John Cassidy's Blog, page 29

Is Donald Trump a Flip-Flopper or a Wily Politician?

Emerson famously remarked that “a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” Evidently, Donald Trump took the transcendentalist poet’s words to heart. Whatever else Trump might be guilty of—and the list is a long one—he’s not one to cling to prior statements when circumstances change. Over the years, he has reversed his position on many issues, including abortion, gun control, socialized medicine, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Syrian refugees, and Hillary Clinton. And now, with the Republican nomination virtually wrapped up, he has reversed course on economic policy, adopting a more populist line on taxes and wages.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Donald Trump Doesn’t Make It Easy for Paul Ryan
Comment from the May 16, 2016, Issue
The Real Never Trump Campaign

Donald Trump, Nate Silver, and the Value of Data Journalism

On Thursday, the Times’ media columnist, Jim Rutenberg, took journalists to task for underestimating Donald Trump’s prospects of winning the Republican nomination. “Wrong, wrong, wrong—to the very end, we got it wrong,” Rutenberg wrote. He singled out data journalists, particularly Nate Silver, of FiveThirtyEight, who for a long time was down on Trump’s prospects. Admonishing the profession to return to J-school basics in the months ahead, Rutenberg concluded that “a good place to start would be to get a good night’s sleep, and then talk to some voters.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Friday, May 6th
A Super-Easy Guide to Voting in a Red State
Is the Alt-Right for Real?

Why Bernie Sanders Is Staying in the Race

With Donald Trump more or less wrapping up the Republican nomination on Tuesday night, the fact that Bernie Sanders also scored a big victory in Indiana was somewhat overlooked. The Vermont senator overcame a sizable deficit in the opinion polls to finish ahead of Hillary Clinton by almost seven percentage points in a heartland state that she carried in 2008. It was his biggest upset since he won in Michigan, in March.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Is the Alt-Right for Real?
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, May 5th
Bonus Daily Cartoon: Earth Reacts to Trump’s Victory

How Donald Trump Won the G.O.P. Nomination

Despite the best efforts of the Never Trump movement, it has been clear for some time that Donald Trump is destined to be the Republican candidate for President in 2016. His sweeping victory in New York, a couple of weeks ago, confirmed his popularity among the white suburban voters who make up the key voting bloc in the G.O.P. And his decisive win in Indiana, on Tuesday, more or less settled things. Ted Cruz, in suspending his candidacy, was only accepting the inevitable.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Bonus Daily Cartoon: Earth Reacts to Trump’s Victory
Daily Cartoon: Wednesday, May 4th
Senate Officially Mourns Return of Ted Cruz

A Europe of Donald Trumps?

Last week, as Donald Trump was sweeping the Acela primaries and beginning to campaign in California and Indiana, I was taking a long-planned family trip to England and France. Everywhere we went, people asked about Trump, who is receiving a lot of media attention abroad. What is his game? Who are his supporters? Does he have any chance of becoming President?

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Monday, May 2nd
Comment from the May 9, 2016, Issue
The 2016 Presidential Election: A Cinematic Retrospective

What Sort of Foreign-Policy Hawk Is Hillary Clinton?

It is often said, and it appears to be true, that Hillary Clinton is more hawkish on foreign policy than President Obama. But what sort of hawk is she? And, if she were to be elected to the White House, how would her approach differ from Obama’s? Thanks to two deeply reported pieces of journalism—one just released about Clinton, from Mark Landler, of the Times, and one from last month on Obama, by Jeffrey Goldberg, of The Atlantic—we now have more information to help us answer these questions.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
The Anti-Moneyball Election
Trump Reassures Supporters That He Still Opposes Women Who Were Born Women
Hillary Clinton Should Be Allowed to Boast

What Will Bernie Sanders and His Supporters Learn from New York?

If my social-media feeds are any indication, Hillary Clinton’s big victory in the New York Democratic primary has left many of Bernie Sanders’s supporters feeling upset, angry, and disillusioned. Some are blaming voter fraud, others are blaming the media, and others are simply aghast. On Facebook, one Bernie enthusiast asked, how can so many people have voted for Hillary? I didn’t meet anybody who was voting for her.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Daily Cartoon: Thursday, April 21st
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s New York Wins: A Preview of the General Election?
Did the New York Primary Campaign Change Anything?

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump’s New York Wins: A Preview of the General Election?

Primary season is far from over. Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton is fully guaranteed to win the parties’ respective nominating contests. And both major parties will be doing a lot of politicking, voting, and arm-twisting between now and the conventions in July. But, when all is said and done, it may well turn out that the 2016 general-election campaign began in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday night.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Donald Trump and Our Messy Nominating System
What Would a National Anti-Trump Movement Look Like?
Bonus Daily Cartoon: Trump Hair Edition

Did the New York Primary Campaign Change Anything?

On the final day before the New York primary, the candidates from both parties were busy campaigning across the state. Hillary Clinton ate ice cream in the East Village, drank bubble tea in Flushing, and gave a speech at the Hilton on Sixth Avenue. Bernie Sanders held an election-eve rally in Long Island City. Donald Trump flew to Buffalo, where he had an event scheduled for the evening. Ted Cruz was in Times Square for an appearance on “Good Morning America.” John Kasich held town-hall meetings in Syracuse and Schenectady.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Bernie Sanders’s Forty-Year-Old Idea
Donald Trump in Patchogue
Donald Trump vs. New York City

The Democratic Debate: A Surprising Exchange on Israel

For the first hour or so, last night’s Democratic debate, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was predictable. Bernie Sanders questioned Hillary Clinton’s judgment in voting for the Iraq War and spoke sarcastically about her refusal to release the transcripts of the paid speeches that she made for Goldman Sachs. Clinton suggested that Sanders was a dreamer rather than a doer and pilloried him for his record on gun control. The tone was loud, contentious, and, by the standards of what has been a pretty civil campaign, testy. At one point, the back-and-forth got so heated that Wolf Blitzer, the moderator for CNN, remarked, “If you’re both screaming at each other, the viewers won’t be able to hear either of you.”

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com

Related:
Donald Trump vs. New York City
Clinton, Sanders, and the Myth of a Monolithic “Black Vote”
Bernie and Hillary on the Waterfront