Bernie, Hillary, and the Democratic Party have really begun to drift left on immigration in the past couple of years, Jim Newell writes in the wake of last night’s debate. Under intense questioning by Univision moderator Jorge Ramos, both candidates disavowed positions they held during the 2000s, showing just how the important the Hispanic vote has become to the party.
Marco Rubio looks bizarrely moderate next to Donald Trump (who doesn’t?), but Franklin Foer thinks we should remember how radical Rubio really is. “It would be a mistake to think of him as a denizen of the center-right,” Foer writes. “His agenda, both domestic and foreign, is at least as right wing as Ted Cruz’s program, if not more. His vision lacks much of Donald Trump’s overt cruelty, but in its own way it would terrifyingly remake American government.”
German Chancellor Angela Merkel faces a politically paralyzing problem, writes Lucian Kim. Conservative voters are fleeing her Christian Democratic Union for more right-wing options, even as she struggles to negotiate a response to the influx of migrants from the Middle East. “At this point in Merkel’s career, solving the refugee crisis is about more than just winning elections,” Kim argues. “Unlike most of her other EU colleagues, Merkel is perfectly aware of the moment’s historical significance. Her dilemma is whether the European values she champions end at Europe’s borders.”
Following up on last week’s publication of a scandalous piece on FiveThirtyEight, in which Oliver Roeder revealed his diagnosis of endemic plaigiarism committed by the crossword editor at USA Today, Matt Gaffney explains how he can tell when a crossword puzzle has a little bit too much of another puzzle’s DNA. Gaffney, himself a professional crossword constructor, lines a series of puzzle pairs up next to each other, and shows how they rate on his Crossword Suspicion Scale. It’s very satisfying.
Jeremy Stahl interviewed Marcia Clark, asking the former prosecutor on the O.J. Simpson case about her memories of the media circus around the trial, her opinion of Jeffrey Toobin’s book (it’s not good), and her perspective on the new television series. Here’s Clark, describing the relentless focus on her appearance:
There were parts of the media coverage of it that made me, like, incredulous. For example, my favorite one that cracks me up to this day is my makeover. What makeover? So, my makeover consisted of a concealer pencil, which my girlfriend gave to me, because she said, ‘Really, you got to do something about those circles under, that’s terrible.’ So I said, ‘OK.’ And then, my youngest son, who was then 2 years old, decided it fit perfectly in the sprinkler pipe, and it did, and there was my makeover.
For fun: Jody Rosen’s delightful essay on the personal and cultural meaning behind his first name. Don’t miss the middle section, about the special place of “Jody” in American military culture.
Jody is a real cool cat,
Rebecca
