Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
The presidential nominating process is the most intricate and arcane part of our political system, perhaps because it’s the only bit not addressed in the Constitution. The two major parties have held national conventions to choose presidential and vice presidential nominees for more than 150 years, Democrats starting in 1832 and Republicans in 1856. But…
Photo Donald J. Trump at the University of Iowa in Iowa City on Tuesday night.Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times It was a blustery and dramatic move, 48 hours before the final Republican debate until the Iowa caucuses: Donald J. Trump stormed out in a rage at Fox News, jeopardizing the network’s ratings…
Candied yam riddled with moldy spider carcasses Donald Trump managed to involve himself in yet another controversy this weekend, when he claimed to have seen footage of huge crowds of New Jersey Muslims cheering wildly on September 11, 2001. Those Muslims were imaginary. Even the most conservative news outlets can’t quite get with Donald on…
Photo Credit Eric Thayer for The New York Times The mixed martial arts fighter Ronda Rousey is “not a nice person.” The golf swing of the actor Samuel L. Jackson is “not athletic.” A lectern in the Oval Office “looks odd” and the mobile carrier T-Mobile’s service “is terrible.” These comments are not private thoughts,…
Polls whiz kid Nate Silver and presidential candidate Donald Trump.Photo illustration by Slate. Images by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images and Ethan Miller/Getty Images. For the past six months, one big question has loomed over the 2016 election: Is the candidacy of Donald J. Trump an amusing bit of reality TV or a terrifying and dangerous…
John Kasich, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Ted Cruz take the stage in the Republican presidential debate on Nov. 10, 2015, in Milwaukee.Scott Olson/Getty Images People who call themselves leaders of the Republican Party—politicians, donors, strategists, elders—are panicking over an impending disaster. Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz are about…
Since Donald Trump announced he wouldn’t take part in Thursday’s GOP debate over his dislike of Megyn Kelly, Trump’s fans reacted just as expected: by unleashing a vile torrent of sexist rage against the Fox News anchor. Looking at 80,000 tweets directed at Kelly’s official Twitter handle from Tuesday to Wednesday morning—as well as close…
DES MOINES — Republican leaders are growing alarmed by the ferocious ways the party’s mainstream candidates for president are attacking one another, and they fear that time is running out for any of them to emerge as a credible alternative to Donald J. Trump or Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Leaders of the Republican establishment,…
Katrina Pierson, the national spokesperson for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, on Sunday defended her call for a “pure breed” president by arguing that she was a “half-breed” like President Barack Obama. In 2012, Pierson had complained that both then-GOP nominee Mitt Romney and Obama were not “pure breeds” because their fathers had not been born…
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin speaks at a rally endorsing U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump for President at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa January 19, 2016. REUTERS/Mark Kauzlarich Sarah Palin’s endorsement has been a bomb with the very people that she was supposed to sway as Donald Trump supporters came away from listening…