John Cassidy's Blog, page 27

Obama’s Defining Attack on Trump and Trumpism

This morning, I took a mental-health break from coverage of the attack that took place in Orlando over the weekend. But, at lunchtime, when I turned on NY1 to check the local news, there was President Obama, looking as ticked off and impassioned as we’ve ever seen him. Gone were the lofty detachment and professorial tone that sometimes characterize his oration. In their place were flashing eyes, hand gestures, and a tone that varied from urgency to anger. Speaking for about twenty-five minutes, Obama delivered a ringing defense of his approach to terrorism and a stinging denouncement of Donald Trump and all that he stands for.

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Published on June 14, 2016 16:36

Donald Trump Steps on His Own Inflammatory Speech

After months of running his mouth freely, Donald Trump has evidently hired a proper speechwriter. Coming a day after the horrific attack in Orlando, the address that he delivered in Goffstown, New Hampshire, on Monday afternoon was misleading, malevolent, and inflammatory. But it was also pointed, clear, and carefully tailored to contrast Trump’s bellicose stance on terrorism with the measured response of Hillary Clinton, who, speaking in Cleveland earlier that day, had called for unity, vigilance, outreach to Muslims, and reform of gun-control laws.

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Published on June 14, 2016 06:20

Gun Laws and Terrorism: An American Nightmare

On Sunday, around lunchtime, I took my two daughters and our puppy to a dog park in Brooklyn Heights, near the East River. It was a fine, breezy day, and throngs of people were strolling along the raised promenade, which provides a view of New York Harbor and downtown Manhattan. With Americans of all colors and creeds enjoying the sunshine, I felt like I was in an urban version of a Norman Rockwell painting.

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Published on June 13, 2016 07:05

How to Feel the G.O.P.’s Pain Over Donald Trump

This post is something of a public-service announcement for liberals and Democrats: I’ve discovered a new guilty pleasure that you might want to get in on. It’s perfectly legal and harmless; the main source of the guilt is that it can become compulsive. All you need is an Internet-connected Web browser. Then fire it up and type into the search box “Donald Trump” and “Republican Party.”

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Published on June 09, 2016 16:41

Hillary Clinton Makes History

Eight years to the day after she delivered a poignant concession speech to Barack Obama, in which she talked of having made “eighteen million cracks” in the glass ceiling, Hillary Clinton walked onto a stage at the Brooklyn Navy Yard last night under very different circumstances. Like most modern campaign events, this one had been carefully choreographed. The Duggal Greenhouse, an upscale event space, had been converted into an elaborate television set, with huge American flags for the cameras to dwell on and much smaller flags for people in the crowd to hold.

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Published on June 08, 2016 00:47

The Media Called the Democratic Race a Day Early

Ever since late April, when Hillary Clinton won the New York Democratic primary and followed up by carrying four of the five states in the so-called Acela primary, it has been clear that she would almost certainly be her party’s candidate in November.

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Published on June 07, 2016 08:59

Bernie Sanders Raises the Stakes for the California Primary

The Democratic primary season comes to a climax on Tuesday, when six states will vote: California, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The biggest prize is California, where the race appears to be tightening. On Thursday, the widely respected Field Poll showed Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders among likely voters by just two points, forty-five per cent to forty-three.

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Published on June 05, 2016 11:31

Trump University: It’s Worse Than You Think

Following the release, earlier this week, of testimony filed in a federal lawsuit against Trump University, the United States is facing a high-stakes social-science experiment. Will one of the world’s leading democracies elect as its President a businessman who founded and operated a for-profit learning annex that some of its own employees regarded as a giant rip-off, and that the highest legal officer in New York State has described as a classic bait-and-switch scheme?

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Published on June 02, 2016 12:19

The Day of the “Roaring Jackass”

Even by the exacting standards of the 2016 campaign, which has turned into a theatre of the absurd and the disturbing, the past twenty-four hours have been bizarre. Barely had Americans returned to work from the Memorial Day weekend when word came that Donald Trump would be holding a mid-morning press conference at Trump Tower. He planned to detail how he had distributed some six million dollars that he claimed to have raised for veterans’ organizations back in January, when, fuming at Fox News and its anchor Megyn Kelly, he skipped a Republican debate in Des Moines, Iowa, and held a charity event of his own.

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Published on June 01, 2016 09:50

Eric Holder’s Twisted Logic on Edward Snowden

This month marks the third anniversary of Edward Snowden taking up residence in Russia. In this country, he is still a wanted man. “The fact is that Mr. Snowden committed very serious crimes,” the White House spokesman Josh Earnest said last June. “The U.S. government and the Department of Justice believe that he should face them.” That remains the official position, but now, finally, some cracks appear to be emerging.

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Published on May 31, 2016 14:30