Noemie Emery

Noemie Emery is one of the most interesting political writers today. She has a David Brooksish ability to display the inner connections between politics, personality, and culture, all with a sharp historical sensibility. She is not nearly so entertaining a writer as Brooks, but more profound. Consider this superb passage from the September 15 issue of The Weekly Standard , in which Emery argues that Schwarzenegger has the opportunity to revive both the California Republican Party and the Kennedy family’s political fortunes:

The great charm of Schwartzenegger is that he plays against type. The Kennedys are much too conspicuously a tribe of inheritors, generations removed from their sources of energy. Arnold returns them to their entrepreneurial, and even their immigrant, roots. He is rich, but not from trust funds. A millionaire even before he went into the movies, his record of dipping into and cashing out on a number of ventures recalls the career of Joseph P. Kennedy, and in some ways repeats it, without the shady connections. In fact, much about him recalls Joseph P. Kennedy — the huge goals envisioned and held over decades, the reinventions, the fascination with money and power — minus appeasement, and with better political instincts. In his book on the Adamses, Richard Brookshier defines the tag-ends of the dynasty — Brooks and Henry — as being descendants by nature and temperament. Schwartzenegger thinks like a founder. It shows.