How many Republicans are running for President? It’s a trick question. Some of those who are clearly running—Jeb Bush, for example—are still pretending that they aren’t, mostly because declaring would change the fund-raising rules. And if you counted everyone who, against all evidence, takes himself (or herself) seriously as a candidate, the locker room depicted in Mark Ulriksen’s “Suiting Up,” this week’s cover, would look as crowded as the departures hall at Penn Station, and almost as disconcerting. As it is, Ulriksen presents seven contenders with seven varieties of preening. Maybe it’s hard to tell a vision for America from a delusion of grandeur, at least until the debates and primaries get under way. Until then, Marco Rubio’s got his phone, Rand Paul his comb, and Huckabee his Bible. Ted Cruz’s eyes flit between his copy of the Constitution and his mirror, while Scott Walker seems on the lookout for unionized gym attendants. Bush is wearing his dynasty-logo boxers and Chris Christie his put-me-in-now pout. And yet, somehow, one of these seven men is almost certainly right about his chances for the nomination. The primary campaign may look like a pickup game about to descend into a brawl, but there’s a national candidate somewhere in the lineup.
Behind these Republicans, there is a face in the locker-room door’s window: Hillary Clinton, peeking in. Once they’re done with their intramural shoving match, they’ll mostly likely have to play against her. Some other Democratic candidates might emerge, ones tougher to beat than Bernie Sanders, but at the moment Clinton doesn’t really have to share. She may be the real subject of the picture—she is the big game.
Hillary Clinton has been on The New Yorker’s cover before. In 1994, she was flanked by Bill and Chelsea. A cover in July, 1999, showed her wandering in Central Park, stalked by Rudolph Giuliani. She’d let it be known that she’d be heading to New York and running for Senator after her husband’s second term ended, and Giuliani was the competition. By the next summer, though, Giuliani had dropped out of the race (his health and personal life got pretty complicated). Clinton ran, instead, against Rick Lazio and won, despite making plenty of mistakes, like claiming to be a fan of both the Mets and the Yankees—a low point captured on another cover, in October, 2000.
