Month: September 2008
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Interview on NPR’s Tell Me More Friday
For those who are interested, I’m doing another interview about the misperceptions research I’ve conducted with Jason Reifler. This one is with NPR’s Tell Me More with Michel Martin and will be taped live at 9 AM EST. Check your local listings for when it airs in your area. Alternatively, archived audio should be online
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Interview on The State of Things today
I’ll be appearing on North Carolina Public Radio’s show The State of Things today at 12 PM EST to discuss my research with Jason Reifler on correcting misperceptions — you can listen live at WUNC’s website. Here’s the blurb: Truth, Lies & Politics Thursday, September 18 2008 by Daniel Zola and Frank Stasio As the
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Self-parody alert: WSJ prescribes tax cuts
Here’s a dog-bites-man story for you. Guess what the Wall Street Journal editorial board thinks is the solution to the financial crisis and the looming recession? More tax cuts! What the economy really needs is a big pro-growth tax cut, the kind that will restore confidence and risk-taking. This is an opportunity for both candidates,
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Corrections research in Washington Post
My paper (PDF) with Jason Reifler on correcting misperceptions is featured in today’s Washington Post: Political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler provided two groups of volunteers with the Bush administration’s prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. One group was given a refutation — the comprehensive 2004 Duelfer report that concluded that
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Donald Luskin is a McCain adviser?!
Signs of the apocalypse: National Review Online’s Donald Luskin describes himself as an “adviser to John McCain’s campaign, though as far as I know, the senator has never taken one word of my advice.” This is the same Donald Luskin who UC-Berkeley economist Brad DeLong has repeatedly described as “the Stupidest Man Alive” for his
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Friedman promotes McCain surge myth
How many people are going to repeat John McCain’s absurd claim that his support for the troop surge in Iraq almost cost him the GOP nomination? Here’s Tom Friedman parroting the claim: I respected McCain’s willingness to support the troop surge in Iraq, even if it was going to cost him the Republican nomination. Now
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Hertzberg reads McCain’s mind on Palin
Hendrik Hertzberg claims to know John McCain’s motives in choosing Sarah Palin, which he calls “entirely tactical and mostly… cynical”: With the selection of Sarah Palin, McCain completes the job of defusing the enmity (and forgoing the honor) he earned in 2000, when he condemned Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell as “agents of intolerance.” His
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Bizarre defenses of Palin on “Bush doctrine”
I’m reasonably sympathetic to the point made by Charles Krauthammer, Michael Abramowitz, and others that Sarah Palin might have good reason to have been confused about Charles Gibson’s question “Do you agree with the Bush doctrine?” As they point out, the phrase “Bush doctrine” could reasonably be interpreted different ways. But it’s completely absurd for
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The Clinton/Obama lunch menu
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton met for lunch today, and the New York Times worked hard to bring you this important report: The lunch menu, according to the campaign, was a choice of sandwiches and flatbread pizza from Cosi, plus salad. Beverages were not specified. No details on the beverages?! The Pulitzer committee will not
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McCain’s campaign: Bush 2.0
Josh Marshall has a post up describing the current McCain campaign as “the sleaziest, most dishonest and race-baiting campaign of our lifetimes.” I’m not sure if that’s true, but it is unquestionably sleazy and dishonest. What I think Marshall and others are missing, however, is the extent to which McCain’s campaign builds on the precedents