Larry Summers Has a Blog!
Well, kind of. He's agreed to contribute to a New Republic-sponsored blog,
Open University,
according to the Crimson. It's appropriate that
TNR's site advertises the blog with a photo of Harvard—that is Harvard below, isn't it? Looks like the Yard, with University Hall on the left and Memorial Church unseen on the right—because the list of contributors reads like a Summers kitchen cabinet: There's Summers himself, his wife, Lisa New, his ally, Steve Pinker, the wife of an ally, Abigal Thernstrom, an ally he wanted to hire, John McWhorter...(and they told two friends, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on....) It's all a little incestuous, eh?
Anyway, speaking of incestuous, I know a couple of contributors to this blog, Ted Widmer and David Greenberg, both of whom I think very highly of. Super nice and smart guys. But as I told the Crimson, I'm not very optimistic about Open University's future. First of all, why would anyone contribute to this unless a) they are mildly nuts, like me, or b) they got paid? The novelty wears off fast, I can assure you. Second, these group blogs don't usually work; everyone's too afraid they'll make a fool of themselves in front of their fellow contributors, and it all gets very stuffy. Shoot, I can't even bring myself to read the entries that are already posted, much less think about coming back for more.
Having said that, I think it'd be fascinating to read a Larry Summers blog, if he actually wrote what he thought and felt....which he wouldn't. But if he did, I imagine it'd be intelligent, idiosyncratic, and highly provocative.....
