Supplemental: They get letters about Indiana!

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

Times goes eight for eight: We’ll admit it. We’re fascinated by this group of letters in today’s New York Times.

In theory, the letters were written in reaction to David Brooks’ most recent column, “Religious Liberty and Equality.”

In reality, it seems to us that the letters concern a different, more ancient subject. We’d almost be inclined to call it, “The rather plain superiority of Us as compared to Them.”

All eight letters take the same line. We expect to discuss them next week. Each writer is trying to be high-minded. How well do you think they succeed?

We aren’t suggesting that these are bad people—although, for our money, you could take the rabbi and the minister and you could pretty much shove them.

We aren’t suggesting that these are bad people. We feel perfectly sure that they aren’t. Our reaction was different from that. What do you think of those letters, which all seem to take the same view?

For those who prefer this newspaper’s coverage of the campaign which hasn’t exactly started yet, we recommend yesterday’s front-page report about Candidate Walker’s allergy to dogs and the possible political ramifications of same.

On March 21, the Times explored this same candidate’s accent and argot. Yesterday, our brightest newspaper considered the way he gets the sniffles from pets.

Back in 1993, we used to do a bit about President Clinton’s attempt to serve in the White House with a cat as a pet. In fairness to us, we did this at the Improv.

It can’t be done, we sagely implied—and even then, we were getting results! At the start of his second term, the president got him a dog.

Good solid thought-provoking sound analytical stuff: At one point, Jason Horowitz says this about presidential canines in the course of fleshing out the candidate’s obvious pickle:

HOROWITZ (4/1/15): Warren G. Harding’s Airedale, Laddie Boy, had his own chair at cabinet meetings. Republicans accused F.D.R. of sending a destroyer to the Aleutian Islands to pick up Fala, who had his own secretary. Richard M. Nixon may have saved his spot on the Eisenhower ticket in 1952 with his televised speech focusing on his daughters’ cocker spaniel, Checkers. And Lyndon B. Johnson appalled reporters by lifting his beagles, Him and Her, by their ears.

Candidates would be unwise to try that. It was often noted in 2012 that Mitt Romney once drove from Boston to Canada with the family Irish setter, Seamus, on the roof of the car.

Seamus survived. But presidential dogs have met their ends in poignant ways...

We don’t get it! “It was often noted that Romney once drove from Boston to Canada with the family Irish setter on the roof of the car?”

We don’t get it! How in the world could he have done that? And who would have written about it?

Yesterday was April Fools Day. Did that explain this latest hard-hitting front-page campaign report?