The Atlantic Daily: The Week in Politics
It was an unprecedented one, topped off by a precedented debate.
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The debate was an “oddly normal” capstone for what was “perhaps the most chaotic week of a chaotic presidency,” my colleague Russell Berman writes.
As this week winds down, here are a few things that our writers who cover politics are thinking about:
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Last night, Kamala Harris succeeded where Mike Pence failed. James Fallows, who’s covered many a debate for The Atlantic, writes: “What has historically mattered, when vice-presidential candidates present themselves, is temperament.”
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About that fly … “It symbolized the whole Pence vice presidency,” David Frum argues. For the past four years, Pence has been “the man who pretended not to notice.”
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Meanwhile, the White House remains a Trump bubble. This week Trump’s “staff again seemed to cater first to the president’s emotional needs, rather than the country’s interests or even his own health,” Peter Nicholas reports.
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Go ahead, laugh at the expense of the president, Caitlin Flanagan argues. The mad king and his courtiers learned a lot this week about COVID-19.
One question, answered: What can I do to help ensure that this year’s election runs smoothly?
Our staff writer Anne Applebaum has some advice in her citizen’s guide to defending democracy. The short version:
1. Help out on Election Day—in person.
2. Help out from home.
3. Join something now. (For example, sign up to receive emails from voting-rights nonprofits.)
4. Talk with people.
5. As a last resort, protest.
26 days remain until the 2020 presidential election. Here’s today’s essential read:
America is having a moral convulsion, David Brooks argues.
Today’s break from the news:
“If we’re going to be inside, it might as well be the inside we want.” In her latest “Material World” column, Amanda Mull explores why Americans have turned to nesting.
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