Columns, pieces and posts
We’re in a funny moment. Those who do politics for a living, some of them quite brilliant, are struggling to comprehend the central fact of the Republican primary race, while regular people have already absorbed what has happened and is happening. Journalists and politicos have been sharing schemes for how Marco parlays a victory out […]
What is happening in American politics? We’re in the midst of a rebellion. The bottom and middle are pushing against the top. It’s a throwing off of old claims and it’s been going on for a while, but we’re seeing it more sharply after New Hampshire. This is not politics as usual, which by its […]
The president has every right to nominate a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia. He shouldn’t, but he has the right by law and precedent. The reasons he shouldn’t spring from facts particular to the moment and having to do with what Justice Scalia symbolized. In a 50/50 country, one that suffers deep ideological divisions and […]
You’ve heard all the Iowa analysis you need. It was a triumph for Cruz, a humbling for Trump, a boost for Rubio. We’re all tired of talking about lanes, outsiders and establishment candidates. My read: Marco Rubio may emerge as the choice of those who prefer their candidate not be abnormal, by which I mean […]
Nashua, N.H. I was watching Bernie Sanders speak last week at a town hall in Bedford when an early intuition became a conviction: Take Mr. Sanders seriously. He is not just another antic presence in Crazy Year 2016. His rise signifies a major shift within the Democratic Party. The big room was full, 700 to […]
Sarah Palin’s public performances continue to be distinctive. Her endorsement of Donald Trump was less speech than podium jazz scat, with some early Elvis thrown in. “Trump’s candidacy, it has exposed not just that tragic, the ramifications of that betrayal of a transformation of our country, but too, he has exposed the complicity on both […]
This isn’t what the column’s about, but should be said: It was strange Tuesday night to see the Republican chosen to give the State of the Union response go after the front-runner in her party’s presidential primary. But then this is a strange year. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said that during “anxious times,” the […]
What everyone’s waiting for is the winnowing. New Hampshire and Iowa will force some Republican candidates out. When we know who’s still in we’ll have a surer sense of the contours of the race. It is still true that the party has never had a year like this, with the ground shifting beneath its feet. […]
In 2016—soon, in just about a month—we’ll find out if Donald Trump voters vote. They say they’re voters and not just rally-goers. In Iowa on Feb. 1 and New Hampshire on Feb. 9, we’ll know if it’s a movement or a moment. We are going to learn a lot pretty quickly. In the next few […]
A long time ago in a country far, far away, America had less of everything and holidays were easier and more modest. Only 50 and 60 years ago, well within human memory, Christmas was a plainer, simpler affair. Everyone—even the rich, but certainly the poor and in-between—had less. Because America had less. You’d get a […]