It was the lament of Job — or at least one of them — and is asked with no less frequency today, in response to circumstances ranging from devastating loss and grief to the typical hardships of a trying job or a long winter.
This is a question that, it seems to me, is asked with increasing frequency, as senior figures once uniformly knotted at the neck – politicians, business leaders, media grandees – attempt to signal their man-of-the-people credentials by appearing in public with their collars open.
"If they cannot get prisoners to court at the right time, how can we expect them to run the entire administration, the entire state -- to establish a new order in Iraq?" The question of whether the Americans can transform Iraq is asked with increasing frequency.
Often it is "asked" with a hesitant, even an apologetic tone, as in, I don't really want to suggest it, and obviously I raise it reluctantly because I know how it will seem (subtext: I don't want you to think I'm in any remote way misogynistic) but all the same, is she up to it?
The universal question of "how could anyone let this happen" is asked with a variety of targets in mind: the governor, HBCU boards and presidents are the usual victims of the inquiry.
When the public is asked about Clinton on her own, without mention of any other possible candidate in vision, her "very favorable" rating is lower than it is when she is asked with a group of possible candidates.
