Michiko rocks

Great critics are very rare. In the New York Times, which I peruse daily, there is only one whom I read without fail, and rarely with disappointment: Michiko Kakutani. It is not only because I agree with her taste in books; nor is it merely because she appears to be as smart as her dad, beloved of all economists of my generation for his fixed point theorem; it is also because she can write a turn of phrase like this, capturing the very essence of Bill Clinton in seven words: "freewheeling policy wonk and genial retail politician." Nifty.