Elizabeth Drew on the 2016 Campaign

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 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 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 Big Bush Question

Though Jeb Bush set out to run for president with the line, “I am my own man,” he has discovered that being George W’s brother is quite a burden.

October 21, 2015

Congress: The Implacables

Though the turmoil over the House leadership will end at some point, and there will be a presidential election in November 2016, less clear is whether this country will be governable.

October 9, 2015

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