I loved this story, which opens Jonah Goldberg’s weekly Dispatch newsletter. Not only did I laugh, but it feels deep to me in a way that I can’t put my finger on.
Years ago, when Boris Yeltsin was still president of Russia, he was asked by a reporter if he could summarize the state of the Russian economy in “one word.”
Yeltsin thought for a moment, and then said, “Good.”
People chuckled. The reporter asked a follow-up: “Perhaps Mr. President you could expand on that? Could you use two words?”
Yeltsin pondered for a long moment and then said, “Not good.”