A tale-of-the-tape breakdown of the 2012 presidential debates.

On Nate Silver and the messiness of modern political polling.

A profile of Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Published originally in GQ Russia.

“Redistricting today has become the most insidious practice in American politics—a way, as the opportunistic machinations following the 2010 census make evident, for our elected leaders to entrench themselves in 435 impregnable garrisons from which they can maintain political power while avoiding demographic realities.”

The invention of political consulting.

On the country’s poorest.

On a week spent immersed in right wing media.

Unprecedented access to six months in the life of the President of the United States.

The Buckeye State’s fortunes and the fight for credit.

The governor of Arkansas, profiled.

A profile of the vice president.

A depressed, pregnant woman shares a brief conversation with then-Senate candidate Barack Obama; from Chabon's upcoming novel.

" At his remark, the pregnant woman nodded without turning to look at him—there was an elaborate candelabra of a potted cactus behind whose tapered thorns she appeared to be attempting, somewhat punitively, to conceal herself. Obama was running for the United States Senate that summer and had given a wonderful speech last month at the Democratic Convention in Boston. When she did turn to him, her eyes got very wide."

An appraisal of the Wisconsin congressman’s “green-eyeshade fiscal conservatism.”

Freedom, the GOP, and a rhesus macaque on the loose.

How Mitt Romney made his millions.

How “grand metaphors” drive politics.

The false promise and double standard of integration in the Obama era.

A sample from Powell's 2009 novel-in-questions.

"Are you happy? Are you given to wondering if others are happy? Do you know the distinctions, empirical or theoretical, between moss and lichen? Have you seen an animal lighter on its feet than the sporty red fox? Do you cut slack for the crime of passion as opposed to its premeditated cousin? Do you understand why the legal system would? Are you bothered by socks not matching up in subtler respects than color? Is it clear to you what I mean by that? Is it clear to you why I am asking you all these questions?"

A profile of Chelsea Clinton.

As a young community organizer in Chicago, Barack Obama concluded that to make a real difference, he needed to gain power. A look at how that plan has worked thus far.

How Paul Ryan remade the Republican Party in his own image.

On Mitt Romney’s top strategist—a steroid-dabbling, screenwriting bon vivant.

How the former Bush advisor is “reengineering the practice of partisan money management in hopes of drumming Barack Obama out of the White House.”

How did the gambling magnate and prolific super PAC donor amass his billions?

How a group of men with nicknames like “Emperor” and “Spear Carrier” tipped the balance in South Sudan’s fight for independence.