The Republican Death Spiral... Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying, and Love Eric Cantor

The Republicans in the House of Representatives now overwhelmingly hail from districts that are safely conservative. With little chance of losing their seats, are those on the far right driving the party's legislative agenda out of the mainstream? In doing so, are they perpetuating their exile by marginalizing moderates who can reach out to independent and dissafected Democratic voters? Do they risk losing even more seats by setting an agenda that members like Jim Gerlach (R-PA) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) cannot rationally vote for?

Geography Is Dividing Democrats Over Energy

Internal strife for the ruling coalition.

Obama’s Partisan, Profane Confidant Reins It In

Has anything really changed?

Welcome to Spring

Get on over to D2L and get ready for learning. More here later.

Illinois Governor in Corruption Scandal

Hmmmm. Maybe giving governors the ability to fill empty Senate seats in a bad idea.

Young voters and everybody else

Andrew Gelman on the youth vote in presidential elections, 1988-2008.

And hey, there's another election today and those crazy Minnesotans are still going at it too....

Lieberman, Lieberman, Lieberman

Ben Pershing:

The Senate is a strange place.... Lieberman is retaining his chairmanship because A) Democrats are now close to 60 votes and need to keep every single one; and B) the Senate is all about personal relationships, and a lot of Lieberman's colleagues still like him and are loyal to him on a personal level, despite what he did in the campaign. Of course, a lot of liberal Democrats think that's ridiculous, but the Senate sometimes seems to pride itself on ignoring public opinion.

President-Elect Starts Taking On Burdens of the Job

No time to wait?

Challenged ballots: You be the judge

What is being argued next door.

Vast Obama network becomes a political football

"[I]t is no simple task to convert an insurgency into a standing army."

More on the transitions underway in both parties here: DNC chair faces $15M debt; fight for RNC boss.

On Howard Dean (DNC Chief Dean to Step Down):

Terence R. McAuliffe, who preceded Dean as chairman, praised the former Vermont governor's performance. "He handled it great," McAuliffe said. "He has done everything expected of the DNC chair. These are tough jobs."

On the GOP side: Can Newt Save the GOP?

Election Reflections

Michael Munger, political scientist (and former co-chair of my dissertation committee), reflects on the challenges running for office as a third-party candidate.

Election myths and the mandate debate

My friend and co-author Brendan Nyhan has collected a number of posts from political scientists on the election results and the idea of an electoral mandate.

For South, a Waning Hold on Politics

More from the NY Times on regionalism and party politics.

A New Day, a New Day in Court in Minnesota

Minnesota not done yet. Would Al Franken in the Senate be as funny as I secretly hope? Probably not.

A Way Out of the Wilderness

Jeff Flake (R-AZ 6) on what comes next. A must read.

The next President of the United States

Great picture here. Wonderful blog btw.

Go Vote!

That is all.

Bob Barr on Third Parties

I caught a brief moment of Bob Barr (2008 Libertarian candidate for president) on CNN this morning. The host was asking him to explain why he was running. He revealed no illusions that he might win and claimed that he wanted to play the role of Ross Perot and influence policy debates.

CNN host: "So you call it [being] a spoiler?"

Barr: "No, we call it a public policy advocate."

Why the "Joe the Plumber" Tax Debate Hasn't Helped McCain

Brian Schaffner (at pollster.com) has an interesting post on taxes and the redistribution of wealth arguing why Joe the Plumber hasn't led to a bump in the polls for McCain. Here is the key graphic.

2004/2008

A comparison of the projected Obama vote to the Kerry vote in 2004. After visible home state effects in AZ and MA nothing really stands out. Obama seems to be doing better than Kerry all over.