Susan Estrich
The Jackson Sun
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Past articles by Susan:
Cohen didn't do his job as Trump's 'fixer'
Cohen didn't do his job as Trump's 'fixer' → Read More
And the winner is ...
It used to be that people complained that the process for selecting the nominee was starting earlier and earlier — straw polls over a year before the inauguration! So, at least on the Democratic side (and since much of this is state law, the two systems have more in common than they should), we created something called "the window," which tried to confine the selection process to the election… → Read More
Trump's time's up moment
The man who claimed he could murder former FBI Director James Comey in midtown Manhattan and his base wouldn't care might still be right. If you're still with him right now, you'd probably be with him through anything. The problem for the president is that the base in shrinking. In the meantime, the Democratic base is growing. Two weeks after President Trump took office in 2017, Gallup found… → Read More
Hello, Dolly, goodbye friend
She was my daughter’s godmother. She was my friend. We knew her from politics, not Hollywood: She was close to “Lady Bird” Johnson and her legendary press secretary, Liz Carpenter. We had no family in California. And she fell in love with my beautiful baby. We used to go to dinner once a month at Chasen’s, the “hangout” for old Hollywood. In those days, Carol brought her own food, in silver… → Read More
Is the president above the law?
Column by Susan Estrich about presidents and the law → Read More
The year of the woman
"Lock her up" was the rallying cry a year ago, led by the newly elected president. "Lock her up," Democrats are saying now that senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump has committed the same (non-cardinal) prayer, having also used a private email server to maintain some small chance of privacy and security. Note: Which men are we threatening to "lock up"? Take your pick of the women: White House… → Read More
End of the crime wars
Maybe it’s fitting that only two weeks after running his own version of the 1988 “Willie Horton” ad — an ad that led a generation of politicians to compete to outdo one another in terms of their “toughness” on crime — President Trump announced his support for a bipartisan crime-reform bill that few politicians of either party would have gone near in the Horton years. In terms of wedge issues,… → Read More
Willie and Luis, and the politics of hate
In 1988, Lee Atwater, George Bush's campaign manager, vowed to make "Willie Horton" (real name William Horton) Michael Dukakis' running mate. And he did, with the help of Larry McCarthy and an ad that featured a terrifying mugshot of a black murderer who had been released from prison on a weekend furlough and gone to Maryland where he raped a white woman. Horton was a story in Massachusetts long… → Read More
He said, she said: Here we go again
I have been to this movie before. I know how it ends, and it doesn’t end well — not for anyone, by the way. This much we know: A woman writes a letter in July. It’s about something that happened in high school. Pick your words. An assault? An attempted assault? A drunken grope? It was more than 30 years ago. She wants to remain anonymous. She’s right about that. Trust me, she’ll end up the… → Read More
Broken windows: Theory on crime, safe neighborhoods
In 1982, James Q. Wilson and his Harvard colleague George Kelling offered a simple idea that had a profound effect on policing: “If a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken.” And that is not simply a blight for neighbors but a clear message the neighborhood is dangerous, which in turn makes it more dangerous. When police maintain… → Read More
Not all doctors are good
When I returned to practicing law full time 10 years ago, one of the biggest surprises was not the new technology of e-filing, or the new world of e-discovery, but the stunning number of bad lawyers I ran into on the other side. I don’t mean lawyers who disagree with me; that’s what the adversary system is about. I mean lawyers who miss the best arguments for their client, miss the leading… → Read More
Are we crazy or what?
This should be a 10-point race, minimum. If this were an election governed by any of the rules of politics that all of us have been practicing and teaching and writing books about, this should be the biggest snoozer since 1984, when Germond and Witcover penned their aptly named “Wake Us When It’s Over.” He picked a fight with the family of a dead Muslim soldier. He didn’t just start a fight; he… → Read More
August campaign record breaks
It took a long time, but every record must eventually get broken, and no one is happier about this one than me: Finally, a presidential campaign has had a worse August than we did in 1988. That year, Michael Dukakis came out of the convention with a lead a mile wide and an inch deep, only to turn his campaign plane around and head back to Massachusetts, where he spent August being governor while… → Read More
Brexit, Clinton and the barrage to come
Hillary Clinton’s lead in the polls may well be illusory. → Read More
The risk factor of Donald Trump
With Donald Trump, the worst of the wounds are likely to be self-inflicted. → Read More
Arithmetic says Clinton has the nomination
The race for the Democratic nomination is over. Done. Won. Lost. → Read More
Donald Trump as president? Really?
Is there anyone who doesn’t know, really know, that it isn’t right? → Read More
Donald Trump for president?
The GOP is about to nominate a man who belongs on a TV stage, not in the Oval Office → Read More
Why superdelegates count
The purpose of the nomination process was to pick a candidate who might win. → Read More
The Democrats are done. The Republicans are done in
As an American, I’m horrified. And yes, just a little bit afraid. → Read More