Elizabeth Drew

Dividing to Rule: Trump’s Midterm Mayhem

Elections are supposed to be our way of peacefully resolving our differences. But one seemingly inescapable outcome this time around is that, thanks to some hard fights and the president’s heavy participation in them, this midterm election will leave an already riven country even more divided than before.

How Obamacare Survived

Republicans have been implacable in their determination to put an end to Obama’s proudest legislative achievement. But they didn’t reckon on two things.

Trump: The Presidency in Peril

The president’s troubles will continue to grow as the investigators keep on investigating and leakers keep on leaking.

The Blame-Thrower

Donald Trump is a blame-thrower with bad aim, which shreds even further what little credibility he has.

Remembering Bob Silvers

On the late editor of The New York Review

Terrifying Trump

When he’s outside his few fixed views, Trump is a curiously malleable figure.

How It Happened

People looking for “the reason” Clinton failed in her long-planned effort to become the nation’s first female president are looking for the wrong thing.

The Comey Morass

One can only conclude that James Comey’s serial acts in the by now wildly inflated case of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server—there’s been no indication that national security was compromised—were those of a man who lacked the courage to stick with his own convictions.

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.

On the Election—II

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

Trump at War

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

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.

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?

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.

American Democracy Betrayed

Early gerrymandering was quaint compared to the current practice

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.

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.

Candidates vs. Themselves

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

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.

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.