One of the best analysts I know makes a point of never voting! That’s Robert Schmuhl, Chairman of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Insights about the current and rather disheartening political scene abound in any extended conversation with this clear-eyed fellow who keeps his distance (the better to see behind their masks) from the pols and their acolytes. And here is just such a conversation  in which a good time was had by two old friends, the one still learning from the other.