Pursuits

Ben Wattenberg, Nicholas Winton, Jack Carter: Obits This Week

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This week’s notable deaths included a neoconservative Democrat who argued against his party’s move to the left after the Vietnam War; the man known as the “British Schindler” for saving Jewish children from Nazi concentration camps; and the stand-up comic whose caustic barbs aimed at politicians, celebrities and his own fans sustain him since the early days of U.S. television. Below are summaries of these obituaries.

Ben WattenbergBloomberg Terminal, 81. A speechwriter for President Lyndon Johnson, he was an author and host of a PBS television program about politics. In books such as “The Real Majority,” published in 1970, he unsuccessfully urged fellow Democrats to court white, middle-class, middle-aged voters. Instead, Republicans such as Richard Nixon won elections by appealing to the so-called silent majority. Died June 28 in Washington from complications of surgery.