Aisle Hog (noun): A person who,at the annual State of the Union address, sits as close as possible to the president’s walkway and snatches a 5-second brush with the POTUS himself, often waiting ten hours or more for the chance. In 2011 Salon published its ranking of the top five Congressional aisle hogs, diving into C-Span’s video archive of the last 10 State of the Unions and immortalizing the results in this clip. At the time, the elite seat snatchers were: Dale Kildee (D-Mich.), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Eliot Engel (D-NY), and Jesse Jackson Jr. ... Read More
Great Debate: Will Politicians Answer the Question?
March 9, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
During the Republican primary debate in Arizona a couple of weeks ago, CNN moderator John King asked one of those slightly askew questions that’s designed to poke through the candidates’ finely tuned allegiance to their talking points. What, King asked the would-be U.S. presidents, is the biggest misconception the public has about you? Here is where Mitt Romney went with that one: “We’ve got to restore America’s promise in this country, where people know that with hard work and education that they’re going to be secure and prosperous and that their kids will have a brighter ... Read More
Was Sarah Palin’s Image Hurt By Tina Fey? You Betcha!
March 8, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
The new HBO movie Game Change, which revisits the 2008 presidential campaign, includes a scene in which Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin watches Tina Fey impersonate her on Saturday Night Live. While that was surely a surreal experience for the Alaska governor, the bigger question is: Did Fey’s spot-on mimicry affect how the rest of us viewed her? Newly published research suggests it did — to the detriment of her party. It finds young adults who watched the NBC comedy series’ Palin parodies were more likely than non-viewers to hold negative views of ... Read More
How Incumbents in Washington Hurt the Economy
March 1, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Conventional wisdom suggests that states are better-served in Washington by elected officials who can stay there long enough to accumulate power, get things done, and funnel home some of that government largesse. The longer an incumbent serves, the higher he or she rises in party ranks, and the more likely constituents will benefit. (The people of Maine, for instance, may be bigger losers than the GOP following the retirement announcement this week of long-serving and well-respected Senator Olympia Snowe.) There is new research, however, that suggests really powerful politicians may ... Read More
Political Fact Checking That Doesn’t Amplify the Lie
November 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Political fact-checking operations have proliferated over the last several campaigns. The Annenberg Public Policy Center launched the original FactCheck.org. The St. Petersburg Times’ PolitiFact won a Pulitzer for famously calling out politicians’ pants when they were on fire. And The Washington Post just launched a new and permanent Fact Checker column. Collectively, they have debunked death panels, vicious lies about light bulbs and birtherism. But there’s a problem with the whole concept. “The danger of print fact checking is that we have to describe what it is that’s ... Read More
Scandals Do Drive Voters — When Abuse of Power Is Involved
November 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Political scandals are, in a sense, like car crashes: They attract our attention because they bring out our morbid curiosity. Will this be the end of a big-time politician’s career? Or will the voters simply shrug? Newly published research suggests the answer depends upon the type of misbehavior that has been uncovered. It finds that while sex scandals tend to get the most media coverage, they have the least impact on voters’ views. “On average, financial scandals are worse than moral ones, and abuses of power amplify the negative effects,” said University of Illinois political ... Read More
Placing the Blame for Death of Cap-and-Trade
April 29, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Matthew Nisbet, a communications professor at American University, floats a series of provocative ideas in a new report on the downfall of cap-and-trade legislation. He concludes that environmental groups were not, in fact, outgunned by the political muscle and pocketbooks of big corporations opposed to climate action. Nor were they thwarted by a mainstream media accused of confusing the public with “false balance” between respected scientists and denial outliers. And what about all those conservative politicians and pundits who polarized the issue? Nisbet suggests Al Gore owns some ... Read More
Democracy No. 11 on Realpolitik’s Top 10 List
February 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
When pro-democracy protesters toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last Friday, American tradition suggests citizens and politicians in the U.S. would have cheered right alongside the revelers in Tahrir Square. After all, America is supposed to be the “shining city upon a hill” — a model democracy always eager to promote and welcome other nations to the club. The stateside reaction, though, has been much murkier. Egyptian democracy could make America less safe, warned former U.S. ambassador John Bolton. It could lead to the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, feared Newt Gingrich. It ... Read More
