Michelle Goldberg writes about a growing number of Republican women who, disgusted by Donald Trump, have declared their support for Hillary Clinton. “I think she’s closer to Republicans than most Republicans think,” one of Goldberg’s interviewees says. “I think her party has gone to the left without her. … I think she errs on the side of caution.”
From a foreign policy perspective, Donald Trump is the scariest presidential nominee in memory, Fred Kaplan writes. While previous presidents have worked to balance alliances in a complex post-Cold War era, “Donald Trump grasps none of these things—not the history, not the concepts, not the tools or limits or creative possibilities of power,” Kaplan argues. “Trump doesn’t understand the consequences of even talking like this; he doesn’t understand the messages he’s sending to all sides.”
Brazil is in a bad place, writes Franklin Foer, excavating the chaotic political situation that has the Olympics host nation in economic crisis. But Foer also finds reason to hope: “There’s a chance that the recent convulsions—so ugly and painful in the moment—will eventually bring the country to a better place, less prone to the cycle of ecstatic booms and apocalyptic busts, with an ultimately sounder democratic footing.”
Olympics Sexism Watch! Christina Cauterucci looks at poorly framed tweets, references to Katie Ledecky’s “manly” mindset, and more, finding sexism in some places and overreaction in others. (And why, exactly, did NBC feel the need to turn the American women’s gymnastics team’s wonderful performance in Sunday’s qualification round into a soap opera? Katy Waldman wonders, while Jim Pagels argues that the two-per-country rule that left Gabby Douglas out in the cold needs to go.)
Why did NBC gymnastics announcer Al Trautwig refuse to call Simone Biles’ adoptive parents “her parents”? This was deeply off-putting, Rachael Larimore argues. “This could have been a minor misstep—like a tiny wobble on the beam—had Trautwig corrected himself,” Larimore writes. “Instead, he’s earned the ire of adoptive families everywhere.”
For fun: Comedian Leslie Jones’ tweets about the Olympics have landed her an invitation to Rio de Janeiro.
A most deserving superfan,
Rebecca