IMO the most devastating thing in that piece is the negative comparison to Truman’s and Reagan’s self-educations. Decades ago I read a bio (Merle Miller’s?) of Truman and was astonished at how widely HST had read.

(OT: Tanenhaus notes Reagan’s spending, but he neglects to mention that Reagan regretted the deficit in his Farewell Address.)

Tanenhaus on the Palin book tour:

She is avoiding major cities in the Northeast and on the West Coast, a pointed assertion of her contempt for metropolitan lites.

Well, la dee da. I defer to no one in disappointment with Palin, but I don’t think much of our pretentious metropolitan élites either.