Month: July 2011
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Judis wrong on Reagan, Bush popularity
John Judis writes in The New Republic that Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush “enjoyed great popularity even though polls showed that the public disliked some of their initiatives” because they provided “leadership and not mediation”: Why has Obama continued to opt for compromise? One reason may be that he dislikes conflict and wants to see
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The underpants gnomes theory of Internet politics
Seth Masket makes a useful point about the reasoning used by the third party hypesters at Americans Elect: This whole endeavor seems rather enamored of the idea that American Elect can change American politics by harnessing the power of the Internet. Or as the organization promises, “We’re using the Internet to give every single voter…
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Third party hype: Thomas Friedman redux
Yesterday Thomas Friedman proclaimed that a viable third party presidential candidate will emerge in 2012: Thanks to a quiet political start-up that is now ready to show its hand, a viable, centrist, third presidential ticket, elected by an Internet convention, is going to emerge in 2012. I know it sounds gimmicky — an Internet convention
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Why are GOP governors unpopular?
Nate Silver suggests that Republican governors are unpopular due to their conservatism: [J]ust a year ago, there were plenty of moderate Republican governors — most of them in liberal or moderate states, where they were often quite popular. Now there are almost none, save some borderline cases like Mr. Daniels and Mr. Herbert. The unsurprising
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Obama advisers looking for wrong lessons
According to New York Times columnist David Leonhardt, President Obama’s advisers are seeking inspiration from the campaigns of presidents who were re-elected despite increased unemployment: Mr. Obama’s advisers, meanwhile, are looking for lessons from re-election bids that overcame a first-term rise in unemployment, like those of George W. Bush, Richard Nixon and Dwight Eisenhower, Republicans
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Twitter roundup
From my Twitter feed (7/12-7/19) Brendan Nyhan Jul 19, 2011 at 1:03 PM Powered by Keepstream BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan RT @ddiamond: Two years ago: The ‘death panel’ rumor had just debuted. See how it spread – on page 11 of @BrendanNyhan‘s paper: http://t.co/3iegDwS #HCR http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyha n/health-care-misinformation.p df Jul 19, 2011 at 11:25 AM BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan Recommended
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Who would be blamed for a debt default?
Who would get blamed for an economic downturn resulting from the debt ceiling standoff? John Sides, a political scientist at George Washington University, has argued that incumbents tend to get blamed by voters for bad economic conditions even under divided government. New York Times blogger Nate Silver responds that a debt-induced crisis “would not be
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Bush White House said tax cuts increase revenue
In his column today, Paul Krugman says the White House didn’t make unsupported claims about tax cuts increasing revenue: [E]ven the administration of former President George W. Bush refrained from making extravagant claims about tax-cut magic, at least in part for fear that making such claims would raise questions about the administration’s seriousness. In reality,
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Twitter roundup
From my Twitter feed (7/5-7/12) Brendan Nyhan Jul 12, 2011 at 1:22 PM Powered by Keepstream BrendanNyhan Brendan Nyhan .@jonathanchait says Obama is about as strong as Clinton was at this point, but pers. income growth=3% Clinton, 1% Obama http://j.mp/npOEFf Checking In On Old Friends | The New Republic I’ve been taking a bit of a