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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.

4:17	[Comment From Guest ] What is the possibility that someone with the politics of Ron Paul will ever be elected to the US Presidency?

4:17	Hendrik Hertzberg - Zero.

4:23	[Comment From Tim Nicholas-Twining ] How would you propose to reform the Senate/filibuster? And is there the smallest chance that any such reform could actually occur?

4:23

Hendrik Hertzberg - I would reform it by abolishing it. My fallback position would be to abolish it except for judicial nominations.
I do think there’s a chance. But it won’t happen without really tough outside pressure. Senators like the filibuster, even when it thwarts their hopes and dreams, because it gives tremendous power to individual members. I hope that disappointment with Obama’s performance will be directed into a campaign to make Democratic senatorial candidates pledge to support filibuster abolition. As I understand it, a vote to abolish the filibuster cannot be filibustered.

4:29	[Comment From sPatBateman ] Do you feel that the basic argument of 'their entertainment arm influences their news arm' is a valid criticism of Fox and reason enough for the White House to public impugn them and not other networks? Seems a bit strange to me.

4:30

Hendrik Hertzberg - There’s Fox News and then there's Fox. ”The Simpsons,“ which is on Fox, has probably done more to promote liberalism than Fox News has done to promote the reactionary nihilism it calls ”conservatism.”
It’s true that Fox News has a business plan that involves making itself a niche entertainment network for unhappy, resentful people, but I have no doubt that Hannity and the rest are “sincere” in their professed beliefs. Maybe Roger Ailes is sincere too, I don’t know. I don’t have a problem with the White House giving them hell.

4:32	[Comment From Rob Stengel ] What about some form of staggered filibuster, wherein Senators could need 60 votes for the first vote on cloture, 57 votes the next time, 54 the next, etc?

4:32	Hendrik Hertzberg - Good idea. And after 54, 51. This would make the filibuster a nonlethal weapon, a weapon of delay, like the House of Lords. The saucer to cool off the hot tea and all that.

4:33	[Comment From dave d ] in addition to abolishing the filibuster, what other political reforms should progressives be working towards?

4:33	Hendrik Hertzberg - National Popular Vote for President. See my many blog posts on the subject. This is a brilliant idea, an achievable reform that would have tremendously far-reaching practical effects.

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