Barack Obama promised two years ago to usher in a new age of scientific reason in government policy. Scientists cheered the end of the Bush era, during which critics — including dozens of Nobel laureates — feared that government research was contorted to fit policy positions rather than used to enlighten them. Obama, once elected, went on to mention science in his inaugural address, using a phrase that became a rallying cry for scientists both inside and outside of government. "I was pretty optimistic when Obama was going to 'restore science to its rightful place' and all the rest," ... Read More
Washington’s Abortive Scientific Renaissance
More like this: Environment, Politics, Science, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Climate Change, Science Policy
Political Tar Is Sticky — Ask Our Muslim President
Opinion polls over the last six months have steadily tracked Barack Obama's decline in public approval. Even the most optimistic Democratic operative has to admit the trend makes sense — the all-important economy has yet to improve much on the president's watch. Last week, however, a much more perplexing poll result came out. The Pew Research Center found that 18 percent of Americans today think the president is a Muslim, up seven percentage points from March of last year. The finding suggests that Americans are not only shifting opinion on Obama's job in office, but also changing their ... Read More
More like this: Culture, Politics, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Islam, John McCain, Muslims
Oil Spill Outlines the Limits of Government
Since oil started gushing into the Gulf of Mexico six weeks ago, government officials have cycled through a series of crisis-management messages. First they were monitoring BP's response, then working with BP, then keeping "a boot on the neck" of BP. Then they were distancing themselves from BP, refusing to share a podium with BP, and finally, this week, investigating BP. Amid the evolving debate about government's role in the disaster cleanup — a debate that has drawn fine distinctions between who's "responsible," who's "accountable" and who's "in charge" — one thing officials haven't ... Read More
More like this: Politics, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Cleanup, Government, Oil Spill
Unconscious Bias Amplifies Anti-Obama Rhetoric
Deeply ingrained but largely unconscious negative attitudes toward African Americans influenced opinions of candidate Barack Obama, and presumably prejudice the way they view his presidency. That’s the conclusion of a newly published study that found subtle racial bias increased the persuasive power of anti-Obama rhetoric — including one patently ridiculous charge. “Although most contemporary Americans deny racial bias, when race is non-consciously activated, people become more susceptible to negative claims about African Americans,” the research team, led by University of Colorado ... Read More
More like this: Culture, Findings, NEWS, Politics Tags: African Americans, Barack Obama, Racism
Obama Has Gone Contest Crazy
In late 2008, the Obama inaugural committee announced a classic contest straight out of Super Bowl sweepstakes season: Submit an essay on what this inauguration means to you, and you and a guest could win an all-expenses-paid trip to this once-in-a-lifetime event! It was a sweet reward for 10 lucky Obamamaniacs and friends, capping the candidate’s campaign theme of grassroots participation-by-Internet (you could, of course, submit your essay online). In retrospect, the open call was a glimpse of strategy to come. Over the past year, the Obama administration has had states competing for ... Read More
More like this: Politics, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Competition, Contests, Politics, White House
Launching Pad: Obama Gives Space Plans Some Gravity
Barack Obama the salesman has spent much of his presidency spinning historic opportunity out of challenge, hard-selling his visions for health care, nuclear disarmament and a green economy. Thursday, he faced one of his toughest conceptual pitches: recasting what looks to many like the end of American manned space flight — at least for the indefinite future — as a beginning to something bigger. Famous astronauts, space bloggers and senators with high-tech constituents to look out for have all balked at Obama's plan, announced in February, to scrap the Constellation program to return ... Read More
More like this: Science, Science & Environment, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Moon, Space
Faith-Based Initiative Still on Its Knees
As a cornerstone of his "compassionate conservatism," George W. Bush created the first White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He hoped to harness the ability of religious groups to provide secular social services inside the arenas they know better than the federal government: their own communities. But the office — created as it was by such an openly religious president — immediately stoked fears of blurring the line between separation of church and state. Eight years later, Barack Obama did not discard the idea (although he did rename the office), and its slow ... Read More
More like this: CAROUSEL, Politics, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Faith, George W Bush, Religion
Political Lens-scape Increasingly Polarized
On the eve of Obama's State of the Union address last week, Gallup released a job-approval poll remarkable not for the president's decline in popularity in his first year (a headline of many recent polls) but for the gap between people who approve of him and those who don't. Eighty-eight percent of Democrats gave him a thumbs-up, while only 23 percent of Republicans agreed. That difference — 65 percentage points — gives Obama the most polarized approval in the first year of any American president since the polling began. Those statistics presaged an odd reaction to Obama's nationally ... Read More
More like this: CAROUSEL, Politics, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Partisanship, Polarization, Politics, Polling
Obama’s Carrot and Shtick Approach
Following Republicans' upset victory in the Massachusetts Senate race last week, the latest narrative about President Obama has said he's out of touch with middle-class Americans. They want jobs; he's trying to give them health care reform. They're worried about the economy; he wants to fix the environment. They want bailouts for their families; he's been giving them to big bankers. In response, the one thing Obama may have done best in his State of the Union to connect to average Americans was something a lot of us do when we're in a bind or have botched something pretty badly: He ... Read More
More like this: CAROUSEL, Politics, The Idea Lobby Tags: Barack Obama, Humor, State of the Union
The State of Student Loans
In his State of the Union speech last night, President Obama took on the topic of steep student loans, touching on an issue Miller-McCune looked at earlier this week. He urged the Senate to pass a bill to "revitalize our community colleges," and he added that this bill will end taxpayer subsidies for student loans (for detailed commentary on this issue, see Tim Dickenson's Rolling Stone article) and re-channel this money into Pell grants. The Pell Grant program gives need-based grants to undergraduates and some grad school students, based on their estimated family contribution, cost of ... Read More
More like this: Findings, Politics Tags: Barack Obama, State of the Union, Student Loans
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