return to the days of leaders like George party leaders, based at times on an actual escalator.
W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, bloodline and at times on a process of Trump’s self-evident policy successes,
and Paul Ryan. anointing the man who finished second among them economic growth, energy,
Some loyal Republican voters have in the previous race. A lot of Republicans deregulation, the border, foreign affairs,
always been uneasy about the style of took it very seriously. In 2008, when and judicial nominations, made a lot
former President Donald Trump. They felt McCain was running, I went to a small of Republicans happy. Still, some were
more comfortable in the GOP world of campaign event in Columbia, South unhappy with his combativeness, his self-
Bush, McCain, Romney, and Ryan. Even Carolina. The state had been the site of a centeredness and his showmanship. Then,
when Trump won the 2016 Republican particularly rough fight between McCain of course, came the 2020 election. It is fair
nomination, and then the presidency, and George W. Bush in 2000, with Bush to say that every action Trump took after
they expressed reservations about his emerging as the winner. Then, of course, Nov. 3, 2020, led to disaster for himself, the
tone or his manner or the “drama” that came eight very hard years: 9/11, the war party, and the nation.
surrounded him. Trump supporters often in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, and an Each Republican candidate running
mocked those concerns, suggesting that economic collapse. So in 2008, I asked in 2024 had to reckon with Trump’s
those Republicans were more worried Republicans at the McCain event, all of complicated legacy — and then with
about “mean tweets” than the fate of the whom had supported George W. Bush Trump himself. Some tried to be super
nation. But the concerns were real. eight years earlier, whether, knowing Trumpy. Some tried to be anti-Trumps.
In 2024, a lot of those voters were everything that happened, they would Some tried to be old school. None
attracted to the candidacy of Haley. She support George W. Bush if they had the succeeded.
wasn’t entirely old-style — she ran for 2000 vote to do over again. All had to recognize one fact: For the
governor of South Carolina as a Tea Party All of them said yes, they would GOP, there was no going back. Some love
candidate. But for some Republicans, vote for George W. Bush again, despite Trump, others don’t love him but like
Haley promised a return to the the sometimes disastrous course of his his results, and others think that for all
orderliness of the older Republican Party. presidency. They explained that they his flaws, he is what the GOP needs to
It was an orderliness apparent in had strongly supported Reagan and then fight a Democratic Party dominated by
the GOP’s line of succession, beginning of course had supported Reagan’s vice progressive activists. Some would even
with Ronald Reagan. After two terms, president, George H.W. Bush. Then there like to move on from Trump but don’t
Reagan’s vice president, George H.W. was no question they would support the believe there is another Republican on the
Bush, became the Republican nominee. elder Bush’s son. It was a clear line of scene with the strength and talent to lead
To win the nomination, George H.W. blood and politics, and they felt that was the party in a new direction. In any event,
Bush defeated a challenger, Sen. Robert the best path for the party. Haley has lost, and those supporters who
Dole. In 1996, the next open nomination But cracks were forming in that orderly want to change today’s Republican Party
race, Dole, the man who finished line of succession. With the victory of will have to wait for new circumstances to
second the last time, became the GOP Barack Obama and the advent of the Tea bring new leaders. ★
nominee. In 2000, the nomination was Party protest movement, the Republican
open again, and the party chose George Party was becoming more populist. A lot Byron York is chief political correspondent
H.W. Bush’s son, George W. Bush. To of voters without college degrees began to for the Washington Examiner.

The Columnists
HANNAN footsteps of other Republicans and

abase herself before a man she knows
to be unfit for office? She called Trump
Run, Nikki, run! “unhinged” during the primaries, but
many of her colleagues have rowed
back from harsher words than that.
In her concession speech, she
seemed to put the ball in the former
president’s court: “It is now up to
Donald Trump to earn the votes of
those in our party who did not support
him, and I hope he does. This is now
his time for choosing.”
E
But if he really is unhinged, why
should she “hope” he wins over the
xactly 170 years ago, in Ripon, surprising that some Americans should skeptics? She faces the question
Wisconsin, the Republican be in that tradition. that so many have faced before her.
Party was born. For 162 of The surprising thing, the thing I Not those who backed Trump from
those years, it got the big calls am still no closer to understanding the start but those who have some
right. It was against slavery, after eight years, is how the GOP rolled understanding of his character flaws.
socialism, and presidential over for someone who so obviously The question is this. Do you urge
overreach and in favor of despised it. The most basic Republican people to vote for someone who
business, sound money, and patriotism. principle is a suspicion of concentrated will degrade the office and cheapen
Sure, it made mistakes, notably an power. Yet the only nonnegotiable the republic, supposedly out of fear
extended flirtation with protectionism, requirement to belong to MAGA is to of something worse? So far, with a
but there were few more impressive grovel publicly before former President handful of honorable exceptions,
parties in the world. Until 2016. Donald Trump. Again and again, senior Republicans have flunked that
That year, the Republicans were Republicans who had previously called test — have shown themselves, in
taken over by a former Democrat who Trump dishonest, vain, self-obsessed, Haley’s own phrase, as “followers, not
was openly contemptuous of their cowardly, megalomaniac, or deranged leaders.”
leaders, traditions, and principles. have dropped to their knees before him. If the former South Carolina
Where they had been for small Even Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH), now governor believes that Trump is a
government, he wanted to conscript the Trumpiest of Trumpsters, shared menace, not only to a strong foreign
the state to the culture wars. Where the then-conventional Republican policy and low taxes but to the rule of
they had been for enterprise, he was for view of the man when he started out: law, surely she cannot in conscience
protected labor. Where they had been “I go back and forth between thinking endorse him. And if she feels that
for free trade, he was for tariffs. Trump is a cynical asshole like Nixon the comatose President Joe Biden is
Such politicians are not exceptional. who wouldn’t be that bad … or that he’s equally unsuitable, the answer is surely
For example, Marine Le Pen’s National America’s Hitler.” to run for office herself.
Rally in France is Trumpist, as is It’s so un-American, this fawning, Never has the gap for a third
Matteo Salvini’s League in Italy. They, this cultishness, this Führerprinzip. Yet candidate yawned wider. Ross Perot
too, lean left on economics and right it has taken over a party that used to ran in 1992, complaining that the
on immigration and have a weird believe in the dispersal of power, the national debt had reached $4 trillion,
thing about their leaders. It is hardly constraint of executive authority, and 63% of GDP. Today, it is $34 trillion
the equality of all adult citizens before and 123%. And just as Trump is no
the law. Bush, Biden is no Clinton. If there is
Last Tuesday’s votes were the even the slightest chance of throwing
showdown that Trumpsters wanted the decision to Congress, Haley should
“If the former South with a traditional Republican who
believes in balanced budgets and
in conscience make the attempt.
At the very least, doing so will
Carolina governor standing by America’s allies. Former allow her to emerge, Romney-like,
believes that Trump is U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations with honor. Unlike so many politicians
Nikki Haley’s vote, between 15% and and commentators who have enabled
a menace, not only to 40%, sadly reflects the level of support what in their hearts they know to be
a strong foreign policy for Reaganism within the party. dangerous and malevolent, she will
The two candidates were on brand have stood by America’s founding
and low taxes but to the as they reacted to the result. “At its principles. What matters more than
rule of law, surely she best, politics is about bringing people that? ★
into your cause,” Haley said. “Haley
cannot in conscience got TROUNCED,” Trump said. Daniel Hannan is a member of the House
endorse him.” Will Haley now follow in the of Lords, and a former Conservative MEP.

GREEN
The realpolitik of fools
V
ice President Kamala Harris under Israeli control. It will continue for is senile and corrupt and that Harris
has jumped into one of the years. It will be bloody, and it will delay is a dim opportunist. In Alabama, she
world’s bitterest conflicts, the reconstruction of Gaza and its society tried to re-enthuse black, Muslim, and
so better check your stocks along slightly less barbaric lines. leftist voters by lying to them. We shall
of tinned goods, potable How inconsiderate of the Israelis to see if the voters’ response confirms the
water, and ammunition. fight for their survival without sufficient Democrats’ assumption that their core
On March 4, the nation’s regard for the needs of the Democrats supporters are low-information voters
schoolmarm demanded an “immediate and the timing of American electoral who don’t like Jews. It’s one way to hold
ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas cycles. How inconsiderate of them to a coalition together.
in the Gaza sandpit. Playing favorites, demand the return of their hostages. And Complaining about ethics in politics
Principal Harris blamed a “humanitarian how forgiving the administration was is like complaining about the food in
catastrophe” solely upon Israel, which when ceasefire negotiations broke down a brothel. Politics is about power and
is fighting a war of defense against a couple of days after Harris’s speech using it wisely. The arrogant lack of
Islamists who wish to destroy it. “The because Hamas refused to supply even a wisdom is more alarming than the
Israeli government must do more to list of the hostages it still holds. A serious amorality. When the Democrats project
significantly increase the flow of aid. No U.S. administration would have put the their moral fantasies onto their foreign
excuses,” she said, as if downgrading two-faced terrorist funders of Qatar on policy, they export the same soft bigotry
little Bibi Netanyahu for late homework notice months ago. Instead, President Joe of low expectations. Just as the footage
and a bad attitude. Biden calls the emir of Qatar on Feb. 29 of the Oct. 7 rampage sent leftists,
The vice president has security and, we read, begs him to “get me a deal.” Islamists, and college professors into
clearance from the world’s most Harris dumped on Israel at an event the streets to celebrate the scourging
extensive intelligence-gathering commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Jews, so it galvanized the State
operation. If she forgets her password, of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, Department and the Democrats to do
she can always read a newspaper. She with the Edmund Pettus Bridge behind their bit to destroy the Zionist Entity by
knows perfectly well that truckloads her. The symbolism is deliberate. creating a Palestinian state.
of aid are backed up on the Israeli Symbolism, which is about images and While the Biden administration
and Egyptian sides of Gaza’s borders. sound bites, is all this administration publicly claims to seek a Gaza without
She knows that Hamas is slowing knows how to do. Reality is somewhere Hamas, it privately works to save Hamas.
the aid’s delivery, just as Hamas is out there beyond the Beltway, where the The administration talks of “revitalizing”
commandeering the aid convoys that do racists and rednecks rule and you can’t the Palestinian Authority, “reuniting” the
get through. She knows why Hamas is get decent sushi. Harris deliberately cast West Bank and Gaza, and “absorbing”
doing this, too: to stave off Israel’s assault Israel as the Alabama among the nations, Hamas into the Palestinian Authority,
on Rafah, the last Hamas stronghold Netanyahu as Gov. George Wallace, and which is controlled by its mortal rival,
in the Gaza Strip. When Harris says, the Palestinians as black civil rights Fatah. This managerial gibberish wishes
“The conditions are inhumane, and our campaigners being persecuted by racist away the reality it will create. The only way
common humanity compels us to act,” police. any of this can happen is if Hamas, the
she is doing Hamas’s work. She knows it, A New York Times/Siena College poll rising power, absorbs Fatah and takes over
and we know why she is doing it. released on March 5 finds that black the Palestinian Authority. This is what the
If Hamas loses Rafah — and if the support for former President Donald Biden administration is prepared to call
Israelis go in, it will, as it has lost every Trump has risen from 4% to 23% since peace. It won’t be enough to swing the
stronghold in this war — then Hamas 2020. Naturally, CBS went with “Biden elections in November. It is a recipe for an
loses its grip on Gaza. But that will not campaign aims to fix enthusiasm gap even bigger war. It is the realpolitik of fools,
mean the end of fighting in Gaza. The among black voters.” The polls all show by fools, for fools. ★
high-intensity phase of this war is already that, regardless of their color or party,
largely over and will be completed if Israel people are unenthusiastic about the Dominic Green is a Washington Examiner
takes Rafah. The low-intensity phase Biden economy, the Biden crime wave, columnist and a fellow of the Royal
of constant, targeted counterterrorist the Biden border crisis, and yes, the Historical Society. Find him on Twitter
operations has already begun in the areas Biden foreign policy. They see that Biden @drdominicgreen.

The Columnists
BARONE assault, and in June 2022, voters in San

Francisco (85%-12% Biden) recalled
famed radical Chesa Boudin.
Are voters recoiling Similarly, this Tuesday, voters in
San Francisco passed ballot measures
against disorder? strengthening police powers and
requiring treatment of drug-addicted
welfare recipients.
In retrospect, it appears that the
George Floyd videotape, appearing after
three months of COVID confinement,
T
seems to have sparked a frenzied, even
crazed reaction, especially among the
he headlines coming out of house, we believe … no human is illegal.” highly educated and articulate. One fatal
the Super Tuesday primaries The logical consequence of that belief incident was seen as proof that America’s
have it right. Former is an open border. But modest-income “systemic racism” was worse than ever
President Donald Trump folks in border counties know that flows and that police forces should be defunded
and President Joe Biden of illegal immigrants result in disorder, and perhaps abolished.
will be, barring cataclysmic disease, and crime. 2020 was “the year America went
changes, the Republican and You find plenty of impatience with crazy,” I wrote in January 2021, a year
Democratic nominees for president in increased disorder in election returns in which police funding was actually cut
2024. Some 29% in Republican contests below the presidential level. Consider by Democrats in New York, Los Angeles,
and 14% in Democratic contests voted for Los Angeles County, which, with nearly San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. A year
other candidates or none. 10 million people, is America’s largest in which young New York Times staffers
With Nikki Haley’s withdrawal, there county, with more people than 40 of the claimed they were endangered by the
will be no more significantly contested 50 states. It voted 71% to 27% for Biden publication of Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-AR)
primaries or caucuses. This is the earliest in 2020. opinion article advocating the use of
both parties’ races have been over since Current returns show the county military forces if necessary to stop rioting,
something like the current primary- district attorney, George Gascon, winning as had been done in Detroit in 1967 and
dominated system was put in place in only 21% of the vote in the nonpartisan Los Angeles in 1992. The craven New York
1972. primary. He’ll apparently face Republican Times publisher even fired the editorial
The primary results have spotlighted Nathan Hochman, a Republican critic of page editor for running the article.
some of both nominees’ weaknesses. his liberal policies, in November. Gascon, Evidence of visible and tangible
Trump lost high-income, highly elected after the May 2020 death of discontent with increasing violence and
educated constituencies, including counterfeit-passing suspect George Floyd its consequences — barren and locked
the entire Washington, D.C. — aka the in Minneapolis, is one of many county shelves in Manhattan chain drugstores,
Swamp. Many Haley votes there were prosecutors supported by billionaire skyrocketing carjackings in Washington,
cast by Biden Democrats, but by no George Soros. His policies include not D.C. — is unmistakable in polls and
means all. Trump can’t afford to lose too charging juveniles as adults, not seeking election results as it is in daily life in the
many of the others in target states such as higher penalties for gang membership large metropolitan areas. Maybe 2024 will
Pennsylvania and Michigan. or use of firearms, and bringing fewer turn out to be the year that even liberal
Majorities and large minorities of misdemeanor cases. America stops acting crazy anymore.
voters in overwhelmingly Latino counties The predictable result has been The disorder in America’s
in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and some in increased car thefts, burglaries, and metropolitan centers and the disorder
Houston voted against Biden and even personal robberies. Some 120 assistant on the border wreaked by illegal and
more against Senate nominee Rep. Colin district attorneys have left the office, undeported immigrants on the border
Allred (D-TX). and there’s a backlog of 10,000 and as far afield as Athens, Georgia,
Returns from Hispanic precincts in unprosecuted cases. More than a dozen seems to be overshadowing politically
New Hampshire and Massachusetts other Soros-backed and similarly the sickening disorder wreaked by
show the same thing. Biden can’t afford liberal prosecutors have faced strong Trump supporters and tolerated if not
to lose too many Latino votes in target opposition or have left office. encouraged by Trump himself.
states such as Arizona and Georgia. St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner Chaos and disorder work against
When Trump rode down that resigned last May amid lawsuits seeking incumbents, as they did in 1968
escalator in 2015, commentators her removal, Milwaukee’s John Chisholm when Democrats saw their party’s
assumed he’d repel Latinos. Instead, retired in January, and Baltimore’s popular vote fall from 61% to 43%. It’s
Latino voters nationally, and especially Marilyn Mosby was defeated in July 2022 unfortunate that there’s not a more
the closest eyewitnesses of Biden’s and convicted of perjury in September fitting political beneficiary of any such
open borders policy, have been trending 2023. Last November, Loudoun County, recoil than Donald Trump. ★
heavily Republican. Virginia voters (62%-37% Biden) ousted
High-income liberal Democrats may liberal Buta Biberaj, who declined to Michael Barone is senior political analyst
sport lawn signs proclaiming, “In this prosecute a transgender student for for the Washington Examiner.

CARNEY
Kyrsten Sinema, a lobbyist’s legislator,
exits for greener pastures
S
en. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) intellectual lightweight, but that’s Recall, though, that Sinema
has been a bad fit in the not fair, or enlightening. It’s better didn’t describe the mortgage interest
Congress of today because to understand her style as strategic deduction as a deduction for families,
her vices are the opposite ambiguity. “I’m not that interested in but as a “pro-business deduction.”
of the dominant vices on telling people what I think.” Mortgage bankers and the realtors are
Capitol Hill. As Burr’s character puts it in the the real beneficiaries of the deduction,
Sinema — who was musical, “Talk less. Smile more. Don’t let and from their perspective, the
drummed from the Democratic Party them know what you’re against or what deduction really was being eliminated
last year, and apparently felt drummed you’re for.” for millions of families. That’s because
out of the Senate this year — was a As CNN put it wryly, Sinema stands by doubling the standard deduction, the
woman of the recent past. She fit in up for her convictions, but they added, TCJA made that deduction moot for an
the Bush and early Obama years when “send us an email if you can figure out overwhelming majority of homeowners.
K Street lobbyists and lawmakers what her convictions are. Nobody else Sinema opposed a tax cut for her
worked together smoothly to increase can figure it out and she’s not telling.” constituents because it dried up a gravy
government, subsidize and protect big Their example: Democrats in train for industry.
business, and enrich all the insiders, 2021 pushed a bill to allow Medicare Her belief system wasn’t about
including the members and staffers who to negotiate lower drug prices, higher taxes or lower taxes. It wasn’t
all cash out to K Street. CNN reported “Sinema backs the about more government or less.
But the Tea Party and the Trumpian pharmaceutical industry on this one. Sinema’s policymaking was consistently
revolution of the 2010s largely broke Why? It’s not entirely clear.” about intertwining government
that corrupt model and replaced it The chief House champion of the and industry, through subsidies,
with a dysfunctional model. Congress pharmaceutical industry had plenty of regulations, and tax complexity. This
largely stopped making laws because drugmakers in his district. Sinema did dovetailed nicely with her constant
leadership saw its job as avoiding not. coyness: If everything’s on the table,
difficult votes, and the backbenchers But follow her record closely and then the lobbyists need to keep coming
had every incentive to stay as bomb- her viewpoint isn’t that confusing. In to the table.
throwing, nay-voting backbenchers. both the House and the Senate, Sinema Bringing industry and lobbyists to
Sinema has a virtue that cut against was the leading Democrat in the fight the table was her central motivating
Capitol Hill’s dominant vice: she to reauthorize the Export-Import principle.
wanted to make deals and actually Bank, a federal agency that exists to That’s why Democrats recruited her
make laws. subsidize exports — mostly Boeing to run for Senate in 2018: “she’s good
But this virtue was tied to her jets. The other leading champions of at raising money,” the Washington Post
personal vice: she was a creature of Ex-Im represented Boeing. Arizona, reported upon her announcement.
K Street and a player in the corrupt in contrast, relies less on exports than Her deal-making, a virtue in these
game of crony capitalism and insider does the median state. days when oppositional obstinacy is
enrichment. In the House, Sinema opposed the rule, was inextricable from her
Sinema’s ideology, priorities, and the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017 on cronyism.
demands have always been famously nearly unique grounds. She critiqued It will be the least surprising thing
difficult to discern, in a way reminiscent the bill for “eliminating … pro-business in the world if Sinema is a lobbyist at
of Aaron Burr, as portrayed by Ron deductions,” and then mentioned the this time next year. The only question
Chernow and Lin-Manuel Miranda in mortgage interest deduction twice. is whether she will be able to deliver for
the book and musical Hamilton. The TCJA of course never eliminated her corporate clients in a Congress that
Reporter McKay Coppins asked her the mortgage interest deduction: it doesn’t pass anything.
“if there’s any ideological through line capped the amount of interest one
at all that explains the various votes could deduct — only the interest on Tim Carney is the senior political
she’s taken in the Senate. She thinks the first $750,000 worth of mortgage. columnist at the Washington Examiner
about it before answering, ‘No.’” This change only affected a tiny sliver of and a senior fellow at the American
Her critics attacked her as an Arizonans. Enterprise Institute.

The Columnists
ROSS
Biden wants GOP voters.
They shouldn’t take the bait
F
ormer U.S. Ambassador to the focus on patriotism, and an obvious And Americans on both sides of the
United Nations Nikki Haley antagonist. But it’s pointless. political aisle can easily agree on
suspended her campaign on Disgruntled Republicans who were Trump’s unfitness for office.
Wednesday, leaving former desperate for someone other than But these and other things, including
President Donald Trump Trump placed their hopes in either a “love for America,” also don’t require
as the last one standing Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) or Haley. acceptance of Biden, his platform,
in the GOP presidential Both are experienced, accomplished, or Democratic talking points. There
primary. Throughout its duration, levelheaded politicians who offered a are sure to be voters who go from
Haley’s campaign was met with plenty change of course to a party that is still supporting Haley to Biden now that
of resistance, not only from Trump enamored with the MAGA mentality. the former is out of the race. But for
supporters but also from the second- Frankly, either DeSantis or Haley would true conservatives who want change,
place DeSantis camp. make a far better president than Trump. and not the progressive kind, heading
Despite making a better show of it But 2024 wasn’t their year. In toward Biden is not the answer.
than expected, Haley’s attempt was not fact, their year may never come. The To say that voters are tired of Biden
enough to overtake the 45th president. problem with Biden’s statement is that and Trump is an understatement. The
Now that she has ended her bid, her it’s great bait. Disaffected voters on the fatigue is palpable. We want different
supporters are up for grabs. And Right shouldn’t take it. and better options. This year, we won’t
President Joe Biden is making a bold Indeed, there are several things get them. The 2024 election involves
offer. Biden and Haley supporters can the same actors as 2020, but this time,
The former ambassador did not agree on, including opposing Russian there’s even more history behind them.
endorse Trump in her exit speech. President Vladimir Putin and the belief And for Trump and Biden, the years
There is no love lost between the that Trump is not the future of the have increased their baggage and made
former president and his former GOP. There is no room in the GOP for both of them less attractive options.
appointee to the U.N. Haley may a leader or followers who view Putin Trump is ill-equipped for the office of
endorse Trump in the future. For now, as anything less than a major threat. the presidency. The best Biden can offer
her lack of endorsement is an act of Americans can and should support is that he’s not Trump. The president is
defiance that is not going unnoticed. Ukraine against Russian aggression. hoping that is enough to appeal to the
In response to Haley’s alienated.
announcement, Biden’s office issued It makes much sense to reject Trump
a statement and suggested unity as the nominee for the Republican
to disappointed Haley supporters: Party. More than once, in word and
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t deed, he has flatly rejected principles
want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want conservatives hold dear. Looking for an
to be clear: There is a place for them in alternative is only natural.
my campaign. I know there is a lot we But it makes no sense that the
won’t agree on. But on the fundamental alternative to a man who doesn’t
issues of preserving American represent conservatism well is to head
democracy, on standing up for the rule toward a man who doesn’t represent
of law, on treating each other with conservatism. Supporting Biden isn’t
decency and dignity and respect, on upholding conservatism. It’s a revenge
preserving NATO and standing up vote. Voters who never cared much
to America’s adversaries, I hope and about upholding conservatism may feel
STEPHANIE SCARBROUGH/AP
believe we can find common ground.” that’s right for them. But they shouldn’t
The statement ended with this: “I sugarcoat their actions. ★
also know this: what unites Democrats
and Republicans and Independents Kimberly Ross (@SouthernKeeks) is a
is a love for America.” It’s a positive contributor to the Washington Examiner’s
President Joe Biden
statement with all the right words, a Beltway Confidential blog.

OBITUARY
Chris Mortensen, 1951-2024

‘A great reporter, and an even better man’
By Daniel Ross Goodman
O
f all the major American the higher-profile Atlanta Journal-
sports, football is probably Constitution, where he would cover
the most difficult beat baseball and college sports. For those
for a sportswriter to like myself who associate Mortensen
tackle. Team rosters are with the NFL to such an extent that
substantially larger than they are in “Mort” (as he was affectionately known
other sports, coaches can be notoriously by his colleagues and fans) became At the same time, Mortensen’s
cagey, coaching staffs guard information synonymous with NFL reporting, it may affable, easygoing screen presence
as if they’re countries guarding national surprising to learn that for the majority and mellow delivery, unflappable even
security secrets, and the salary cap is of his early career, Mort was not an NFL when reporting on the trickiest stories,
so complex that one virtually needs a reporter; he was a sports reporter, and continued to earn him more and more
Ph.D. in mathematics to make sense of a great one at that. Mortensen won the prime screen time on ESPN’s signature
it. Combined with needing to master the prestigious George Polk Award in long- show, SportsCenter, as well as on ESPN’s
various machinations of roster move form investigative journalism in 1987, ever-expanding roster of football-only
strategies (raise your hand if you know was made a Sporting News columnist shows, such as NFL Countdown and
what it means when a team places the in 1990, and earned two Pulitzer Prize NFL Live. I’m confident that I speak for
“transition tag” on a player), practice nominations. Having been a sports many football fans when I admit that
squad transactions, and the implications generalist before becoming a football I would often only glancingly “watch”
of “dead money” cap hits on teams’ free specialist may have helped Mortensen these shows in recent years, just having
agency plans, covering the NFL may be become such an excellent NFL reporter. them on in the background while I
as difficult of a challenge as there is in He understood the broader American would do other things, like answer
any area of journalism. sports ecosystem — college athletics, emails or check my calendar. But when
All of this serves to make good and as well as professional sports — in I would hear the show’s anchor say,
accurate reporting on the NFL that which the NFL resided and how football “OK, now let’s go to Mort,” my ears
much more impressive — and top NFL interrelated with other American would always perk up, and I would start
reporters that much more valuable to sports, even as it was in the process actually paying attention to the show
their news organizations. For the past of surpassing them in fan interest and because I knew that whatever Mort
three decades, no one did it better, media attention. would have to say would be important.
and no one was more valuable to his Mortensen began to acquire national ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the NFL
employer, than Chris Mortensen. renown when he left regional sports reporter who has inherited Mort’s
Mortensen, the outstanding and reporting in 1991 to become an NFL mantle as the current most-trusted voice
award-winning ESPN reporter who reporter for the burgeoning sports in football coverage, called Mortensen
was one of the media faces of the NFL media powerhouse ESPN. In doing so, “ESPN’s reporting conscience” —
for a generation of football fans, died Mort became a journalistic pioneer, and, in an even greater compliment,
this week in Birmingham, Alabama, becoming one of the first print sports described Mort as “a great reporter, and
at the age of 72. Mortensen was born journalists to leave a highly regarded an even better man.” Our experiences as
in 1951 in Torrance, California, a city newspaper in order to work full-time for football fans, and our lives, were better
about 25 miles south of Los Angeles. a sports television outlet. His thorough off for having had Mort in them. 
After graduating from nearby El Camino and well-sourced reporting lent
College, Mortensen served in the U.S. journalistic credibility to ESPN’s NFL Daniel Ross Goodman is a Washington
Army for two years, which included coverage as the nascent New England- Examiner contributing writer and a
tours of duty in Vietnam. Shortly after based sports network was seeking to postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Divinity
his military service, he joined the staff of prove itself as a legitimate broadcast School. His latest book, Soloveitchik’s
the Southern California paper South Bay partner for the most powerful American Children: Irving Greenberg, David
Daily Breeze, where he won the National sports league. (ESPN would eventually Hartman, Jonathan Sacks, and the
ESPN VIA AP
Headliner Award for investigative acquire the rights to broadcast Monday Future of Jewish Theology in America,
reporting in 1978. Night Football during Mortensen’s was published this summer by the
In 1983, Mortensen was hired by tenure with the network.) University of Alabama Press.

CROSSWORD
Casting Off 52 End of the quote 38 Christmas ___

57 “The King of Clay” 41 Actress Brooke
By Brendan Emmett Quigley 58 Fifth word of 43 Like a athlete’s ankles,
“American Pie” perhaps

59 Karate schools 46 Sodium, e.g.
61 “Kids these days!” 48 “Get lost!”
62 Big bird of stories 50 Centipede maker

63 Eels, in sushi bars 51 Grandfather, for one
64 Groundwork 52 Big ___

65 Bother 53 Flurries
66 He was called “El Lider” 54 Prince of opera
55 Opened a crack
56 Duolingo’s owl, e.g.
57 Pen point

DOWN 60 Fall from grace
1 Smart-alecky
2 Vitality

3 Overhang
4 Love personified
5 Lock up

6 Governor DeSantis
7 Milei’s nat.
8 Hoover, e.g., informally

9 Give a pep talk
10 Prohibits
11 Strongly advise
12 Rendezvous
13 Stationer’s stock
18 Salon supply
ACROSS 32 Medicinal lily 19 Dried pepper used
1 Dog biter plant extract in mole sauce
5 Hunger for 33 What an andiron holds 23 Persian Gulf ship SOLUTION TO LAST
10 Preempt, as on 34 Plains tribe 24 Texas A & M athlete WEEK’S CROSSWORD:
a news broadcast 36 Fishing gear 25 Island greeting PATH TO VICTORY
14 British rocker Gallagher 37 Doc 26 “Ya think?!” 6 $ . ( * 2 % $ * 2 7 7 2
15 Dr. Seuss 39 Not docked 27 “You bet!” & & ( ' ( ' 8 & ( % ( $ 1
$ & 5 ( ( ' * $ 5 $ 5 * 2
environmentalist 40 “Crazy Rich Asians” 28 Go-ahead 0 ( $ 1 1 ( 6 0 , 0 ,
16 Domain director Jon M. ___ 29 KLM announcement 3 3 / * $ 6 3 $ < 1 (
6 7 $
, 5 7 $ 0 3 $ $ $ 6
17 Start of a quote 41 “Dear” one 30 Dinosaur in 7 , 3 1 6 $ 6 . , 6
by Emma Goldman 42 Have something Mario games & $ 0 3 $ , * 1 7 5 $ , /
+ 2 / ( , 2 6 + 2 *
20 Look through a keyhole 44 Four-baggers: Abbr. 31 John on a farm $ ' $ % / 8 7 2 7 $ 0 3 6
21 Openings 45 “Are you joking?!” 32 Chief / $ 1 $ , 1 % & $ / $
22 Sgt. or cpl. 47 Disease spread by bats 35 Back talk 3 5 2 * $ 7 ( $ & $ ,
, 0 $ & 8 1 ) , 7 % 5 , *
24 Compass doodle 49 City founded by Pizarro 37 Algonquian tribe 5 $ * ( 7 ( $ 0 2 % 2 1 2
25 Middle of the quote 51 Manage member $ & ( ' 6 2 5 ( 1 $ 6 6 1

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March 12, 2024 • $7.

Nikki Haley The Limits

Veep Lessons Don’t Take Out

p. 8, 10, 44, 59,

rightly rejects ballot chaos tion of the question whether Section 3

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 1

Big win for school choice in Republican-controlled states should

in Texas ican Federation of Teachers President

2 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

28 Artificial Intelligence Failures

Washington Briefing 48 Books The Slick Lauren Oyler

31 Michigan Democratic infighting 49 Books Joan Acocella’s Valedictory

6 Biden-Trump rematch? 38 Fearing the US is becoming an 56 Long Life Revenge Is a Dish

Your Land The Columnists

44 Tiana’s Take How the international 59 Dominic Green The realpolitik

12 Why Haley Lost 61 Timothy P. Carney Kyrsten

4 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

Biden-Trump rematch? Editors

How about a do-over? Managing Editor Chris Irvine

occupant of the Oval Office, whose adamantine armor of defensive Advertising

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 7

But success on the field turned out

and part architectural wonder.”

8 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

The Flagpole of Freedom would have idents identify as nonreligious, putting

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 9

ple test to see whether a tourist is old

10 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

PHOTO OF THE WEEK // MARY ALTAFFER/ASSOCIATED PRESS

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 11

12 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

emerged as a variant of this type: an up- ly enduring myths in Republican politics

14 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

16 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

flat with voters. “Standing with Israel is

Illustration by Thomas Fluharty March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 17

18 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

20 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 21

Quayle caught people weekly and participated in daily national

22 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 23

24 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 25

26 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 27

28 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

30 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

President Joe Biden addresses UAW

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 31

32 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

NO PLACE FOR DEMOCRATS TO GO

March 12, 2024 Washington Examiner 33

said at the time he was “proud” to support

authorities away from “The Wild Horse and Burro Protection

roundup of wild horses tive alternatives to capture wild horses

34 Washington Examiner March 12, 2024

healthcare It came as somewhat of a surprise when

The reddest of states on Feb. 28 passed the Healthy Mississippi

“Denis Villeneuve now takes his place as the most consistently