The feature stories, dispatches, columns, essays, and original fiction in The Atlantic's November issue include:
The Bloomberg Way
As part of The Atlantic's Brave Thinkers list, the magazine's annual guide to the people risking everything in pursuit of big ideas, James Bennet
sits down with Michael Bloomberg for a typically candid interview. The
New York City mayor discusses his soda ban, approval ratings, and the 2012 presidential race, among many other topics:
- On why high approval ratings mean you're failing: "If I finish my term in office ... and have high approval ratings, then I wasted my last years in office. That high approval rating means you don't upset anybody...You always want to press, and you want to tackle the issues that are unpopular, that nobody else will go after."
- On how President Obama alienated Wall Street: "He had enormous support three years, or three and a half years, ago...I think a lot of [people on Wall Street] were frustrated that he didn't give the change that they had expected. I think a lot of them thought he'd be more of a centralist and less of a populist once he got elected."
- On whether Obama deserves credit for ordering the raid that killed Osama bin Laden: "That's like giving Harry Truman credit for dropping the bomb: any president would've pushed that button, any president would've dropped the bomb."
Digital exclusive: view a gallery of Bloomberg's boldest mayoral moments, and read a full transcript of the conversation.
Brave Thinkers 2012
Every year, The Atlantic
highlights individuals who are risking their reputations, fortunes, and
lives in pursuit of ideas that upend the established order. Check out
this year's list of 21 brave people and groups, ranging from Supreme
Court Chief Justice John Roberts to the Russian punk collective Pussy
Riot.
Read more