A poll has Trump leading Biden among people who say they are not likely to vote. What does that really mean? — Scan the methodology of the latest Suffolk University/USA Today poll and it’s easy to predict the reaction from many pundits. “Why,” they will ask, “would you bother polling people who say they are not likely to vote?” It’s a good question. After all, most public political surveys focus on likely…

It’s a little unfair to compare. — Over the past two weeks, “Rich Men North of Richmond,” — Oliver Anthony’s plaintive howls of rural, blue-collar frustration — has gone from dominating online discussion to the top of the charts. Buoyed by a video of the Farmville, Va. …

Trump’s circus echoes 90s hip-hop. — Most people would not celebrate being indicted on federal charges. But as he has demonstrated for over four decades in the public eye, former President Donald Trump is not most people. And speaking of the public eye, that’s exactly where Trump placed himself before and after his arraignment on those…

A mediocre quarterback had a lot more to lose by speaking out. — As sports leagues go, the National Football League takes particular care in crafting its public image. Just look at how they construct their season. NFL football is a weekly, extended television show: Six hours of Sunday afternoon game action gets bracketed by pregame shows, postgame shows, and the chaser of…

The forces that created the Capitol riot aren’t going away on January 20. — The widely accepted narrative about the 2016 election and the Trump administration goes something like this: Donald Trump, a pop culture figure riding the crest of his reality television fame, used an outsider message to draw support from people politicians typically ignored (particularly older, white, working-class people) and vanquish Hillary…

Political polls tell us a story — if we understand how to read them. The numbers didn’t match expectations. It was Election Night in America. Programmers had carefully loaded their formulas and algorithms into a computer to analyze early election returns, comparing the evening’s fresh data to data from past elections to predict the outcome. The problem: The program predicted an outcome that seemed…

The former President gave the Class of 2020 valuable words of wisdom. Take them at face value. This spring’s canceled high school graduation ceremonies have become one of those difficult casualties of life in the COVID-19 era. In most years, these events would largely be forgotten within months; in 2020, their absence creates another reminder that everyday life is temporarily full of regular sacrifice.

America’s racial history makes people uncomfortable. It should. — As a shoe and sporting goods company, Nike is used to setting trends. In the past week, it became a mere part of one with its decision to pull a new sneaker design because of its depiction of a Revolutionary-era American Flag. …

Taking a week off from Trump sketches gave Saturday Night Live the chance to talk about something even more important. — When Adam Sandler came back home to host Saturday Night Live last weekend, observers noted that the show largely avoided politics. There was no cold open featuring Alec Baldwin’s face scrunched into his mouth-breathing caricature of President Donald Trump. Despite ongoing friction between Congressional Democrats and the White House over…