After the debate

What is to be done?

My immediate response to Thursday's debate (admittedly not a unique view), was that President Biden (for whom I have long felt, and for whom I continue to feel, genuine admiration, and affection) should step aside.

But--at least as of this (disquieting/disorienting) moment--I am not (as, simply, one Biden supporter) confident concerning what the next step should be.

I just know, really, that I feel stricken, because of what has taken place.

The Editorial Board of The Washington Post wrote in part, on Friday: 

If President Biden had weekend plans, he should cancel them in favor of some soul-searching. His calamitous debate performance on Thursday raises legitimate questions about whether he’s up for another four years in the world’s toughest job. It’s incumbent on this incumbent to determine, in conversation with family and aides, whether continuing to seek reelection is in the best interests of the country. 

Former president Donald Trump proved emphatically on Thursday why preventing another Trump presidency is the paramount consideration. Mr. Biden faces a personal decision but also a presidential one: What would be best for the country, his personal feelings notwithstanding?

The Post editorial also said this:

Little good ever came from panicking. Mr. Biden cannot be coerced into doing something he doesn’t want to do. Nor should he be. What he can do is what many Americans are doing this weekend — wondering whether he is up to the job.

https://wapo.st/3VFagj4

The Editorial Board of The New York Times had this headline, for an opinion piece on Friday: "To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race."

Columnist Thomas L. Friedman, of the Times, wrote a piece the same day, titled: "Joe Biden Is a Good Man and a Good President. He Must Bow Out of the Race."

Mr. Friedman wrote:

I watched the Biden-Trump debate alone in a Lisbon hotel room, and it made me weep. I cannot remember a more heartbreaking moment in American presidential campaign politics in my lifetime, precisely because of what it revealed: Joe Biden, a good man and a good president, has no business running for re-election. And Donald Trump, a malicious man and a petty president, has learned nothing and forgotten nothing. He is the same fire hose of lies he always was, obsessed with his grievances — nowhere close to what it will take for America to lead in the 21st century.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/opinion/joe-biden-tom-friedman.html?unlocked_article_code=1.3k0.NqW6.NjOc0tH4I37a&smid=url-share

Other columnists, as well as the Editorial Board of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, have also suggested that Mr. Biden leave the presidential race.

One of the most interesting Editorial Board recommendations, however, was the following contrary view on Saturday, from The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The headline of the Inquirer's Editorial Board essay (in what appeared to be a response to the headline, noted above, of the New York Times's Editorial Board piece, the day before) said this:

"To serve his country, Donald Trump should leave the race."

The editorial said, in part:

President Joe Biden's debate performance was a disaster. His disjointed responses and dazed look sparked calls for him to drop out of the presidential race.

But lost in the hand wringing was Donald Trump's usual bombastic litany of lies, hyperbole, bigotry, ignorance, and fear mongering. His performance demonstrated once again that he is a danger to democracy and unfit for office.

In fact, the debate about the debate is misplaced. The only person who should withdraw from the race is Trump.

Trump, 78, has been on the political stage for eight years marked by chaos, corruption, and incivility. Why go back to that?

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/editorials/first-presidential-debate-joe-biden-donald-trump-withdraw-20240629.html

The debate

I hope, during tonight's debate, that voters will be reminded, in significant ways, that President Biden is an intrinsically decent and honorable man.

Former President Trump is not concerned with either decency or honor.  His plans for America (and the world) are dark, and perilous. One thinks of his perverse affection for dictators; his self-involvement; his bitterness, rage, and promises of revenge and retribution; his endless lies.

President Biden, I have no doubt, will continue seeking to strengthen and unite the country. Former President Trump likes nothing more than division, and chaos.

Willie Mays (1931-2024)

As is true of so many people, I was very saddened, this week, to learn of Willie Mays's death, at age 93.

Since childhood, I have thought of Mr. Mays--and his brilliance as a ballplayer--with awe.

Willie Mays, "The Catch," 1954 World Series

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I wrote about Mr. Mays, in this space, in 2021, the year he turned 90--and wrote, in the post, of what has long been referred to as "The Catch":  his astonishing catch, in the 1954 World Series, of batter Vic Wertz's long drive to center field; it is, surely, one of the most exciting moments in baseball's history. The post, at the link below, includes video of the play--and also concerns the remarkable throw Mr. Mays made to second base, immediately after making the catch.

https://andrewleefielding.blogspot.com/2021/05/willie-mays-turns-90.html

In the 1980s, I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame, in Cooperstown, New York.  During the visit, I bought the following postcard, of Mr. Mays's Hall of Fame plaque.

 

 

Juneteenth

Best wishes for the holiday...

 

Father's Day

In July of 1948, my father began his medical residency at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital, in training for a career as an obstetrician and gynecologist.  He remained at Bellevue for a year.

My parents met, and began dating, in early 1949, as my mother's television career was starting. They would soon become engaged.

In July of 1949, the month my father turned twenty-eight, he left Bellevue for a stint at the Margaret Hague Maternity Hospital, in Jersey City, New Jersey.  

The hospital, which had opened in the early 1930s, was named after the mother of Frank Hague, who for three decades was Jersey City's Mayor (a tenure which ended in 1947).

From January to March of 1949, my mother had been a singer on a weekday musical program on television's DuMont Network, The Stan Shaw Show. In March, the month she turned twenty-one, she began singing on a new nightly DuMont musical program, Teen Time Tunes. The program went off the air in July, the same month my father began working at the Jersey City hospital.

The picture above is of my father, from 1949, standing outside the hospital.

In August of 1949 my parents were married in Manhattan.

My father worked at the Margaret Hague hospital until the end of 1949.  In December of 1949, my mother began singing on bandleader Kay Kyser's TV program on NBC.  

In 1950, my father continued his OB/GYN residency at New York's Harlem Hospital.  He completed his residency, at the hospital, at the end of 1952. 

At the start of 1953, my parents left New York for the Boston area. My father had been hired by a medical practice in Boston; he later opened his own office.  He left private practice in the late 1980s.

Not long after my parents left New York, my mother sang for a time on a morning radio show in Boston, and in 1954 and 1955 had her own weekly TV program on a Boston station. She appeared on other Boston TV programs through the years, and in the 1960s began a decades-long voice-overs career.

She died in the spring of 2001, at 73. My father died on New Year's Day, 2022, at age 100.  I miss them both.

Words, overused

There are words, or phrases, which come into currency, and which may sound interesting or pleasing, for a time--but then become widely, conspicuously overused. As such, they lose whatever appealing qualities they might originally have had.

A number of such words have roots, interestingly, in science, or math. 

One hears often today, for example, the use of the word "ecosystem"--but divorced from its biologic-related meaning, and used, rather, in political, entertainment, or social contexts. 

I hear the word used with regularity on news and discussion shows on television, and see it often in print reporting--concerning, say, the Washington, D.C. ecosystem, the political ecosystem at-large, etc.

A January 28, 2024 piece in The Atlantic, online, referred to actress Dakota Johnson's "keen sense of her own place in the celebrity ecosystem..."

The November 2023 issue of Philadelphia magazine, in its annual list of the most influential Philadelphians, wrote of two figures from the city's Lenfest Institute for Journalism who have "been making waves within the city's media ecosystem..."

A November 2023 piece in The New Yorker said that "independent publishers and nonprofits such as W.W. Norton and Graywolf Press seek to carve out their own niche in this [publishing] ecosystem by [focusing] on books with small but ardent audiences..."

A December, 2023 Atlantic piece had this sub-headline: "The veil lifted on the remarkable ecosystem that fuels Republican activism."

A February, 2024 Boston Globe piece concerned the shutting down of an area alcohol delivery service. "The surprise announcement," the Globe reporter wrote, "was a hit to the Boston startup ecosystem..."

Other terms--once generally associated with math or science--are used regularly, in print and in broadcast media, in a political context:  one hears, often, about the metrics of a political race; the optics of a candidate's event or speech; the ways a politician seeks to replicate that which occurred in a previous election; the political calculus made by someone seeking office, or seeking to remain in office.

There are additional terms which have in recent years been used to excess: the "unpacking" of the particulars of a story, a life, or an issue, or undertaking a "deep dive" into a certain subject.

One of the words which has been invoked endlessly--for many years--in broadcast news, interview, and panel programs, in newspapers and magazines, in TV advertisements, and in daily conversations, is a term from the nautical realm: navigating. 

Today, the use of navigating has become ubiquitous.

Everyone, it seems, is constantly navigating.

We're all, evidently, Magellan.

I'm not saying a great many people are not routinely navigating--but I wish the near-reflexive usage of the word would recede.

Here are a few examples, from print stories.

"No question the royal family is navigating rough waters." (USA Today, May 6, 2023)

"In his new book 'Differ We Must: How Lincoln Succeeded in a Divided America,' [Steve Inskeep] recounts how the 16th president navigated deep political discord." (Boston Globe, Sept. 27, 2023)

A sub-headline, in a New York Times story (Jan. 8, 2024): "With little time to spare before a shutdown deadline, Speaker Mike Johnson will have to navigate the same political currents that did in his predecessor."

The headline of a New York Times story (April 7, 2024) concerned Princess Reema Bandar al-Saud, the Saudi ambassador to the United States (and daughter of the former Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar bin Sultan): "Princess Reema, Bandar's Daughter, Navigates Rough Waters in Washington."

"The Philadelphia-based radio company [Audacy], which owns hundreds of stations nationwide, is grappling with $1.9 billion in debt while navigating an advertising slump." (Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 4, 2024)

There is also this:

For years, reporters and analysts/commentators, when writing about or discussing politics, would note that certain political figures were engaged in a form of performance--a version of performance art, perhaps, or political theatre, political theatrics--as opposed to engaging substantively with issues.

Today, such terms have been replaced, quite often, by one word:  performative--as in, a performative style of legislating, or, rather, the absence of legislating; the performative style predominating, in lieu of tangible accomplishment.

As far as I can tell, the usage of "performative" has been in particular vogue for the past couple of years.

It is actually a good word, and has, I must note, been used by many writers and commentators for whom I have admiration.  The word, indeed, has an appealing, concise flavor to it--yet I think it is being relied upon far too often.  

The journalist Mark Leibovich--one of today's best, most interesting political reporters and analysts--wrote about Governor Ron DeSantis, not long after DeSantis's 2023 announcement of his presidential candidacy. Mr. Leibovich wrote that "DeSantis is the ultimate performative politician when it comes to demonstrating outrage and 'kneecapping' various woke abuses--but not so much when it comes to the actual in-person performance of politics." (The Atlantic,  June 3, 2023)

The prominent and talented columnist Maureen Dowd wrote of Donald Trump's 2023 arrival in Georgia, for his arraignment and booking, on charges that he and his co-defendants sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election: "Thursday night was performative for Trump: sweeping in with his private jet and giant motorcade that screamed two-tiered justice system, with law enforcement clearing the Atlanta streets, like centurions clearing the way for Caesar." (The New York Times, August 26, 2023)

The very fine columnist David Brooks wrote, of GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy: "His statements are brisk, in-your-face provocations intended to produce temporary populist dopamine highs. It's all performative show." (The New York Times, August 23, 2023) 

On Anderson Cooper's May 9, 2024 CNN broadcast, the conversation with his panel, that night, focused on the Trump criminal trial.  The discussion included analysis of the defense's harsh cross-examination of prosecution witness Stormy Daniels.

Mr. Cooper (whose on-air reporting/hosting/interviewing I enjoy) said the following:  " ...there was a lot of talk today that this was performative, perhaps for Donald Trump...or at least at the behest of Donald Trump."

On Laura Coates's May 21, 2024 evening broadcast, the CNN host (who is also the network's chief legal analyst; she is a former federal prosecutor, and former attorney in private practice) spoke with her panel of the upcoming closing arguments in the Trump trial. She said: "I mean, this is the time that a lot of lawyers become all the more performative, right? They are trying to shine..."

Though I hear the term used most often by journalists and commentators, at least two politicians I am aware of have made use of the word. "[Former Vice President Mike] Pence defined Republican populism as a trading away of time-honored principles for raw political power.  He said populists trafficked in 'personal grievances and performative outrage.' " (The New York Times, Sept. 6, 2023)  And The Washington Post, on May 31, 2024, reported this, regarding an appearance by Maryland Republican Senatorial candidate (and former Governor) Larry Hogan, at a Pikesville, Maryland retirement community:

"I don't come from the performative arts school of politics," Hogan told the crowd, reminding them of alliances he formed as governor with Democratic state lawmakers to reduce taxes.

"I come from the 'get to work, get things done' school, and I will work with anyone who wants to do the people's business."

Or this: when it was announced, early this year, that Jon Stewart was returning to Comedy Central, to host The Daily Show one night per week, Chris McCarthy, president and CEO of Showtime/MTV Entertainment Studios, released this statement: "In our age of staggering hypocrisy and performative politics, Jon is the perfect person to puncture the empty rhetoric and provide much-needed clarity with his brilliant wit." (Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 24, 2024)

In short, I think that the use of "performative" (as with many of the previously discussed words, above) has, lately, come to feel a bit tiresome.  I think the term should be employed with greater restraint--or perhaps should be shelved altogether.

(The above post was slightly edited on June 12, 2024)

D-Day: the 80th anniversary

D-Day--one of the most consequential events in the history of America, and the world--took place June 6, 1944, eighty years ago today. 

The picture, above, shows the inside of a newspaper I have--the New York tabloid paper the Daily Mirror.  The paper--and other D-Day newspapers--were given to me, during my childhood, by (I believe) my maternal grandparents.