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3:54	The New Yorker - Hello, and welcome to Ask the Author Live. Hendrik Hertzberg is here with us today. We’ll do our best to address as many questions as possible. Enjoy!

3:55	Hendrik Hertzberg - O.K., it’s me, i.e., Hendrik Hertzberg. Is anybody out there? Be gentle, because I’m new at this.

4:01	[Comment From Stuart Waldman ] Using test scores to conclude NYC public schools are improving is like using body counts to conclude we won the Vietnam War. When was the last time you actually spent significant time a public school classroom?

4:01

Hendrik Hertzberg - Let's see. That would be 1961, when I was a senior at Suffern High School in Suffern, New York. The last time I spent significant time in a New York City public school was in—well, never mind the year, but I was in first grade at P.S. 86, in the Bronx.
My mother was a public school teacher and later a professor of history and education at Teachers College, Columbia. I spent significant time with her.
I know I’m not responding to the pugnacious undertone of your question. Just the question itself.

4:08	[Comment From Rob Stengel ] Should the closeness of Bloomberg's re-election really surprise us? His supporters simply didn't show up because he was projected to crush Thompson with or without their vote. Why show up when it won't make a difference?

4:08

Hendrik Hertzberg - If you’re omniscient, as I am supposed to be in my role as a pundit, then nothing should ever surprise you. Still, I’m surprised.
My theory is that Bloomberg nearly defeated himself. It made sense for him to have a big, expensive get-out-the-vote effort, a big, expensive campaign headquarters, and lots of expensive TV ads touting his greatness. What did not make sense was for him to run TV ads attacking his opponent. Most people learned that there was someone named Bill Thompson from Bloomberg's negative ads. Bloomberg gave Thompson the gift of name recognition. And Bloomberg tarnished his kingly aura by running those ads. Because of them, I had to hold my nose as I pulled the lever for him. I nearly voted against him on account of those ads.

4:11	[Comment From Jim Stemper ] What are the chances that President Obama can talk some sense into Joe Lieberman so that he allows the health care bill to come to a vote in the Senate? How does he do it?

4:11	Hendrik Hertzberg - Lieberman is vain and selfish. These are the qualities Obama should exploit in his dealings with this insufferably sanctimonious hypocrite.

4:16	[Comment From Jeff K ] What have you been reading lately?

4:16

Hendrik Hertzberg - I’m always reading a book out loud to our 11-year-old son. Right now it’s “Uncle Tom's Cabin.” I’d never read it. We're on Chapter 4 and we're both riveted.
Silently, I’m reading Stephen Cohen's “Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives,“ which argues, very interestingly, against the prevailing view that the Soviet Union was unredeemably unreformable.

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