Noemie Emery is one of the most interesting political writers today. She has a David Brooksish ability to display the inner connections between politics, personality, and culture, all with a sharp historical sensibility. She is not nearly so entertaining a writer as Brooks, but more profound. Consider this superb passage from the September 15 issue of The Weekly Standard, in which Emery argues that Schwarzenegger has the opportunity to revive both the California Republican Party and the Kennedy family’s political fortunes:

The great charm of Schwartzenegger is that he plays against type. The Kennedys are much too conspicuously a tribe of inheritors, generations removed from their sources of energy. Arnold returns them to their entrepreneurial, and even their immigrant, roots. He is rich, but not from trust funds. A millionaire even before he went into the movies, his record of dipping into and cashing out on a number of ventures recalls the career of Joseph P. Kennedy, and in some ways repeats it, without the shady connections. In fact, much about him recalls Joseph P. Kennedy — the huge goals envisioned and held over decades, the reinventions, the fascination with money and power — minus appeasement, and with better political instincts. In his book on the Adamses, Richard Brookshier defines the tag-ends of the dynasty — Brooks and Henry — as being descendants by nature and temperament. Schwartzenegger thinks like a founder. It shows.