Concerns over the role of the poll are misguided The high number of public opinion polls was impossible to miss during the 2008 election, and, though the horserace is on break, professional pollsters are keeping busy. Polling is no longer a part-time business, and a wide variety of opinion polls, covering everything from congressional and presidential job approval to health ... Read More
I probably can’t add much to what Steve Benen said, but I feel compelled to comment on Byron York’s recent column on “the black-white divide in Obama’s popularity.” York’s entire column is a laundry list of poll numbers showing that Obama is more popular among blacks than whites. His conclusion? “Black Americans will be a valuable pillar of support for ... Read More
Can black politicians transcend race? Barack Obama was an unlikely standard-bearer for black politicians. He did not work his way up through the ranks of the black establishment and his ties to the old guard of black politics like Jesse Jackson or John Lewis are tenuous and recent. His political presentation is not traditionally “black,” but as the broader appeal ... Read More
New Labour is still the defining movement of British politics “This our hope: not just to promise change but to achieve it. New Labour. New Britain.” In the 1997 parliamentary elections, these words won Tony Blair the largest victory of any prime minister since Clement Attlee. Yet “New Labour” was more than a catchy slogan; Blair aspired to a different ... Read More
Can Michael Steele lead blacks to the Republicans? The recent election of Michael Steele, the first African-American chairman of the Republican National Committee, may be taken to symbolize the necessary modernization of the Grand Old Party, or merely cynical tokenism at its worst. Steele’s victory ended a racially charged contest in which one candidate, Katon Dawson, was discovered to have ... Read More
How Obama is riding out the Democratic storm of scandals From Tom Daschle’s taxes, to Charlie Rangel’s apartments, to Rod Blagojevich’s hair, scandals have recently shaken the Democratic Party. Yet polls show that President Obama and the Democratic brand remain relatively untarnished by this long train of embarrassments. His widespread pre-existing popularity has certainly helped Obama limit the fallout from ... Read More
When identity binds and borders divide Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the relative peace of Iraqi Kurdistan has been a notable, if often overlooked, exception to the violent insurgency, sectarian feuding, and pervasive lawlessness that has racked Iraq. Yet this achievement has also made the area of one of America’s most significant long-term security concerns in the ... Read More
Emptying pockets, shifting concerns Dwight D. Eisenhower once said, “The future of this republic is in the hands of the American voter.” John McCain and Barack Obama would most certainly agree. This November, American citizens cast their votes to decide the course that the nation is to take over the next four years. In a contest that was dominated by ... Read More
Congressional campaigns hinge on local issues This year’s election season was a tough one for Republicans running for Congress. Throughout the summer, leads in national polls and in underlying dynamics allowed Democrats to shape the tenor of many races. Yet history shows that national advantage often transfers to the ballot box in unexpected ways. While the national political climate impacted ... Read More
Historic challenges await America's new leader
Two weeks ago, Obama made a comment to House Republicans that they “can’t just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done”. This was treated as the failure of bipartisanship*, and was perceived as an impolitic thing for him to say. Hypothesis: Obama messed up. Datum: Rush Limbaugh is incredibly unpopular. This story provoked a spate of Republicans rushing (I’m ... Read More
How President Bush Won Latino Voters and His Party Lost Them AgainBy Kenzie Bok ‘11 “George W. Bush’s first foreign trip as President was not to a traditional European ally but to a ranch in a remote region of Mexico, where he met with another newly-elected cowboy president: Vicente Fox.” As Marcelo Suarez-Orozco, University Professor and Co-Director of Immigration Studies ... Read More
The presidential race has taken more of an interesting turn than I could have imagined with John McCain’s selection of Sarah Palin as a running mate. I’m not going to talk about Sarah Palin, but as a confirmed member of the East Coast Liberal Enemy (the Harvard Political Review is pretty much ground zero), I can’t say there’s a single ... Read More
Republicans lately seem to be trying harder to be funny than ever before. And in many cases, they’re actually succeeding—albeit in a a “Charlie Cook thinks we’re screwed anyway, so we might as well stop pretending to take ourselves seriously” kind of way. First there was this web ad put out July 29 by the RNC right after Barack ... Read More
