shocking

Most surprising point in Isaacson's bio of Einstein. In 1938, a poll was conducted of Princeton students. They ranked as the greatest living person, in first place, Adolf Hitler. Number two? Albert Einstein. Just shows the level of anti-Semitism that existed here in America at that time.

3 questions for Condi

In case I ever bump into her on campus...

1) What consequences would have persuaded you that the decision to invade Iraq was misguided?

2) If you cannot answer the first question, does that mean you are unwilling to admit that a decision was mistaken?

3) If you can answer the first question, why are the deaths of 100,000 Iraqis and over 4,000 Americans not sufficient?

the public option boogeyman

It's amazing to me how controversial this public option has become. There are so many services government already provides: social security, Medicare, Medicaid. Why do people think that a government-run insurance program is going to take over health care, given that it would be subject to a lot of the same cost constraints (i.e., no subsidies) that private insurers face. Anyway, right now only 55% of Americans get their health insurance from a private firm (according to This Week). So the private market is certainly not serving everyone.

I think a good model to use as an example that of public universities. There are lots of successful private universities in this country. And there are also a lot of successful public universities. The healthy competition among them is good for consumers.

In one of the town hall meetings, a college kid challenged Obama to a debate over the issue. Guess where the college kid went to school? CU-Boulder. That's right: a public school.

I don't see any reason why the public system needs to be federally managed. States could certainly run these programs on their own. Also, I do agree with the point made by several Republicans, that we should lift regulations that prevent insurance companies from crossing state lines. That's stupid, plain and simple.

But I also don't see any reason to be afraid of a government-run insurance plan. If you don't like it, you won't have to take it.

sibling rivalry

The Times has a great profile of the Bryan twins, one of the greatest tennis doubles pairs of all time. One of the interesting points is that when they were growing up playing singles, whenever they met each other, their dad (a former pro tennis player himself) wouldn't let them play each other. Instead, they would alternate forfeiting. That wouldn't have necessarily occurred to me, but it strikes me as the right thing to do, at least while the kids are young. The junior circuit is so competitive, that having two brothers--in this case, twins--play each other would generate a lot of ill will around the house. Better to just avoid the sibling rivalry, and focus on all the other matches.

never, never, never give up

I think David Brooks makes a good point about Ted Kennedy's career: that after a lot of personal trauma and failures, Kennedy kept slogging it out in the Senate. After losing all three of his older brothers--two to assasinations--, after running from the scene in Chappaquiddick, and getting caught boozing around in Palm Beach, a natural thing to do would have been to step out of public life, retire to live on his own. Whether it was the thirst for limelight or a commitment to public service (probably both), something compelled him to keep doing the hard work of passing legislation that furthered his ideals. And most commentators say that his best work has been done since the '91 Palm Beach fiasco, i.e., after he was 59 years old. I think the broader lesson here is that to do good work in any field, it takes a long time--you've got to slog it out for awhile and stay persistent. Substantial achievements take time and sustained effort.

address to the students

Obama's live speech to the nation's students next Tue is attracting a lot of fire from conservatives who claim that it's indoctrination. But it strikes me as a politically brilliant move. Of course his speech will be apolitical: it's easy enough to focus on staying in school, studying hard, working toward your goals, all that jazz. The genius of the move is that either you let kids watch it and they get inspired (thanks to Obama's hipness), or you don't let the kids watch it, and you look like you don't believe in a positive message of encouragement for our youth.

Apart from the cold political calculus, I think it's the sort of thing that every president ought to do--it's a great way to get kids interested in government and provide them with role models.