The best of Clinton, the worst of Clinton: A new biography carefully traces both back to their roots
Jonathan Alter
Jonathan Alter, a contributing editor of the Washington Monthly, is a former senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, a filmmaker, journalist, political analyst, and the publisher of the Substack Old Goats with Jonathan Alter where this piece also appears. He is the author of His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life. His latest book is American Reckoning: Inside Trump's Trial--And My Own.
Posted inJanuary 1994
Curb Violence by Targeting Violence
The first battle in America’s war at home has been won. That battle was over simply acknowledging that the war existed in the first place—that even though violence has not increased appreciably in recent years, we’ve been in a state of denial about its Vietnam-like toll. 1993 will be remembered as the year when we […]
Posted inJune 1992
How Phil Donahue Came to Manage the ’92 Campaign
A loss of control: You could say it’s the thread running through the events of our time, but then the metaphor would be backwards. Rather, it’s the thread that’s unraveling through the events of our time. At the international level, the loss of control is generally good news. At the national level, the loss of […]
Posted inJune 1991
On Political Books: Cliffhanging
How the consummate counsel came to need a lawyer
Posted inNovember 1990
On Political Books: Manhattan on the Rocks
Moderate black leaders could save New York from the Sharptons and the Brawleys
Posted inMarch 1989
I’ve Tilted at Windmills, and the Windmills Won
Six years ago, I was offered an unusual job at Newsweek that was at least partly the result of the efforts of the editor of this magazine. While I’m grateful to Charlie Peters for assisting my career advancement, the job he helped arrange also points up some practical failures associated with his view of how […]
Posted inMarch 1988
Two Cheers for Tom Wolf
He vanquishes the vanities of the rich, but lacks the courage to say what he admires.
Posted inOctober 1986
Psychoanalyzing the News
Whenever a conservative critic of the media gets worked up, he’s sure to mention the “Lichter-Rothman study.” That study shows that reporters are liberal and unreligious. Rothman and the Lichters are obviously conservative, and the research for The Media Elite was funded by conservatives like Richard Mellon Scaife, which makes their scientific-sounding scholarship a bit […]
Posted inJune 1985
Saving New York’s Subways
One day in late 1983, Bob Kiley and Dave Gunn took a trip to Coney Island. Kiley was the newly appointed head of New York’s huge Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), which moves more than a third of the people in the United States who use public transportation. Gunn was the man Kiley was trying to […]
