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Why candidates win: Tactics vs. fundamentals
Today’s NYT news analysis by Jeff Zeleny offers a classic example of how journalists attribute political success to tactical strategies. In the course of an article reviewing President Obama’s political standing, Zeleny notes that Obama’s approval is lower than that of Clinton and Reagan at this point in their terms, which he attributes to their
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Jim Cooper wrongly blames Gingrich for polarization
Joe Nocera’s New York Times column today features Rep. Jim Cooper, a moderate Tennessee Democrat, lamenting the state of Congress. Unfortunately, Cooper almost completely misunderstands cause and effect in his diagnosis of legislative polarization, which focuses, as Nocera writes, on “the internal dynamics of Congress itself”: I thought it would be useful to ask Cooper
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Peggy Noonan reads Obama’s mind
Even when presidents get in trouble, we rarely see evidence of the strain they probably feel, creating a void at the center of the dramatic narrative that the media wants to sell. That’s why journalists and pundits so often rush to fill the void with faux mind-reading and silly interpretations of presidential body language. Consider
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Why I’m excited about the David Leonhardt era
The selection of New York Times economics columnist David Leonhardt as the newspaper’s Washington bureau chief was widely acclaimed when it was announced last month, and rightly so — Leonhardt, a favorite of mine, was recently awarded a Pulitzer Prize for “his graceful penetration of America’s complicated economic questions.” But despite all the acclaim, I
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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