Jill Biden’s no mere moneygrubber, Florida eludes Democrats, Shohei Ohtani excels, and more.
With a salute to the inventor of this form, my old partner Jimmy Cannon, who with his colleagues Jim Murray, Red Smith, Mel Durslag, and others made the sports sections of American newspapers the first place to look for good writing.
• I had misjudged Jill Biden. She appeared to be just another Biden moneygrubber.
• The superior VP option, for both the country and the campaign, would be Glenn Youngkin of Virginia. He has serious governing chops and extensive experience in international business. He’s ready to be president now. And he might help to flip a Biden state.
• I just finished reading the latest smear from the Southern Poverty Law Center. Not a trace element there of anything to do with the South or poverty or the law. But it’s a tax-exempt nonprofit, so it must be doing valuable work.
• I have been approached in recent weeks by (possibly self-appointed) representatives of the gubernatorial hopefuls in Florida, a list currently in formation and including: Attorney General Ashley Moody; Lieutenant Governor Jeanette Nuñez; Ag Commissioner Wilton Simpson; CFO Jimmy Patronis; and U.S. representatives Michael Waltz, Byron Donalds, and Matt Gaetz. Perhaps the GOP should avoid the political frottage of a crowded primary and simply clear a lane for Casey DeSantis.
• The New York Times, a newspaper-like publication, recently flagged a horse-race story, “Democrats see glimmers of hope in Florida.” Basic reporting would have dispelled the rumors or, if you insist, ruined the story.
• I’m not a close student of the celebrity romance. Journo-crank that I am, I didn’t find Jen and Ben all that compelling even the first time around. But this Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce thing is different. It’s got an old-fashioned grace to it, a touch of Bogie and Bacall. It says here that T&T have done more for the straight courtship than anybody since Prince William and Kate Middleton.
• And let’s be honest: As brother to the prince, Prince Harry is no Jason Kelce.
• Breathes there an American girl who wouldn’t want ol’ Jason as her brother-in-law? Hell, I want him as my brother-in-law.
• Naval strategist Seth Cropsey is writing his best-informed, most clear-eyed stuff since we were kids together back in the Reagan administration. I’ll have whatever he’s having.
• A possibly green-shoot headline from a story in a financial-industry trade journal this week reports, “2024 Proxy Season Sees Investors Embrace the ‘G’ in ESG.” We could live with that. As the legendary money runner Charlie Ellis once put it, “Asset management is a profession full of fiduciary responsibilities, not a caveat emptor business.”
• Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts is growing into his job, which makes him something of a unicorn in the Greater Washington Metro Area. Roberts arrived from Texas a few years ago bristling with hyphens and determined to redirect wandering conservatives back to the true path. He now seems to have put away the hyphens: The man can add and subtract. Philosophically, conservatives should continue to make fine distinctions. Politically, conservatives should ignore minor differences and face the opposition united.
• I played hooky the other day to watch Shohei Ohtani play for the Los Angeles Dodgers. The question settles: How did a kid growing up in Japan come to hit a baseball harder than any American kid? How did he even come to imagine that possibility? I’ll ask Nordlinger. He knows everything.
• Steve Bannon went to prison today. I have never met the man, but I always wince when a fellow citizen gets hard time for a process crime. As the old Texas line has it, “While we recognize that the subject did not actually steal any horses, he is obviously guilty of trying to resist being hanged for it.”
• Have a glorious July Fourth, my friends! And don’t forget to recommit to your half of the proposition.