Joe Klein and I have a long-running debate. He says we'd all be better off if politicians fired their pollsters and spoke from the heart. I argue that they don't necessarily have anything that they truly believe, and furthermore, we're a representative democracy, so why shouldn't politicians conform to what voters want?
I know I'm not going to win this argument (Joe is very stubborn), but I'm not sure there's a single right answer. Joe's careful, thoughtful cover story on Mitt Romney reveals a politician who both has core beliefs and also has molded himself to the electorate. In many ways, most politicians represent some combination of these two attributes. It's just that the ratios vary.
This is Joe's 10th--yes, 10th--presidential campaign, and he brings two powerful weapons to bear every time he writes: a historian's understanding of the U.S. and a reporter's eye for detail. With a month to go before the voting begins in Iowa, his firsthand reporting helps explain why the Republican race's longtime front runner just hasn't caught fire. "This is one of the stranger races I've ever covered," Joe says. "Because the GOP has perhaps the least qualified field in years at a crucial moment in the country's history."
Over the course of the year, we have profiled all the major Republican candidates who have emerged, risen and (sometimes) fallen. We now begin our primary coverage with an unmatched team composed of Joe, Mark Halperin, David Von Drehle, Michael Scherer, Michael Crowley, Jay Newton-Small, Alex Altman and Katy Steinmetz. And our coverage is presided over by our newly named executive editor, the peerless Michael Duffy.
Richard Stengel, MANAGING EDITOR