THE ESSENCE OF O'REILLY

Nicholas Lemann's article on America's favorite thin-skinned populist poseur contains this wonderfully definitive statement:

O’Reilly, like every political talk-show host with a big following, is a populist, who, in his beyond-irony way, is a rich, middle-aged white guy aligned with the ruling party, and who has the guts to stand up to the élitists who run (but also hate) this country. To say that that doesn’t make any sense is to deny oneself the pleasure that a close study of O’Reilly affords.