Carlos Curbelo: ‘The post-Trump chapter has to start being written now’

Defeated congressman Carlos Curbelo offered a coherent post-mortem to The Miami Herald, which also served as an analysis of how Debbie Mucarsel-Powell wrested my Clinton-leaning from the GOP for the first time since 2012.

‘Never. Is never good enough for you?’

Because life is long, the other day driving back from Kissimmee, I recalled a similar point sixteen years ago — December 2002 — when Bush II looked unstoppable, had even gained seats in the first midterm of his presidency, a feat not seen since 1962 if not 1934

The peril of cable news misogynists

As we inch toward another presidential campaign in which the odds are even that several Democratic finalists for the nomination will be a woman, a woman of color, or both, Scott Lemieux worries about the presence of media misogyny, despite the exit of several notorious figures: Mark Halperin was an early and highly influential Trump

Who did what to whom

I’m not a fan of Scott Lemieux, but he at least grapples with the reality of door-to-door politics like his colleagues don’t. In light of recent “Joe Biden would have won talk,” another variant on the speculation around my preferred candidate Bernie Sanders, i.e. “Bernie would’ve won won Michigan,” he mentions enough hypotheticals that serve

Elections 2018, post-cockiness edition

One calendar year ago I was excited enough to amble around campus in a state of suppressed glee, a phenomenon I couldn’t attribute to having voted for Hillary Rodham Clinton a couple weeks earlier. Although I was under no illusions about the limits of ClLinton’s power and the adamantine resistance she would experience from a

Hillary Clinton has as much right to bore us as anyone in public life

The ponderous, politically tone deaf, and immune to improvisation Hillary Clinton discomfited me less than her husband did in the early nineties, so when she landed the nomination this Bernie supporter shrugged his shoulders and said the hell with it. After eight years of feeling spittle on my neck about Muslims in the Oval Office,

A Day Without Hillary

Here is my A Day Without Women post, titled A Day Without Hillary: Most decisively, there was a sudden change in the net sentiment results that followed immediately after FBI Director James Comey released his Oct. 28 letter to Congress about a renewed investigation of Clinton emails. Immediately afterwards, there was a 17-point drop in

Curiouser and curiouser

On one hand we learn that the Obamans, spooked about the next administration, went beyond avoiding the shredding of documents:

We’ll get by, I suppose — a farewell to 2016 and all that

On the last day of 2016, I can’t dispel the mephitic vapors of an autumn that in South Florida never cooled and an election season that didn’t and won’t end. I published some of my finest work. I read, deeply, discovering Lorrie Moore and at last finishing Thomas Mann’s Joseph tetralogy. I’m at the apex

Huh I feel real: Best protest songs

Motivated by an instinct to avoid the usual suspects because as of two this morning we live in unusual times, I compiled a list of songs that protested boundaries, legislative and sexual. 1. Public Enemy – Fight the Power 2. Buzzcocks – I Believe 3. Bobby Fuller – I Fought the Law 4. Bronski Beat

The next day: After such knowledge, what forgiveness?

I went to bed at 12:30 a.m. with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin looking uncertain. I slept for two full hours, awakened to tachycardia, from which I don’t suffer. Resisting the temptation to check my phone or turn on the TV, I forced myself to stay in one place until shortly after five. Assurance congeals into smugness.

Elections 2016 — let’s end this!

Martini glass in hand, courage in my heart, I’m ready to blog. 11:04. In my first legitimate shock of the evening, Russ Feingold lost his race in Wisconsin. The West coast is decided, which we know. North Carolina goes to Trump: 209-187. 10:41. Florida isn’t close. But Obama won enough in 2012, recall, that Florida