George Packer's Blog, page 159

West Elm Gets into Hotels and Gender Politics

Jim Brett, the president of West Elm, the furniture chain that sells what you might call mainstream modern furniture, was looking for the brand’s next act. He didn’t think he’d find it at the mall; West Elm already has more than a hundred stores. Children’s furniture might have been a logical next step, but it is burdened by complex safety regulations. Where else do lots of people sleep and sit? Brett, a frequent traveller, had spent countless nights in sterile, unwelcoming rooms. Hotels seemed like a good opportunity.

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The Limits of Protest in Charlotte
North Carolina Republicans vs. N.C.A.A. Basketball
Southern Trouble for Donald Trump?

Iran’s Presidential Election Will Also Be Pivotal—and Ahmadinejad Won’t Be Running

Last spring, in small towns and mosques across Iran, former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Islamic Republic’s leading populist, began campaigning to “redefine revolutionary ideals.” He condemned his successor, Hassan Rouhani, as “incompetent” and chastised his government for last year’s historic nuclear deal with the world’s six major powers. The momentum behind Ahmadinejad picked up this summer, as did his favorability rating. “God willing, victory and a very bright future await us,” he told a crowd of several hundred in Tehran last month. There may be “bumps and Satanic obstacles in our path,” he conceded, calling on supporters to “work energetically in the provinces,” where he still has mass appeal.

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Iran’s Javad Zarif on the Fraying Nuclear Deal, U.S. Relations, and Holocaust Cartoons
An Iranian Opposition Leader Pushes to Be Put on Trial
How to Vote in Iran

Clinton, Trump, and the Fate of Debate

“I would like to propose that we transform our circus-atmosphere presidential campaign into a great debate conducted in full view of all the people,” Adlai Stevenson wrote in This Week, in 1959, calling for regular half-hour debates between the candidates during the final eight weeks of the campaign. Congress held hearings, after which Stevenson got more or less what he was asking for, when Nixon met Kennedy in a television studio on September 26, 1960. Did it change the American Presidential campaign from a circus to a debate? No. But there have been tiny bursts of actual argument here and there.

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Hillary Turns Trump Into Mitt Romney

“Donald was one of the people who rooted for the housing crisis,” Hillary Clinton said during the Presidential debate last night, on Long Island. “He said, back in 2006, ‘Gee, I hope it does collapse, because then I can go in and buy some and make some money.’ Well, it did collapse.” At this, Trump interjected, “That’s called business, by the way.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Problem with Trump Isn’t His Debating Skills
Hillary Clinton’s Miss Universe Moment
The First Debate of the Twitter Election

Donald Trump, a Failed Bully in His Debate with Clinton

“I think my strongest asset, maybe by far, is my temperament,” Donald Trump said in the first Presidential debate, at Hofstra University, on Long Island, on Monday night. “I have a winning temperament. I know how to win.” On the split screen, his opponent, Hillary Clinton, looked amused, as she did through much of the debate. She appeared to think that she was winning; on balance, she was right. Lester Holt, of NBC, the moderator, tried to turn to Clinton, but Trump stopped him. He had more to say about this temperament thing.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Problem with Trump Isn’t His Debating Skills
Hillary Clinton’s Miss Universe Moment
The First Debate of the Twitter Election

Hillary Clinton Brings Out the Real Donald Trump

“Words matter when you run for President,” Hillary Clinton said toward the end of Monday night’s happening at Hofstra University, on Long Island. Clinton was criticizing Donald Trump for his loose language regarding America’s allies in Asia, but she could have been summing up the lopsided debate, which saw her doing virtually everything she needed to do while Trump indicted himself with his own words.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Problem with Trump Isn’t His Debating Skills
Hillary Clinton’s Miss Universe Moment
The First Debate of the Twitter Election

Andrew Cuomo and the Corruption of Albany

Andrew Cuomo, New York’s governor, can be grateful that the lowest moment of his tenure took place on a busy news day last week. While the nation was preoccupied with the Presidential election and the aftermath of a police shooting in Charlotte, Cuomo’s best friend, who has also been one of his closest political advisers, was arrested on charges related to what is allegedly a seedy corruption scheme that took place right under the governor’s nose.

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The Real Scandal of Hillary Clinton’s E-Mails
The Paradox of Brazil and Its Olympiad

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Through the Years

With the Presidential election entering its final stretch, we’ve flipped (and clicked) through The New Yorker’s archive of artwork depicting both major-party candidates. Here, we present the fifty most interesting images we found, in chronological order.  The magazine’s first visual reference to Donald Trump came in 1983, in a James Stevenson cartoon about Trump Tower, which was completed that year. Clinton is first mentioned in a Michael Crawford cartoon in 1992, during her husband’s first campaign for President. From there, both Trump and Clinton have been featured on and in dozens of covers, sketchbooks, spot illustrations, cartoons, and featured art. Clinton’s first appearances focus on her clothes and her comments about wanting to pursue her own professional goals, instead of having a life in which she “stayed home and baked cookies.” Later, she’s portrayed as a politically active—and politically adept—First Lady. As Connie Bruck wrote in her 1994 Profile, “Hillary the Pol,” Clinton “has shown a remarkable resiliency and a willingness to reposition herself as many times as necessary to get the job done—her way.” We see Clinton campaigning to become a Senator, serving as Secretary of State, and, most recently, on the trail as a Presidential candidate. The magazine’s depictions of Clinton have changed dramatically over the years. By comparison, Trump’s presentation has stayed essentially unchanged. Mark Singer, in his 1997 Profile, “Trump Solo,” wrote, “Of course, the ‘comeback’ Trump is much the same as the Trump of the eighties”—a man who “lives in a zero-sum world of winners and ‘total losers,’ loyal friends and ‘complete scumbags.’ “ Whether in a cartoon or on the magazine’s cover, Trump has been portrayed over the years as a sensationalist figure, whose antics and hair styles always figure prominently. No matter the outcome in November, this archive of work is sure to grow in the months and years to come.

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CNN Launches Manhunt After Lester Holt Vanishes from Debate
“Making Change” at the Global Citizen Music Festival
Andrew Cuomo and the Corruption of Albany

Twelve Debate Questions That Hillary Clinton Should Be Ready For

The first Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is tonight. It comes at a time when the polls are close and there’s a sense that almost anything can happen. Given that uncertainty, here are twelve questions that Clinton should be ready to parry, whether from the moderator, Lester Holt, or from her unpredictable and factually untethered opponent. The list is not exhaustive—there should also be questions on everything from climate change and the Black Lives Matter movement to reproductive rights—but it may identify some land mines.

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Related:
CNN Launches Manhunt After Lester Holt Vanishes from Debate
Afternoon Cartoon: Monday, September 26th
Presidential-Debate Questions from Facebook Users

The Presidential Debate Is Clinton’s Chance to Outfox Trump

If the late philosopher Isaiah Berlin were alive to watch Monday night’s Presidential debate, he would surely recognize the ways in which the two candidates on the stage personify his famous metaphor of hedgehogs and foxes. In Berlin’s terms, Donald Trump is a classic hedgehog. He knows, or claims to know, one big thing: the United States and the world are going to hell in a handbasket, and they need a strong man like him to fix things. Hillary Clinton, by contrast, is one of Berlin’s foxes. She knows many things.

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Why Ted Cruz Surrendered to Donald Trump
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