Paul Rahe, currently at Hillsdale College, is an eminent scholar whose many books combine awesome erudition and bedrock common sense. He is also a member of the American Political Science Association and attended that organization’s annual convention in Washington over Labor Day weekend.

He reports on ricochet.com on what he found there — or, rather, didn’t find. There were more than 1,000 panels on a vast variety of subjects —but nothing on the presidency of Barack Obama or the upcoming 2014 elections.

Some subjects, it appears, are better left unspoken of.

Rahe notes that there were many panels on George W. Bush and his policies at this point in his administration, at the 2006 APSA convention.

The contrast is stunning. His conclusion: “It was eerie. It was as if there had been no Obama presidency. If I am right in my analysis, the complete absence of panels assessing Obama’s record is an indication that the academy now regards Obama as an indefensible embarrassment.”

David Broder, the nation’s pre-eminent political reporter for 40 years, used to attend APSA conventions in search of information and insight. Broder is no longer with us, but if he were and had attended this year’s APSA convention, it seems even he would have left empty-handed.