Georgetown Wins! Georgetown Wins! Georgetown Wins!
Um, sorry about that. But if you suffered through the Hoyas’ collapse last year, you understand why a basketball victory over Duke might seem, to even the most distant alumnus, something to cheer. And, man, did the Georgetown school the Blue Devils.
Besides, the game, even in a snowstorm, was the hottest ticket in that fickle political town of Washington. Mostly, of course, because Obama and Biden were present. James Fallows has a nice note on the way politics is never far from anyone’s mind in D.C.:
The place was packed and going nuts from beginning to end. The crowd was at least 90/10 Georgetown, with most people wearing the gray Georgetown T-shirts left at each seat, to create a “gray-out” effect. If you look at the people behind Obama and Biden in this picture (including a mid-scream Rahm Emanuel) you get a fair sample of the prevailing mood.
The one person who did not visibly react in any way to any play by either side was one of the main hoops fans in the building—Barack Obama. His was the studied impassivity of (nearly all!) members of the Supreme Court during a State of the Union address. Cheer for a Hoyas steal/dunk? North Carolina is an important state. Cheer when the Blue Devils rally? Become an oddball/pariah in a hostile crowd. So, Buddha-like he sat, as perfectly illustrated above. Joe Biden moved around a little more but also didn’t cheer.
Rahm Emanuel, mid-scream. Barack Obama, impassive. Why didn’t they just stay at the White House?
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE
The Church in the Age of Therapy
In 1966, Philip Rieff wrote in The Triumph of the Therapeutic that “Religious man was born to…
Canada’s Deadliest Blind Spot
On September 20, the Daily Mail ran a story with the provocative headline, “Our 83-year-old Christian grandmother…
The Faithful Joy of Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen
Dolly Parton and Fulton Sheen seem to have had little in common. She favored rhinestones; he wore…
