Publishers Fret Over Obama’s ‘Failure to Perform’
Book contracts routinely include a “failure to perform” clause. Contracts that come with a reported $65 million advance, such as the one signed by Barack and Michelle Obama in February 2017 with Penguin Random House (PRH), will inevitably include such a clause.
How Fusion GPS saved Planned Parenthood
Other than Robert Mueller just about every American who follows the news has heard of Fusion GPS, the “strategic intelligence” firm best-known for its role in creating the infamous Steele Dossier in 2016. Although eventually busted for that caper, Fusion still has not been called to account for its equally duplicitous role in saving Planned Parenthood’s bacon a year earlier.
Why I’m Proud to Be Catholic
About ten years ago, Bishop Robert Finn, a saintly man and orthodox priest, asked me to serve on the panel that would select the next superintendent for the Catholic schools of his Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese.
It was a bold move on the bishop’s part. He had recently inherited a spiritually liberal diocese that had predictably been much too cozy with the local Democratic Party. Continue Reading
Hanging with the Silenced Majority in Covid Country
Having driven this past month from my home in Kansas City, Missouri, to my summer digs in Chautauqua County, New York, to my annual family reunion in my home state of New Jersey, I can confirm that this is easily the stupidest period in American history and arguably the most oppressive. That said, I did see some glimmers of hope along the way, more on that in a minute.
Journalists once took voter fraud seriously
The Sunday Times of London has called Robert Caro “one of the great reporters of our time and probably the greatest biographer.” If I were to revise that sentence, I would remove the word “probably.”A painstaking researcher, Caro has written biographies of only two people, master builder Robert Moses and President Lyndon Johnson, the latter in a series not quite complete. In his 2019 book, “Working,” Caro describes the lengths to which he would go to confirm or deny a story.
The New York Times Has Been Ridiculous for a Long Time
The much discussed resignation letter from New York Times op-ed editor Bari Weiss was written in the metaphorical equivalent of Braille. It allowed even the blind to see what the rest of us have known for years: the Times is a joke.
Where in the world is Barack Obama? I have a question for him
For the last several years, Obama-friendly publications have been running headlines along the lines of “Where is Barack Obama?” or “Where in the World is Barack Obama?”For the most part, these were written in the spirt of the Simon & Garfunkle lament in “Mrs. Robinson,” “Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio?” In either case, our nation was supposed to be turning our lonely eyes to this hero of days gone by. Lately, however, the question of Obama’s whereabouts has become more literal.
How Affirmative Action Screwed Up Michelle Obama
In 1985, Michelle Obama presented her senior thesis in the sociology department of Princeton University. Although Michelle drew no such conclusion, the thesis is a stunning indictment of affirmative action. Those who benefited from it, Michelle most notably, may never recover from its sting. Her thesis reads like a cry for help.
Obama’s book delayed, my Obama book on schedule
To google “Obama memoir release date” is to get a good sense of the way Google’s algorithms work to protect its chosen candidates. The first headlines date from May 2019. Virtually all articles follow the same formula as USA Today.
Bring Me the Head of Harry Truman
Rarely does an author capture a truth as well as L.P. Hartley did in the immortal opening sentence of his novel, The Go-Between. Said Hartley for the ages: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” This is a message that the nation’s civic leaders, elected officials, and editorialists would do well to absorb.
