SIX TRUE THINGS ABOUT DINNER WITH OBAMA
•The President is very comfortable with chopsticks. He handled the sticky, hard to separate noodles that accompany the pork and the broth components of Bun Cha skillfully. He even went in for seconds.

The President is an Asiaphile. He spoke wistfully of his time in Indonesia and his memories of the smells and flavors of street food there.
•He clearly enjoyed sitting on a low plastic stool eating bun Cha . It felt to me like his night off. Even with Secret Service lurking nearby .
•The reaction among regular people in Hanoi to the fact that the US President chose to eat Bun Cha was beyond all imagining. The effect was unbelievable.People were actually crying the next day, describing to me their shock and their pride, the reactions of their neighbors, to this completely unexpected choice of meal—and the venue.

Trump Gets Pummeled in New Jersey
The latest poll by Farleigh Dickinson has placed Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders well ahead of their Republican foe Donald Trump.

Head-to-Head Matchups

Hillary Clinton 48% – Donald Trump 37%
Bernie Sanders 57% – Donald Trump 33%
It looks like Americans are starting to wake up. Trumpomania was fun, but it isn’t a realistic election option. As we push closer to the conventions, Americans are starting to realize that the election is real and that they should support a candidate that doesn’t have a history of racism, sexism, and violence.

Trump has a lot of work to do if he wants to compete in the election. He will need to unify the Republican Party, win votes from independent and undecided voters, and he will need to find a way to court Sander’s angry supporters. The final task can also be accomplished if he can somehow convince Sander’s supporters to abstain from voting.

If Trump Breaks Up the G.O.P., It Won’t Be a First
By SEAN WILENTZMAY 20, 2016
Donald J. Trump has astounded the world, as he would be the first to tell you, leaving the Republican leadership to make the best of a terrible situation. Only months ago, Senator John McCain of Arizona, a professed maverick Republican, was berating Mr. Trump for inciting the fringe “crazies.” Now he backs the presumptive nominee. “I believe that the Republican Party must maintain its viability as a party,” he said.

But what if the Republicans are no longer a viable national party? What if the schism between Mr. Trump and establishment holdouts like Mitt Romney deepens, and other schisms follow? What if Mr. Trump’s achievement turns out to be not just hijacking the party of Ronald Reagan, but catalyzing its disintegration?


It might seem unthinkable, but we’ve been here before. Major-party crackups are rare in American history, but far from unprecedented. These convulsive events mark major phases in the long history of American democracy and its expansion.

And although none of the implosions are identical, they share elements with the current crisis inside the G.O.P., including nativism, political legitimacy and class. All of them resound with calls to make America great again, to reclaim a country that is on the verge of being stolen away.