On Chicago's Very Own WGN News this Monday morning, George Will dutifully plugged his new baseball book A Nice Little Place on the North Side, about the history of Wrigley Field. He was as earnest as a freshman presenting a research paper (did you know that Jack Ruby was a young Wrigley Field vendor? That Franklin Roosevelt was present when Babe Ruth allegedly called his home-run hit? That the first vines were a species of bittersweet?)
Then Robin Baumgarten asked him if he had any thoughts about the coming presidential election, and he came alive like a grandma with a purse full of pictures. The Democrats, he said, had Hillary Clinton and no plan B, while the Republicans had a deep bench--of governors. He even used a map: Scott Walker and Rick Snyder to the north, Kasich to the east, Rick Scott to the south. (He didn't mention the west--Brownback seems a bit of joke now.)
I like his writing. He learned his freshman composition well, and uses a graceful style. But he never learned about unsupported generalizations or replacing logic with metaphors. His bench might fit the old Indianapolis Clowns (my apologies to their former League), but they all hit shallow and to the right.