Summers Tennis Watch Special!!!

FM has hit scouting paydirt: Leslie S. Jamison ’04 relayed to us a blow-by-blow account from her father, Dean T. Jamison, of a game with University President Lawrence H. Summers:

“‘It was the annual tournament for Larry’s research department at the World Bank, held at Breton Woods Recreation Center. Lined up on one side was the intellectual embodiment of the Washington Consensus: Larry Summers and his sidekick Lance Pritchett (now at the Kennedy School) and on the other side was the Empathetic Soft Left, represented by me and my son. In contrast to the rapidly acquired intellectual dominance of the Washington Consensus, the Empathetic Left held out through a long, bitterly fought match, ultimately, as in the real world of the nineties, to succumb to the sharper positioning, more aggressive volleys and sheer determination of the Washington Consensus. I think we lost that in five, if you want to get right down to it.’

“After conceding that Larry’s team had, in fact, played the better game, my dad paused and muttered: ‘I still wish we could have beaten the shit out of him.’

“In sum, ‘Larry is more of a presence—and more of a presence all over the court—than might have been expected, a priori. It was hard to get by him; he was a scrambler.’”

But now, with the FM term up, it appears we have been outscrambled. Ben M-L, Kenyon and Ben W. have not yet set sneakered foot on a court with the big guy. But hope springs eternal—we’ve fired off some more e-mails, made plans to hit office hours and generally plan to continue to do anything we can to get serve and volley with El Presidente. The Summers Tennis Watch continues...