National Review’s Reihan Salam hearts Brendan Doherty
September 27th, 2012 at 12:52 pm by Ted Nesi under Nesi's Notes, On the Main Site
Reihan Salam, one of the sharpest intellectuals of the present-day political right, has a soft spot for Brendan Doherty.
“I think @Doherty2012 is my favorite Republican congressional candidate,” Salam, who’s writing about Doherty’s campaign to unset David Cicilline, wrote Thursday in a tweet. “Seems exceptionally smart and thoughtful, but he’s in a tough race.”
Salam, 32, is a contributing editor at National Review and lead editor of the magazine’s influential blog The Agenda. He previously worked as New York Times columnist David Brooks’ editorial researcher and co-authored the book “Grand New Party” with another Times columnist, Ross Douthat. And yes, he’s linked to Nesi’s Notes.
The tweet makes this a funny flashback: “Votes don’t expect Doherty to become Reihan Salam, but they do expect a certain level of familiarity with federal issues; say what you will about David Cicilline, but the congressman knows his stuff (and his talking points).”
(photo: Wikipedia)
Tags: 1st Congressional District, brendan doherty, campaign 2012, reihan salam
Nesi's Notes covers politics and the economy in and around Rhode Island for WPRI.com. (Twitter: 
It’s hard to imagine anyone listening to Doherty could think he’s heavy on the issues and “smart and thoughtful”.
Every time I’ve heard him speak on the issues he sounded like he just got an index card on them last night and was cramming to study. That’s not to say that I don’t think Doherty could be very smart and thoughtful. My perception is more that he hasn’t been particularly engaged or deep on matters of federal policy throughout his life and has a ton of catching up to do.
I have heard some of the best public speakers, being the best BS’ers…. Sounds like you vote on a persons looks as well.
I guess the standard for “sharpest intellectuals of the present-day political right” puts the ” exceptionally smart” comment in context. Sort of like Anthony Gemma saying that David Cicilline is “exceptionally tall”.