My Eye Bad Optics

July 01, 2016

Dear Jolt Fan,

NRO is teeming with splendid and smart content today, as usual. So go ahead – it's Friday. The boss won't mind you reading your favorite website. Why? Because he isn't coming in today! Neither is Jim Geraghty, which is why you are stuck avec moi.

I can't ruminate like Jim, but I can assign. So here are five pieces that will be particularly worth your while.

1. Let's start with the celebration of Clarence Thomas's 25 years on the High Court. The A Team (Ed Whelan, John Yoo, et al.) weighs in with a must-read symposium.

2. So, Loretta Lynch really is little more than a hack. With 10 thumbs? The AG's now infamous jet-a-tete (RIMSHOT!) in Phoenix with Bill Clinton has worried Democrats at Talking-Points Defcon One: This is really just "bad optics." No, it ain't. On NRO, David Harsanyi's commentary ends thusly: "If you want to know why Americans don't trust their government, this meeting is a pristine example." But do read everything before that, right here.

3. Reihan Salam and his big brain address immigration and its smear-slinging advocates in Why Are Immigration Advocates So Quick to Play the Race Card? Here is one of many wisdom-filled chunks:

Might the fact that skilled immigrants to the U.S. fare better than less-skilled immigrants have implications for U.S. immigration policy? Much depends on outcomes in the second generation. The chief way that immigration shapes the American future is via the children of immigrants. If the children of skilled and less-skilled immigrants have identical experiences in the U.S., we could safely dismiss the case for more-selective immigration policies. As it turns out, however, the experiences of the children of skilled and less-skilled immigrants are in fact markedly different.

4. Did you know there was A Great Win for Election Integrity on Wednesday? You didn't? Well, there was, as Hans Von Spakovsky explains in The Corner. Seriously, it's a big blow to Lefty election-riggers.

5. So, why doesn't the buck stop with Hillary? No, no, not those bucks – the 250,000 that she'd grab for prattling on at public universities and Wall Street amphitheaters – but that old "I'm responsible" buck. NR summer intern Andrew Badinelli takes a shot at answering. I think he does a pretty good job.

It was a thrill to substitute for Jim while he is off working on his tan and draining pina coladas. Which reminds me (the substituting, not the tanning) of an old man, by baseball standards. The year was 1943, but 38-year-old Joseph Edward Cronin, the player/manager of the Boston Red Sox, could still handle a bat. That year he set an MLB record of 25 pinch-hit RBIs (many coming on his 5 pinch homers).

My wife being a Red Sox fan, this is a blatant attempt by her Yankee-rooting / Sox-hating husband to garner favor. I'll let you know how that worked out.

One final note: Bill Buckley always said, despair is a sin. He said that because . . . it is. So do not despair for America. Embrace the Spirit of '76. Celebrate the Land of the Free this weekend as the truly exceptional thing that is, and that it will remain, with your diligence.

God bless,

Jack Fowler, Publisher