Peter Gallagher

Or “Fuck­nutsville” accord­ing to the President’s Chief of Staff. An intrigu­ing story of dys­func­tional, triv­i­al­is­ing, momen­tary, par­ti­san­ship in Amer­i­can government.

Bro­ken gov­ern­ment? Maybe… The point of this long Van­ity Fair essay seems to be that “no-drama” Obama is the man for his times; angling to res­ur­rect endur­ing vic­to­ries for good gov­ern­ment from beneath the treach­er­ous muck of cur­rent opinion.

Of course, press sto­ries about the cor­rupt­ing impact of the five-minute fac­toid on good sense and gov­er­nance are obvi­ously sus­pect. They love that they scorn. But this is both more depress­ing, and bet­ter writ­ten, than most ‘insider’ White House stories.