Joe Biden Is Starting a Fire in His Own Backyard

Too much of the Republican Party is too nuts. Don't talk to me about a ‘team of rivals.’ If you have trouble reading this message, [view it in a browser](. [We’re Doing Something New Around Here. And We Want You to Be a Part of It.]( We at Esquire cordially invite you to join our new club. It’s called Esquire Select, and when you join, we’ll send you a gift. (It’s a magazine). But it’s not just a magazine you’ll get. With a membership to Esquire Select, you get unlimited access to Esquire.com, including The Politics Blog with Charles P. Pierce. You get a monthly discount to some of our editors’ favorite brands. You get a members-only, weekly newsletter highlighting the best of Esquire right now.[Read More]( [Democrats Can't Resist Starting Fires in Their Own Backyards]( This is what makes Charles P. Pierce crazy about Democrats. By all available evidence, things are sailing right along. Joe Biden has the lead in a race that hasn't moved an inch since New Year's. The Senate majority is now in the hazard. Contributions are flooding in. Veteran Republicans are holding a couple of press conferences a day to announce their support for the Democratic ticket. The Bring Us Together message is selling all over the country. This is a good thing. But, with their ingrained instinct to gild their own lily, the Democrats let out a list of possible Cabinet appointments guaranteed to inflame unnecessarily their own base. Leaking not merely the possibility of GOP Cabinet choices, but also leaking specific names guarantees you will have several specific fires to put out in your own backyard instead of one big—if, at this point, largely theoretical—one. Even a guy from the Third Way kiddie pool is dubious about the political advantage of making this known because too much of the Republican Party is too nuts.[Read More]( [Todd Snyder and Champion Turned Your Favorite Sweatshirt Into a Turtleneck—and They Nailed It]( If you've found yourself in a bit of a stylistic rut lately, a dynamite fleece turtleneck is juuust left field enough to help you get your groove back—while not taking you anywhere you weren't already willing to go. The transitional nature of the piece is one of its biggest selling points, especially in comparison to its slightly, ah, schlubbier hooded counterparts. Todd Snyder and Champion’s latest creation is one super cozy sweatshirt, made in Canada out of 16 0z. fleece, and then garment-washed for over half an hour to achieve peak softness. There's a reason the iconic Champion logo carries so much industry cachet after a century in the business, and that public goodwill isn't a result of the brand phoning it in for the last 100 years. Sometimes they do make 'em like that anymore, and chances are it's Champion making 'em. Esquire’s Avidan Grossman explains why the next evolution in your everyday uniform earned our latest Esquire Endorsement.[Read More]( [The Best (and Best-Looking) Cookware of 2020]( People refer to this time as "the age of discomfort." And we get it: Things are irritating as hell. It seems every passing day brings a new and unexpected ailment. But with all the hours spent at home, there’s also some comfort to be had. We can fill our lives with the sort of comforts that were previously only available to us on lazy Sunday afternoons. Chief among those comforts—for us, at least—is cooking. In testing the latest and greatest cookware on the market for this list, we favored versatile pots and pans. Many of these individual products can be purchased along with an entire set or on their own. Some of these pieces can be used for just about everything. Experienced cooks may hate to read this, but we leaned toward nonstick pans, and especially dishwasher-safe stuff, so you’ll see a lot of that here. That’s not to say everything is for novices—you’ll also find a few premium offerings that will serve you and your stove top for years, should you treat them the right way. Welcome to the age of home cooking. May your skillets stay seasoned and your stomachs be full of well-cooked foods.[Read More]( [Yes, You Can Create a Home Gym in Your Small Space. Here’s What You Need.]( It goes without saying at this point that your regular trips to the gym have been wildly disrupted. Seems like a pretty big deal for your average fitness junkie. But, as it turns out, the swath of brands making at-home workout products are all making the most of this moment. Want to go on a long run? You can do it in your living room. Interested in bulking up without a bunch of meatheads gawking at your form? The time is now. Esquire’s Matt Miller was able to build a fully realized home gym in his tiny one-bedroom apartment, without compromising the space or his need to escape the world with a workout. Here are the products he bought to do it—and how he makes it work.[Read More]( [Jimmy Page Is Still Practicing]( "I don’t do face calls and all of that," says Jimmy Page. "Because I’m a creature of habit, I usually end up holding the phone to my ear as opposed to looking at the image." Fair enough. So a regular call it is between Alan Light and a chatty and affable Page, 76, who is currently riding out the pandemic at his home in Southeast England. The occasion is the release of the new photo collection Jimmy Page: The Anthology, which gathers hundreds of images spanning the career of this guitar colossus, from his days as an in-demand session musician up to his recent oversight of reissues of the Led Zeppelin catalogue and his participation in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s "Play it Loud" instrument exhibit. The twist is that the book (which was first published earlier this year as a very pricey signed limited edition) focuses on items from his personal archive—studio notes, stage costumes and, of course, gaggles of guitars and piles of musical gear. It’s been years since we got new music from Page; most of his efforts in the 21st Century have focused on maintaining and burnishing Led Zeppelin’s legacy. But when you’ve seen and done the things he has, you have to wonder what there is left to prove. "When I look back on it," says Jimmy Page, "it feels something like a charmed life." Read Light’s full conversation with the legend here.[Read More]( [Read More on Esquire.com]( [Join Esquire Select to Chat Live with Charlie!]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( [Privacy Notice]( esquire.com ©2020 Hearst Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Email Privacy, 300 W 57th St., Fl. 19 (sta 1-1), New York, NY 10019