Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004

718 Pages·2005·2.4 MB·English

by  Hendrik Hertzberg

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POLITICS
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POLITICS
Observations
& Arguments
1966-2004
HENDRIK HERTZBERG
THE PENGUIN PRESS
NEW YORK
2004
THE PENGUIN PRESS
a member of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014

Copyright © Hendrik Hertzberg, 2004
Preface copyright © David Remnick, 2004
All rights reserved

Selections first published in The New Yorker (with the exception of
“Everywhere’s Somewhere,” “Scaling Mt. Kennedy,” “Can You Forgive Him?,”
“Topless Tabloids of Gotham,” “GeorgeWithout Tears,” “Letter from New
Hampshire: This Must Be the Place,” “Framed Up,” and “Upset Victory”) are
reprinted with permission of Condé Nast Publications Inc. Copyright ©
1973, 1975, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001,
2002, 2003, 2004 Condé Nast Publications Inc. All rights reserved.
Selections first published in The New Republic are reprinted with permission
of The New Republic. Copyright © 1981, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991,
1992 The New Republic, LLC.
“The San Francisco Sound,” the basis for an article in Newsweek, October 28,
1966, is used by permission of Newsweek. All rights reserved.
Excerpt from “The Ballad of New York City/John Lennon Yoko Ono” by
David Peel. Reprinted by permission of David Peel.
“American Skin (41 Shots)” by Bruce Springsteen. Copyright © 2000 Bruce
Springsteen. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hertzberg, Hendrik.
Politics: observations & arguments, 1966–2004/Hendrik Hertzberg.
p. cm.
Includes index.

AEB ISBN 0 7865 5364 2

Printed in the United States of America

Designed by Mary Sarah Quinn

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For Virginia Cannon
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CONTENTS

Introduction:by David Remnick

Author’s Note
1.ENOUGH ABOUT THE SIXTIES

The San Francisco Sound
New music,new subculture

Weather Report:White Tornado
Lunacy on the Left

Everywhere’s Somewhere
John and Yoko come to New York

Why the War Was Immoral
Looking back at Vietnam and anti-Vietnam

You Had to Be There
What Woodstock was “like”
2.BIG MEN

A Moral Ideologue
The character ofJimmy Carter

The Child Monarch
Ronald Reagan’s surprising presidency

Scaling Mt.Kennedy
R.F.K.’s journey from fixer to martyrdom
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viii 
3.SPEECHIFYIN’

In Praise of Judson Welliver
Judson who?

Wascally Woss
Perot’s favorite fuzzy animal

Speeding Ticket
Cicero goes Geraldo

Two Speeches
J.F.K.’s Inaugural and Clinton’s

Big Talk
It’s about addressing the mainstream

Star-Spangled Banter
Can we please have a better national anthem?

Talking Points
Behind the lines with Peggy Noonan

The Word from W.
A shockingly good Inaugural Address

Grinding Axis
The rhetorical uses ofevil
4.JUDEO-CHRISTIANS

Antidisestablishmentarianism
A Jaycee protests

Vatican’t
Instructions from Rome and Alabama

Secular Sermon
The stakes in the Rushdie affair
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 ix

Two Little Words
One nation under God (stet)

Dividends
Bush’s preferential option for the rich
5.A CAMPAIGN
 
Sluicegate ’
The journalistic stoning ofGary Hart

Sporting News
Tarred by the Miami Herald’s brush

G.O.P.Follies
The Republicans debate

Tuesday Night Patball
Republicans and Democrats,starring Tom Brokaw

Monster from the Id
Politics as psychotherapy,from Gary Hart

First Returns
Good morning,Iowa

Dole’s Charm
His masks ofcomedy and tragedy

The Father,the Son,and the Holy Politician
Pat Robertson’s Oedipus complex

The Tortoise
Dukakis’s slow,sure bid for the nomination

Ivy Scoreboard
Which is more elitist,Harvard or Yale?

Dynasties Old and New
Scenes from the Democratic Convention