It's Edwards!

It wasn’t quite “Dewey Defeats Truman,” but the New York Post has egg on its face this morning. The paper’s cover story announced that John Kerry was about to select Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt as his running mate. A few hours later, Kerry did indeed announce a running mate, but it wasn’t Gephardt. Instead, it was the populist Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards. The Post had quoted “unnamed sources,” but it is hard to imagine that the right-leaning New York tabloid is any Democratic insider’s first call. More likely, the Dems were having a little joke at the Post’s expense.

According to news reports over the last week, three candidates were at the top of Kerry’s list: Edwards, Gephardt, and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. It’s hard for me to see how Vilsack ever made it that far. I’m sure he’s a competent governor, but he’s virtually unknown outside of his home state. Collective yawns would have greeted his appointment, and more yawning is the last thing the Kerry campaign needed.

The choice between Gephardt and Edwards was a lot tougher. Gephardt is a seasoned national campaigner, and there’s little doubt he would be a capable President if something happened to Kerry. After more than twenty years in the spotlight, it’s unlikely Gephardt would commit a major blunder, and it’s equally unlikely that any surprises are lurking in his background. If ever the words “squeaky clean” applied to anyone, it’s Gephardt. He also polls strongly with the union voters who could help Kerry capture the midwestern industrial states that the Democrats must win to beat Bush. Lastly, Gephardt hails from Missouri, which practically defines the phrase “bellweather state.” No one since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956 has won the Presidency without winning Missouri.

But Gephardt is often singularly unexciting — just as Kerry is. He has trouble turning on an audience, unless it is an audience of people who are already rabid supporters. Those aren’t the supporters Kerry needs; they’re voting for him already. Gephardt has polled poorly both times he ran for President, and there’s a good reason for it. The political influence of union households has been waning for the last twenty years, and most non-union Americans perceive Gephardt as being far too liberal. Among many conservative-leaning and undecided voters, the prospect of a Vice President Gephardt wouldn’t be a happy thought.

Edwards, on the other hand, brings to the campaign the excitement, charisma, and energy that Kerry so often lacks. Recent test polls suggested that, among the plausible VP choices, only Edwards would boost Kerry’s standing with undecided voters. Edwards has already polled well in the midwestern state of Iowa, where his unexpected 2nd-place showing in the January caucuses first propelled him to national attention. His populist image should help Kerry in key midwestern states where the economy has not recovered as rapidly as it has done elsewhere. Edwards also waged a remarkably civil campaign during the primary season. He seldom criticized Kerry directly, and his views are similar to Kerry’s on most issues.

By choosing Edwards, a southerner, Kerry has signaled that the Democrats don’t intend to write off the South. But can Edwards actually pull any southern states into the Democratic column? Recent polls have suggested that a handful of southern states could be in play, but no poll has actually shown Kerry leading in any of them. VP nominees are seldom relevant to the race anywhere but in their home state, and and it is far from certain that Kerry can win either of the Carolinas, even with Edwards on the ticket. Few men have won the Presidency without winning the VP’s home state (Nixon in 1968 was the last to do it), and few VP nominees have had significant influence on the race elsewhere (Johnson in 1960 may have been the only one who did).

Republicans are sure to point out Edwards’s comparatively shallow resume. After a long and lucrative career as a trial lawyer, Edwards was elected to the Senate and has served a single term. That is the extent of his political career. Lack of experience has never prevented anyone from getting elected Vice President — just ask Spiro Agnew or Dan Quayle — but in an era when war and global terrorism dominate the agenda, Edwards’s lack of international experience looks like a gaping hole in his credentials. He will need to study hard, to avoid getting smoked when he debates Dick Cheney.

The Presidential race has been a statistical tie for months now, with Bush and Kerry polling around 45% apiece. Just 10% of the voters prefer another candidate (typically Nader) or are undecided. This is a lower undecided percentage than is typical for this stage of the race. It suggests what many pundits have recognized — that the race is polarized, with far more Americans than usual having already made up their minds. This month, culminating in the Democratic National Convention in Boston, is Kerry’s last good chance to put some distance between himself and Bush. The President can reasonably be expected to dominate the month of August, leading up to the Republican national Convention around Labor Day. If Kerry hopes to win, he needs to have and hold a lead by then. Historically, the candidate with a Labor Day lead nearly always goes on to win in November.

Although there was no absolutely safe choice, Edwards represented Kerry’s best chance to put some juice into a race that has been stagnant since Kerry wrapped up the nomination in March. As another batch of polls comes out late in the week, we’ll find out if he has succeeded. My bet is that he has.

davidburke & donatella

Note: Click here for a more recent review of this restaurant, which has been renamed David Burke Townhouse.

The restaurant davidburke & donatella is the creation of chef David Burke and colleague Donatella Arpaia, who minds the front-of-house. Burke made his name cooking in other people’s restaurants (Park Avenue Cafe) before opening this restaurant with his friend Donatella late last year. A friend and I visited on Saturday night. It is the best two-star restaurant I’ve been to, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it gunning for three if a re-review comes along.

It’s a beautiful space, decorated with the kind of wit that you find in Burke’s inventive menu. There are two dining rooms, and we were seated in the larger of the two. It seems the owners were determined to use every inch of available space, as there was barely room to navigate between the closely-spaced tables. It was hard to hear over the din.

When we sat down, a folded paper menu was on our plates. This was the day’s tasting menu — five courses, $75. It was a typeset menu, on top of which Burke had scribbled additional daily specials and witty artwork. I was tempted, but my friend was not, so we moved onto the main menu, which our server came by and handed out.

Bread arrives — cooked in its own copper casserole, and steaming hot. The butter comes as a modern art sculpture that you almost regret cutting into. There wasn’t quite enough time to appreciate this before the amuse-bouche, a small confection of salmon ribbons.

To start, I ordered the foie gras and lobster appetizer. It came in two hollowed-out egg shells, each with its own tiny little spoon. My friend had the gazpacho, which came with a shrimp profiterole and a mound of guacamole.

I had read about the origins of Burke’s “Bronx” veal chop on eGullet (it’s a cut Burke invented), and I had to give that a try. The difficulty with this dish is that the chop itself is an awkward shape, and it’s a struggle to find an anchor point for your fork. It was a tasty piece of veal, but I don’t like to fight fight for my food. My friend had the pork chop, which I tasted. It had a wonderful char and was perfectly tender.

The wine list is a confusing jumble. Within the standard categories (red/white), the wines are grouped by degrees — that is, each of the main headings is a number with the little “degree” symbol. Was this the degrees latitude where the grape was grown? The temperature at which the wine is stored? We could not tell. It is also a pricey list, and we struggled to find a good choice in our range. Finally we asked the sommelier for a suitable choice under $60 a bottle, and he produced an off-the-menu shiraz at $55 that we were pleased with.

db&d is known for its desserts. The table next to us were friends of pastry chef James Distefano, and they got a free sample of everything on the menu. You would have to carry me home if I ate that much dessert, but it certainly gave us an idea of the range of creativity on offer here. I had the Coconut Layer Cake, my friend the Dark Chocolate & Praline Torte, which were both winners.

David Burke himself seemed to have a few friends in the house last night, as he came out of the kitchen several times to greet diners. I expected a light turnout, given that it is a holiday weekend, but the restaurant was packed. However, we got an 8:00pm reservation that I called for only on Wednesday, which perhaps wouldn’t be available on an ordinary weekend.

There is much to appreciate at db&d, and on one visit I thought we had barely scratched the surface. I will have to return.

davidburke & donatella (133 E. 61st Street between Park & Lexington Avenues, Upper East Side)

Fiddler on the Roof

Last night, a friend and I looked in on the revival of Fiddler on the Roof at the Minskoff Theatre. In my view, Fiddler is one of the great Broadway masterpieces of the twentieth century. It has seldom been equaled, and it has never been surpassed. The current production is in many ways problematic, but the material is indestructible, and despite whatever quibbles I may have, it still moves an audience as few shows can.

Like all great art, Fiddler succeeds on many levels. It is, of course, a compelling story, full of vivid characters and emotional situations that strike us as intimately personal and genuine. But it is also about the end of a civilization. Within a generation, Russian Jewish villages like Anatevka were obliterated. Fiddler ends with its characters’ hopes of making it to America, but we know that not all of them did. Those not fortunate enough to make it out of Europe most likely fell victim to Stalin’s pogroms or Hitler’s gas chambers. Fiddler’s characters don’t know what the future holds for them, but we do, and it is not a pretty thought.

Fiddler is also about the conflict between tradition and modernity. At the center of it is Tevye, as orthodox a Jew as any, but also curiously open-minded. Fiddler opens with a solo violin:

It’s no accident that this is the daughters’ theme from “Tradition” (“And who does mamma teach…”). It’s their rebellion against tradition that animates the story. The theme is repeated, with the pappas’ theme against it in counterpoint:

How many people have listened to this opening without realizing that it’s a musical evocation of the conflict between daughters and fathers?

Fiddler ends quietly, with a repeat of the daughters’ theme, but the meaning is ambiguous. Are we meant to feel optimism for the future, or to be in tears for what has been lost? Perhaps it’s a bit of both. In the current production, the fiddler hands his violin to a small boy, who bows and leaves Anatevka, while the fiddler stays put. The message, at the very least, is that the tradition is now in the hands of a new generation. But the audience knows of the coming cataclysm that the little boy does not. He seems to leave the stage happy, or at least hopeful. Can we share his dreams? I am unable to.

Alfred Molina got mixed reviews for his Tevye, but he’s had four months to grow into the role. As now presented, it is a warm, sensitive, naturalistic portrayal — unlike Zero Mostel, whom I never saw, but whom I’m told was a larger-than-life storybook character. I thought Molina was a bit too ingratiating in “Tradition.” There was a “please love us” attitude that, had it persisted, would quickly have become cloying. But after that number, Molina settled in for a more nuanced performance that quickly won me over.

Most of the men get high marks, although John Cariani’s stammering impersonation of the tailor Motel was a one-joke performance that outwore its welcome.

None of the women’s roles really worked. Tevye’s five daughters seemed interchangeable, and I had trouble telling them apart. Randy Graff’s Golde lacked warmth, and Nancy Opel’s Yente seemed more Shaker Heights than Shtetl.

The production credits David Leveaux as director, with choreography still credited to the original director, Jerome Robbins. Exactly how much Robbins is left I can’t say. The big production numbers (“To Life,” “Sabbath Prayer,” Tevye’s Dream, “Sunrise, Sunset,” the bottle dance) all worked well. “Far From the Home I Love” had a simplicity that made a direct emotional connection, but elsewhere the production had a clinical chill that failed to find the soul of the story. Three of Tevye’s daughters fall in love, and not one of their relationships was believable. The problem was at its most obvious during “Do You Love Me?” Tevye and Golde stood fifteen feet apart for the entire number, never making physical contact — or indeed, even eye contact. When the answer to the question posed by the song is “Yes,” it would seem obvious that this staging was monumentally misguided.

These misgivings aside, Fiddler is still a can’t-miss proposition. I had my doubts about this revival, given all I had read, but I was glad I saw it, especially for Alfred Molina’s Tevye, which is worth the price of admission.

The Tunnel to Nowhere

Of all the rebuilding projects proposed for Lower Manhattan, perhaps none has generated so little enthusiasm as the West Street tunnel. The New York State Department of Transportation — backed by Governor Pataki, but hardly anyone else — proposes to build a four-lane tunnel along West Street, between Vesey and Albany Streets, leaving four lanes at ground level.

The origins of the project can be found in the early design concepts for the World Trade Center site, dating from the summer of 2002. Although widely derided as uninspired, one idea from these first designs caught the public’s imagination: turning West Street into a tree-lined promenade resembling Paris’s Champs-Elysée. For that to be possible, much of the traffic along the highway would need to be routed underground.

As first conceived, the promenade would have run from Chambers Street all the way down to the Battery. But as the staggering costs of such a long tunnel became apparent, it was shortened into what is now the present proposal: a tunnel that runs for just a bit more than the length of the World Trade Center site. The purported aim is to reduce the amount of at-grade traffic adjacent to the memorial, but there would still be four lanes at ground level to allow access to local streets. The project would cost $860 million, and would tie up the West Side Highway for years, blocking both pedestrian and vehicular access to Battery Park City.

A group called Taxpayers for Common Sense has cited the West Street tunnel as one of the 27 most wasteful highway projects in America. That’s because the alternative — widening West Street to eight lanes at-grade — could be done for just $175 million. The savings of almost $700 million could be appropriated for the downtown JFK rail link, a far worthier project that is as yet unfunded, and has considerably more community support.

Neither of the tunnel’s alleged benefits makes much sense. The first is to provide an “appropriate and respectful” setting for the memorial, but as there would still be four lanes at ground level, I hardly see how this would be achieved. The other is to provide better pedestrian access to the memorial, but this could be done with bridges passing over the roadway, as was the case before 9/11. In addition, a pedestrian tunnel below West Street is already part of the WTC site plan. All in all, pedestrians will have plenty of safe routes to cross West Street without the need for any tunnel.

The tunnel has plenty of commuity opposition. Rep. Jerrold Nadler, Sen. Charles Schumer, New York City Council Member Alan J. Gerson, New York State Assemblymembers Sheldon Silver and Deborah Glick, New York State Senator Martin Connor, Manhattan Borough President C. Virginia Fields, Community Board #1, the American Automobile Association of New York, the Civic Alliance to Rebuild Downtown, the Regional Plan Association, the Coalition to Save West Street, NYPIRG-Straphangers, and the Tri-State Transportation Campaign (TSTC), are among those opposing or seriously questioning it.

According to the TSTC, at a recent public hearing there were 31 speakers, and all but one opposed the project. (The speaker in favor represented a coalition of construction workers.)

Our elected officials have generally made good decisions about the rebuilding process, but this project is a turkey.