Year One

I love Gail Collins. She's so witty, though, that I wonder if she isn't misunderestimated as a political analyst. You might be too busy laughing to notice that she's got quite an intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of Beltway culture (what Emily Nussbaum calls 'a needling insight into the surreal grind of governance'), as well as a familiarity with key political figures that goes back decades. Anyhoo, GailCo is on my mind because one of her recent columns delivers as sympathetic and pragmatic a capsule assessment of Obama's first year as is possible at present (any more sympathetic, and the author would have to be a White House staffer; any more pragmatic, and the defense would boil down to 'Well, at least he's not Bush!'). Here is what she says:

I personally think Obama has been doing a good job, all things considered. The economy is still depressing, but that’s an improvement over mind-bendingly terrifying. The rest of the world likes us better, and whenever the president goes overseas he seems to be able to nudge the other countries toward a little progress on some issue on which they had been hopelessly stuck.

And health care reform. Extremely big deal. Really could pass. Eventually.

No matter how difficult the issue, Obama has been sensible, deliberative. Just look at Dick Cheney swooping around like a dementor from Harry Potter, and you have to appreciate how much things have improved.

There you have it.

Brain Candy

It's the little things in life, as they say in Brain Candy. Here's one of my favorites: crossing the Williamsburg Bridge on the J Train, eating my own homecooked stir-fry leftovers as the lights of Manhattan slowly pass in review.