Uncategorized
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New NYT: Getting more out of science
From my Upshot column: In 2013, the federal government spent over $30 billion to support basic scientific research. These funds help create knowledge and stimulate greater productivity and commercial activity, but could we get an even better return on our investment? The problem is that the research conducted using federal funds is driven — and
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New NYT: Facts in the end-of-life care debate
From my new Upshot column: Dealing with health care needs at the end of life is a difficult but unavoidable issue in an aging society with rising health care costs like ours. After a failed attempt to deal with the issue as part of the Affordable Care Act, it may again be returning to the
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New NYT: Political consultant market failure
From my new Upshot column: Labor Day signals the beginning of the fall campaign for both political candidates and the consultants whom they pay hundreds of millions of dollars to help them win in November. Will these hired guns be held accountable for their performance on Election Day? The experience of John McLaughlin, the pollster
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New NYT: Fighting Ebola conspiracy theories
From my new Upshot column: Misinformation about politics may often seem silly — the immigration bill will give out free cars! — but the consequences of false beliefs in public health can be deadly. In the developed world, myths about the risks of vaccines have enabled the resurgence of communicable diseases like measles and pertussis.
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New NYT: Potential backlash for Obama on Ferguson
From my new Upshot column: Before Thursday, President Barack Obama had issued only a brief written statement about the events in Ferguson, Mo., a St. Louis suburb that erupted in protests after Saturday’s killing of an unarmed black youth, Michael Brown, by a police officer. But he soon came under pressure to address events there
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New NYT: Political risks for Obama on immigration
From my new Upshot column: With hopes fading of passing an immigration reform bill, President Obama is reportedly contemplating bypassing Congress and making sweeping changes to immigration policy before the midterm elections. Many analysts think the executive action under consideration and its political fallout could, as Ronald Brownstein put it in The National Journal, “define
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New NYT: Impeachment as a wedge issue
From my new Upshot column: A useful definition of a wedge issue is one that unifies a party while splitting the opposition. By that definition, Republican calls to impeach President Obama look like a wedge issue — in favor of Democrats. As a recent CNN poll shows, 65 percent of Americans oppose impeaching Obama, including
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New NYT: Growing animus against presidents
From my new Upshot column: How much do members of the opposite party dislike whoever happens to be president? A lot, and the feeling seems to be getting stronger. A Quinnipiac University poll found that Barack Obama was the most frequent choice of Americans who were asked to name the worst president since World War
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New NYT: Obama and the myth of presidential control
From my new Upshot column: One of the most common criticisms of presidents – especially struggling ones during their second term – is that they have lost control of events. This charge, which has been leveled at chief executives such as Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, has become a mantra lately in coverage of
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New NYT: Avoiding Obama or denouncing him
From my new Upshot column: When an unpopular president faces a difficult midterm election, candidates from his party tend to avoid him and try to focus on local issues, but the nationalization of politics has made this strategy increasingly difficult. Instead, some red-state Democrats are going out of their way to talk about President Obama