Election 2016

Down Goes Trump

Trump’s campaign was designed to be another tool for promoting himself, but it may turn out to have been the ruin of his popular image.

October 25, 2016

On the Election—IV

One way to evaluate people, a way not often given enough importance, is by a human test of the company they keep.

April 26, 2024 issue

On the Election—III

This year’s election is not about economics. Yet economics is at the heart of the matter.

April 26, 2024 issue

On the Election—II

A struggle for political power in which, for once, all is at stake

April 26, 2024 issue

On the Election—I

What is to be done about the Republican Party?

April 26, 2024 issue

Trump at War

Last weekend was probably the most disturbing and extraordinary one in all of presidential campaign history

October 11, 2016

The Candidates Laid Bare

What was different about the first debate of this election—the most-watched presidential debate ever—is that it was more revealing about character and characteristics of the two nominees than any debate in modern history.

September 29, 2016

Headwinds for Clinton

Within the space of less than two weeks the political talk switched from Clinton having a possibly unbreakable grip on the Electoral College vote to how much Trump has gained on her. How did this happen?

September 16, 2016

The Fall Contest

Trump and Clinton began the post-Labor Day campaign with a number of awkward and major unresolved questions hanging over their candidacies and with only nine weeks for each campaign to convince the country that their candidate should be president.

September 7, 2016

As Low as It Gets

Trump may lose, but the causes of his rise will linger

April 26, 2024 issue

Hillary vs. Donald

A Clinton victory in an election in which a majority express mistrust of either candidate won’t be easy to interpret, whatever the margin

April 26, 2024 issue

Making Clinton Real

Past candidates have had their weak points, but it is the very unusual situation of Hillary Clinton that just as she has reached the pinnacle of her political career she’s also at her most unpopular.

July 30, 2016

The End of Republicanism?

Put aside the huge implications of such a shift for global security. Trump is turning his back on decades of Republican Party doctrine.

July 24, 2016

Party of Rage

Those who’ve been uneasy about Trump’s apparent authoritarian instincts received no comfort from this acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention.

July 22, 2016

Reality TV in Cleveland

Initial TV ratings suggested viewers had not exactly thrilled to the first episode of Cleveland’s Trump show. He has seemed determined to show that he is unbound by the standards of basic political competence.

July 19, 2016

Candidates vs. Themselves

This week the two major-party presidential candidates came face to face with their deepest and possibly fatal flaws.

July 10, 2016

Trump's Tipping Point?

Usually we don’t know an election’s turning point until after it’s over. Yet it’s altogether possible that for the 2016 contest that time is now.

June 21, 2016

Why Trump Was Inevitable

He was already very close to being the inevitable nominee in January 2016

April 26, 2024 issue

Trump's Hidden Core

As a potential president, Donald Trump presents us with dilemmas and difficulties we’ve never faced before: his behavior is so out of line with what’s expected, and yet we don’t know what lies at the core of that behavior.

June 9, 2016

Red and Blue Agony

Current signs are that both Clinton and Trump will run races for the presidency aimed not so much at winning them as at causing their opponent to lose. And a great many citizens are left to choose which candidate they dislike less.

May 26, 2016

The Magic of Donald Trump

We are told again and again: his is the most improbable political story in decades, perhaps in history. And yet…

April 26, 2024 issue

Trump’s Long Game

The overarching question is whether Trump’s approach to landing the nomination will work as well for him in the general election.

May 6, 2016

2016: Whose Rules?

With finalists in both parties questioning the legitimacy of the presidential nominating process, the 2016 election is once again presenting the country a hitherto unimagined spectacle.

April 20, 2016

Trump’s Putin Fantasy

Few foreign leaders seem enthusiastic about the prospect of a Donald Trump presidency. But there is one who should be pleased: Vladimir Putin. Or so Trump seems to think.

April 19, 2016

Why Goldman Matters

Hillary Clinton’s repeated dealings with Goldman Sachs and its top executives since the financial crisis—including the 2013 speeches and more recent events involving the Clinton Foundation—run counter to her public criticisms of Wall Street.

April 12, 2016

Can He Be Stopped?

The Trump campaign keeps barreling forward

April 26, 2024 issue

2016: What We Now Know

In an election year in which almost nothing could be anticipated, at least the crucial contests in the first half of March have provided the expected turning point in this year’s primary season.

March 17, 2016

Hillary & Women

Clinton’s record as an advocate for women is distinctly uneven

April 26, 2024 issue

How Did This Happen?

The first half of March 2016 may well go down as the turning point in this election and one of the most consequential periods in the history of nomination politics.

March 9, 2016

The Trump Questions

The probably unstoppable candidacy of Donald Trump—who won seven states on this so-called Super Tuesday—bears witness to the broad rebellion against the Republican Party establishment.

March 2, 2016

The Dangerous Election

The strangest and least predictable presidential campaign we’ve ever seen

April 26, 2024 issue

The Election Pileup

And so the race for the nominations of each party for the presidency gives signs perhaps of soon settling into one between Clinton and Trump. Meanwhile, the Senate and the public are at this moment awaiting the president’s nomination to the Supreme Court and are settling in for a noisy and consequential battle.

February 22, 2016

Clinton's Big Problem

In the first two contests for the Democratic and Republican party nominations, in Iowa and New Hampshire, the voters’ choices reflect early indications that they’re rejecting the “establishment.”

February 10, 2016

The Clinton System

Few have been as adept at exploiting big-money politics as Bill and Hillary Clinton. It is important to consider how they built their powerful donor machine, and what its existence might mean for Hillary Clinton’s future conduct as American president.

January 30, 2016

The Frustration Campaign

A revolution is taking place in our presidential campaign. The center isn’t holding and both parties are so deeply divided as to raise the question of whether any victor will be able to govern.

January 14, 2016

The Sanders Revolt

The least understood strand of Bernie Sanders’s radicalism has been his ability to organize the shrinking middle class, both white- and blue-collar, the working and non-working poor, as well as young, first-time voters with large student-loan debts into a previously unrecognized constituency.

December 23, 2015

Very Improbable Candidates

April 26, 2024 issue

Trump

Conservative resentment and spectacle made flesh

April 26, 2024 issue

2016: From Peculiar to Worrisome

The presidential campaign has gone from peculiar to worrisome. This isn’t only because of who’s ahead in the polls at the moment, but also what an accumulation of polls and anecdotal evidence tell us about the state of the electorate, and what that portends.

August 20, 2015

2016: The Peculiar Election

There are numerous uncertainties about what will happen on November 8 of 2016, but one thing is not in doubt: it will be a very peculiar election, and not just because there are, as of now, so many candidates.

June 16, 2015

The Hillary in Our Future

Peter Schweizer’s ‘Clinton Cash: The Untold Story of How and Why Foreign Governments and Businesses Helped Make Bill and Hillary Rich’

April 26, 2024 issue

How Money Runs Our Politics

The drift away from representational government

April 26, 2024 issue

Don’t Run, Elizabeth!

Elizabeth Warren has better things to do than the ventures into lyrical nonsense that running for president entails.

May 12, 2015

Big Dangers for the Next Election

Three factors that could decide the outcome of a presidential race are being overlooked

April 26, 2024 issue

2016: The Republicans Write

Six recent books by announced or likely Republican presidential contenders

April 26, 2024 issue

Now We Face 2016!

In the twilight of the Barack Obama era

April 26, 2024 issue