One thought on “Friday reading”

1. Czechia: I hadn’t known what the Spanish term for that country was, but now that I do, I agree that “Czechia” is the appropriate English one.

   Hillary Clinton: Even before the article got to the downsides of Clinton’s ability to listen to people, I was thinking, “Yeah, but she shouldn’t have listened to GWB.” I knew better than that, and I’ve never even met the man. But what I want to call out the article for is its passing praise of the “smoke-filled room” method of choosing candidates, on the grounds that it left the choice to people who really knew how the candidates governed. No, it wasn’t that rosy. The term “smoke-filled room” was coined in specific reference to the Republican convention of 1920, and it wasn’t a compliment. They chose Warren Harding not for his governing abilities – Harding was well-known among his colleagues as a complete blockhead – but solely because they thought they could sell him, first to the convention delegates and then to the voters. In this they were right, and also in their assumption that Harding would leave governing to them. But they were crooks, and the result was the biggest US political scandal for fifty years in either direction.

   Decline of British Politics: I want to query the statement that the Cameron-May handover might have happened earlier if the Queen hadn’t been out of town. During the interim, Cameron chaired a cabinet meeting and faced PMQ. The assumption has been that it was better for him to deal with these imminent things he was already expecting than leave them to an unprepared May, and also give her a little time to prepare to take over. Or was that just an excuse, or just something to do while they waited for the Queen?

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