Commentary Magazine

Contentions

Re:Hillary Speech

06.03.2008 - 10:00 PM

You can say that again, John. You didn’t know where it was going and you didn’t know if she was serious or not. And taunting him that she got 18 million voters and that she matches up better against John McCain seemed an odd way to get what she wants, if she actually wants the VP slot. If he crumbles now and gives it to her, no one will ever believe he can stand up to anyone. It was part temper tantrum ( choose me or I take my 18 million friends home) and part therapy session. Perhaps it can be a mini-series. I, for one, would turn in every week.

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9 Responses to “Re:Hillary Speech”

  1. RCAR says:
    January 27, 2009 at 2:46 pm

    Abe, I can count on you to be a total jerk in politicising Updike’s death. For God’s sake don’t mention his savage satire on American society, the four volumes of Rabbit Angstrom. “Rabbit Is Rich” is essence of sulpheric acid.

  2. The Ancient Mariner says:
    January 27, 2009 at 3:30 pm

    So you don’t object to politicizing Updike’s death, but merely to the direction in which it was politicized? Truth to tell, Updike was a political writer in a lot of ways — it’s depoliticizing his death that would be difficult.

  3. RCAR says:
    January 27, 2009 at 3:37 pm

    #2,

    Right, the essay that Abe referred to is Updike’s core achievement:ask anybody!

  4. Alexander Almasov says:
    January 27, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    wheelless, as usual, is absolutely correct: “…Rich,” nearly as bad as “The Coup,” is nothing if not sulpheric, waddeva dat is. (Though that may be why it stinks like sulphur.) And, of course, it was very thoughtless of Updike not to have published his entire corpus (spell it any way you like) in Commentary.

    A marvellous small-form writer, especially the art reviews and poems. The novels? Ha!

  5. Mary Madigan says:
    January 27, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    Updike was a great American realist, who used words the way Wyeth or Hopper used paint, to show real beauty and life, unadorned. Thanks, Abe, for posting this essay -

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