The Week’s Best Longreads: The Daily Beast Picks for Jan. 7, 2012
From the zany split personality of Stephen Colbert to neurosis inside the Obama campaign machine, The Daily Beast picks the best journalism from around the Web this week.
How Many Stephen Colberts Are There?
Charles McGrath, New York Times Magazine
A suburban dad. A fictional television blowhard. And now a political money launderer. How one funny guy became three.
The Meaning of Mitt
Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, Vanity Fair
Digging into Mitt Romney’s record as a Mormon leader, his business deals at Bain Capital, and that infamous car trip with the family dog strapped to the roof, the authors pierce the Mitt bubble to find that the contradictions, question marks, and ambivalence go deeper than his politics.
The Collector
Eliza Gray, The New Republic
Did a famed connoisseur of political memorabilia commit an audacious crime?
How the CIA Screws Up
Paul R. Pillar, Foreign Policy
I served in the CIA for 28 years and I can tell you: America's screw-ups come from bad leaders, not lousy spies.
Bottle Rocket
Kelefa Sanneh, The New Yorker
Newt Gingrich’s return.
Yes We Can (Can’t We?)
Andrew Romano, Newsweek
While the GOP votes, team Obama is crafting a juggernaut. Andrew Romano talks to top advisers about their 2012 strategy—including David Axelrod, who admits that he shares some of the blame for the president's dismal approval rating.
About Longreads
Every week, we pick the best long-form journalism from the newest magazines and journals.
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