Super Bowl Contest
We have many, many far-seeing and perceptive readers, needless to say. But occasionally one emerges who stands out as a true prophet or seer.
Back in April, we held a contest for newsletter readers to predict who'd make the 2016 World Series, and who'd prevail. We had a clear winner: a long-time TWS subscriber, Janice Evans from Chagrin Falls, Ohio--who predicted before the season started not only that the Indians and the Cubs would face off in the fall classic, but also that the Cubs would take it in seven games. Which is precisely what happened.
What makes this prediction even more impressive is that Janice, a Cleveland-area resident, is an Indians fan. (She's also a longtime member of the Chagrin Falls city council and ran for mayor last cycle, coming in second in a three-way race.) Jan picked her Indians to go farther than almost anyone expected--and then to fall just short. Such a combination of far-sighted prophecy and tragic realism is impressive, and rare.
So we rewarded her appropriately. Our own Jim Swift, whose parents happen also to live in Chagrin Falls, and who had attended games six and seven, suffering through the tragic denouement in person, delivered Jan her winnings on Christmas Eve at Rick's Cafe in Chagrin Falls.
Here's what Jan took home for winning: A $50 gift certificate to Rick's Cafe (a well regarded restaurant in Chagrin Falls where she seems to know everyone), lunch with the Swifts, an autographed copy of Matt Labash's Fly Fishing with Darth Vader,an audio copy of Jack Kemp: The Bleeding Heart Conservative Who Changed America(with a note from temporary Indians fan Fred Barnes), a copy of Irving Kristol's The Neoconservative Persuasion, an extension of her subscription, and various TWS squeezy heads, drinking mugs, and the like.
You can see the rewards for success in these competitions are pretty impressive!
In any case, as I watched the Giants and Packers slug it out in zero-degree temperature at Lambeau Field, it occured to me that we should have a Super Bowl competition, so that someone else can demonstrate Janice-level prophetic gifts. We'll do this despite Geoffrey Norman's devastating critique of the NFL of a couple of months ago. After all, even I, who agree with Geoffrey's piece and have watched little professional football this year, have gotten sort of interested now that it's the playoffs. And of course we should note you're being asked to do something easier than Janice, as she made her pick at the beginning of the season, and we're asking you to make yours after the first round of the playoffs.
So: Which of the eight teams currently in contention will make the Super Bowl? Who will win? And what will the score be? Email your picks here.
I can't guarantee the winner the kind of personal attention Janice got from her quondam neighbor, Jim Swift. But presumably the winner will live in a place where someone here at TWS has relatives or friends or a speech or the like, so we'll try to give the winner an equivalent reward with a similar personal touch. Or perhaps you'd prefer not to be bothered by one of my colleagues (after all, what if the nearest person to you is Matt Labash)? In any case, if you wish--no personal touch, just the loot...
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Labash, and more....
Speaking of Matt Labash, are you aware that every week you can read, online, usually around mid-week (the concept of a regular schedule is something to which Labash has always had deep and principled objections), "Ask Matt Labash?" The last few ones are here and here and here, and you can find all of them and ask your own questions of Matt, here. They really are terrific, making you LOL (as the kids say!) but also, a few minutes later, making you reflect on the human condition.
The new issue also, beneath its surface content of looking back on the Obama presidency, occasions some thoughts on the human condition. Lee Smith's devastating critique of Obama's foreign policy leads one to reflect more broadly on American foreign policy in general, and indeed has spurred to me to get to work on an article on "The Case for Liberal Empire." (Well, maybe "work" isn't quite the right word. It's got me jotting random thoughts and, when I remember to, putting them in a folder...) Chris Caldwell's essay on Obama's "legacy"--what he calls "the servile alternative to self-rule the country has lately been offered"--occasions thoughts on the meaning and conditions of true self-government. Andy Ferguson's demolition of the latest effort of Obama's "courtier's courtier, the boot-licker against whom all boot-licking must be measured," invites reflection on the deeper failures and blindnesses of today's progressivism. And there's more! So do set aside perhaps even a little more time than usual for this issue.
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As for the Trump Administration...
So much for -- and good riddance to-- President Obama. What of his successor and his administration? It's very hard to tell at this point, I think. There are signs that make one hopeful, and others that fill one with dread. We at TWS will be following the zigs and zags ahead. I suspect much of that will be done online, and even on Twitter, since the targets for comment will be fast-moving. The challenge in the weekly magazine will be to step back from the day-to-day and analyze the bigger picture in a way that separates the forest from the trees, but also does justice to the important trees (to torture that metaphor).
I have two thoughts for now: One, based on several conversations with people involved in the Trump transition and the incoming administration, is that governing is difficult, that getting legislation passed is tough, that executing matters--and that, partly through no fault of their own, the Trump team starts off with lots of challenges in those areas. The other is that whatever Trump's successes and failures, Trump's victory has opened up the discourse and the space (as they say these days) for a much broader range of debates and of outcomes--for better and worse-- than one could have imagined a year ago. Some of the outcomes could well be very different from those Trump intends or that people now expect. In, it will be interesting.
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Onward!
Bill Kristol