EL PAÍS starts its special coverage for the United States elections

The first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, in Cleveland, Ohio.Reuters

What moves the vote of an American?

Theodor H. White, author of the classic

(1960), said that Americans chose their leader in a balancing act between their past and their future.

"The past consists of his ethnic background, what his father voted for, the stories his mother told him, the prejudices he has accumulated and the inherited social status."

The future, for its part, was measured by dreams and fears: "If he is a farmer, the fear of losing his job, if he is a black man, his aspiration to equal freedom…".

Forget what Theodore White said.

Forget also the famous mantra coined by James Carville, advisor to Democrat Bill Clinton, in his successful 1992 campaign: "It's the economy, stupid."

Forget all those campaign books of the past and all the policy manuals.

The presidential race for the White House in this 2020 breaks a good part of the paradigms of the past, includes characters who do not conform to the established codes, takes place during the worst pandemic in a century and has given a final turn of the screw of consequences unpredictable: Donald Trump's hospitalization for coronavirus.

EL PAÍS kicks off this weekend its special coverage for the great appointment of the United States with the polls, on November 3.

The correspondent Pablo Ximénez de Sandoval has traveled to Arizona, one of those pendular territories and key in the result, and has taken the pulse of some Republicans angry with the president, just the day they learned the news of his contagion by Covid.

Pablo Guimón has made a deep X-ray of the economy, which went from being Trump's great electoral asset to entering an induced coma, with one foot in Ohio and the other in New York, with his eyes on the factory and Wall Street.

You can also read the essay that the writer Richard Ford has done for EL PAÍS SEMANAL about the spirit of a country mired in doubts and a prisoner of social fracture: "In the United States you can breathe danger."

The magazine also includes an analysis on the Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his number two, the aspiring vice president, Kamala Harris.

The uncertainty of the most powerful country in the world has just increased with the illness of its commander-in-chief, Donald Trump.

From Washington, Yolande Monge, Antonia Laborde and Amanda Mars follow in detail all the evolution of their disease, the confusion created between the medical part of the doctors and the later version - much more negative - of the chief of staff.

“The next 48 will be critical.

We are not yet on a clear path to recovery, ”said Mark Meadows.

In the live broadcast that we have just launched, you will be able to follow all the news of this campaign, the most unusual and important in recent history.

The only certainty is the date.

To try to understand everything else, Kiko Llaneras and Jorge Galindo will periodically dissect everything that the polls and surveys count.

We will publish opinion articles and interviews with the most relevant voices from different areas of the American reality to address the challenges of the country.

We recommend these and other pieces to better understand the keys to this exciting final stretch of the campaign.

Fasten seat belts.

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