In case you hadn't heard, there was a big storm right before the election. Despite no real evidence, pundits, and even some scholars, have tried to demonstrate an effect of Hurricane Sandy on the election outcome. Is it possible that it had an effect? The likelihood that the hurricane had ...
Read more...
Mitt Romney has stuck with his theme of attacking President Obama over "gutting" the work requirement for welfare. In an often-aired television commercial, Romney's claims that Obama "quietly" dropped the requirement that welfare recipients find work and instead they "just send you a check". As Romney's ad loosely indicates, in ...
Read more...
Unions may be powerful in shaping opinion, even if their political influence is on the wane. It may seem like a long time ago now, but just a few weeks back, the political news was all about Scott Walker beating a recall bid in Wisconsin. At the time, it was ...
Read more...
In 1960, Richard Neustadt wrote Presidential Power, in which he told students of politics that presidential power was the “power to persuade.” Neustadt wasn’t so much talking about shifting public opinion, but Sam Kernell introduced that wrinkle in 1986. On May 9, President Obama announced that his opinion on gay ...
Read more...
YouGov is in the field each week on Saturday mornings with a nationwide, 1,000-person survey. Today, we're going to look at the surveys before and after President Obama’s ABC interview during which he came out in support of same-sex marriage. The interview made news for days --- and was the ...
Read more...
Tragedies inevitably raise political questions. Politics, despite its tawdry reputation, is essentially a competition over matters of fundamental importance. So, when the story of the killing of Trayvon Martin made national news it is not surprising that political posturing soon followed. Ultimately, because politics are involved, any resolution to public-policy ...
Read more...
Previously, I wrote about the divide between liberals and conservatives over the value of college: liberals are far more likely than conservatives (by 20 percentage points) to believe that college is important to financial success. Since then, I've been asked by several people, "then what do conservatives believe is important ...
Read more...
When Rick Santorum chided President Obama for encouraging all Americans to go to college, he received widespread criticism, but it may still have been good politics. According to new survey data, the value of college has been politicized and it is an issue on which liberals and conservatives are worlds apart. ...
Read more...
Leading up to the 2010 election, Model Politics published several posts about the distorted view typical Americans have of those who live around them – overestimating the presence, by large amounts, of everything from illegal immigrants to the number of people making over $250,000. The greatest misperception, however, was in ...
Read more...
The recent tax compromise between the President and Congressional Republicans is dominating headlines – the extension of the Bush era tax cuts could mean a difference of several thousand dollars to the typical family. Do voters care? For most American, not enough to pay to change things. Let us explain: ...
Read more...
