Objective and Subjective
Remember magazines?
Thick with editorial content, weeklies and monthlies that people paid for?
And the ads!
Oh, the ads!!!!!
Like in Vanity Fair in the ‘80s and ‘90s, where the first 40 pages of an issue were ads, some reeking with samples of expensive perfumes.
Again, people paid money to subscribe to these magazines, for the pleasure of reading them and the information contained therein. But they had to wade through a lot of advertising.
Which is why I continue to be bewildered by the intense reaction of a small number of readers to the existence of a few paragraphs at the beginning of this newsletter most days in which I request folks become voluntary paying subscribers or contributors.
I would say it is easier to scroll by this section (or read it for enjoyment!) than it was to find the table of contents (let alone the first actual content!) in Vanity Fair.
So, anyway, let’s try something new today.
If you are a current paying subscriber, please consider getting at least two new readers to subscribe (paid or unpaid) this week.
Seriously: Please, all of you, take that on as an assignment to help me grow my audience.
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Thank you!
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There are objective facts and there are subjective opinions.
Telling one from the other is our joint life’s work, and it isn’t easy.
So here are some facts, followed by the rhetorical solicitation of your subjective opinion.
Please don’t read too much into my choice of facts – or assume you know my answers to the questions about the subjective side of the coin.
Let’s see how this format goes.
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Fact: President Biden’s poll numbers across the country are not great.
Politico, the Washington Post, and the New York Times all have stories today on the bleak November outlook for the White House, while the Times also has some internal Team Biden polling memos you will want to read in a separate story.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Will his numbers be better by November if he turns the midterms into a referendum on Donald Trump (rather than make progress on, say, inflation)?
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Fact: Donald Trump bungled J.D. Vance’s name at his Sunday night Nebraska rally.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: How big an issue is this and should it be?
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Fact: Support for Mr. Biden and his party among Hispanic voters has dropped for many reasons, and not just because Team Biden has failed to pass anything like comprehensive immigration reform.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Is there a real or potential Biden-Harris-Klain-Pelosi-Schumer-Harrison plan that could actually address this challenge?
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Fact: Even though public opinion polls and Oprah suggest big public support for continuing mask mandates, Democratic elected officials are still running from such restrictions like scalded robots.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: For which party will all-things pandemic be a political advantage come the midterms?
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Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Does this remain the sleeper-ish issue of the midterms, second only to inflation among suburban voters?
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Fact: Before I had a chance to watch for myself, I received many unsolicited texts and emails saying what a great job President Biden did in his remarks at the White House Correspondents Association dinner, including this from one of the Biden “skeptics” in my universe:
Biden was electric last night. More of that, and he instantly becomes a popular beloved uncle Joe-esque president
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: With this flubbed line in some ways representative of the entire perf (“Ronald Reagan said, ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear this wall down.’”) was the POTUS really as sterling as some say?
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Fact: There are signs that consumer spending might be slowing in the face of inflation, which could start to have all sorts of macroeconomic implications.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Does the Fed have a Goldilocks vision here, or not?
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Fact: This Wall Street Journal story about how CEOs are trying to navigate the post-Disney/DeSantis world is essential reading and/but only scratches the surface of what is going on.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: When is caving in to woke employees the right thing to do?
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Fact: This is the most Page Six item ever:
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: How much coverage should the actual event get in Tuesday’s Wide World of News?
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Fact: The Wall Street Journal exclusively reports that Europe is trying to revive the nuclear deal with Iran.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Are there really circumstances under which the Biden administration would try to make this pact before Russia is out of Ukraine?
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Fact: This is very fast.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Young phenom from whom we will never hear again – or inevitable Major League star in waiting?
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Fact: Eric Adams is thin skinned, just like his predecessor, as this essential reading New York Post story makes clear.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: The early rave reviews notwithstanding, will he (amazingly) be a worse mayor than is predecessor?
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Fact: President Biden poked fun at Pete Buttigieg’s youth/youthful appearance at the Correspondents dinner.
Question to solicit a subjective opinion: Was that text or subtext?
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In Sunday’s editions, two names were spelt wrong. The correct spellings are “Haidt” and “Tlaib.” The errors are regretted.
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