



The week opens with a defeat the office does not mention: on the twenty-seventh of July the candidate he endorsed in the Sixth District of Texas loses the runoff, and no paper goes out about it. Three days later the office publishes three words — Thank you, Arizona! On the second of August it publishes a full accounting instead: by using his name and likeness, it says, the party's three committees raised nearly two hundred and ninety-six million dollars. The same day a rally is announced on a farm field in Cullman, Alabama, three weeks out, with the doors, the music and the speeches timed to the minute. The machine's product is not policy. It is a name, and the name is worth something measurable.
Readers' Corner
Letters from the readership on Week 320. Pick a pen name — no account needed.
Opening the mailbag…