#michael duffy

But the importance of presence, of rhetorical skill, of attention grabbing — these are classic, old-fashioned political skills, and I actually think it’s a good thing that it’s coming back. People are recognizing the importance of being able to perform politics as much as being able to be a good legislator. You need to be able to do both, but I think Democrats in particular have lost, or forgotten, the importance of political performance. »

— Jamelle Bouie at the New York Times The Opinions podcast.

Transcript. Archived transcript.

Many pundits and analysts get bogged down in policy and ideology. They are puzzled by phenomena like "Obama-Trump voters".

Quite frankly. a majority of voters DON'T think in terms of ideology. This is particularly annoying to some people on the left who spend a disproportionate amount of time splitting hairs over policy and dogma.

The overhyped factionalism in the Democratic Party between alleged centrists and progressives has less to do with ideology than things like conventionalism vs. innovation or diplomatic vs. outspoken or structuralist vs. activist.

Voters today want politicians who are more willing to publicly go to bat for them – regardless of ideology. And if those politicians are more distinctive, like Barack Obama (or Abe Lincoln in the 19th century), then all the better.

Gary Garrels, Plane Image: A Brice Marden Retrospective, Essays by Richard Shiff, Brenda Richardson, and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, Interview with the artist by Michael Duffy, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 2006 [Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, NY. © Brice Marden / ARS, New York]

Play for Today: The Cry (BBC, 1984)

"It's best forgotten about."

"You're not gonna be making a complaint?"

"Complaints? We're not making any complaints! We don't want to know about any complaints."

"Complaints against who?"

"Well, the police."

"Who should I complain to about the police?"

"Well, the police, I suppose."

You should definitely get Tributes and Trash Talk: What Our Presidents Said About Each Other if you don’t have it yet. It’s a great book even though the author is a first-class jackass.

Here are five books that I suggest (I’ll keep it limited to five and to books about Presidents, otherwise I’ll never finish answering this question):

•The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency (BOOK | KINDLE) by Chris Whipple

•The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them (BOOK | KINDLE) by Chris DeRose•Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents (BOOK | KINDLE) by Bob Greene

•The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity (BOOK | KINDLE) by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

Sgt Duffy 🤝 Superia