More on Top-Down Party Leadership

According to Politico, Barack Obama has worked hard to take over the Democratic National Committee. This is most clearly evident in the way that the DNC has embraced a portion of the expanded party that previously only had a direction connection to Obama's 2008 campaign. The RNC is engaged in it's own party building efforts.

With respect to the ongoing ambient factionalism that we've been talking about, Joshua Tucker argues that extremism within parties makes it harder to win general elections. Politico reports that these factions are "grass-roots energies that lawmakers and strategists can scarcely control." As previously discussed, the conservatives in the GOP are making Newt Gingrich out to be a moderate; something that most Democrats would probably find absurd.

Gingrich's core talent was finding Republicans that could win congressional seats. And remember, ultimately the face of the party is made up of the politicians who decide to run for office and right now some are arguing that the GOP is in a good position to recruit top tier talent.

Was this post a "tab dump?" Yeah, probably, but there is a lot of neat stuff going on in party politics right now – and only so many weeks left in the semester.

Is Lindsey Graham a Good Republican?

Political Wire reports on a resolution issued by the Republicans in Charleston County:

"Sen. Lindsey Graham in the name of bipartisanship continues to weaken the Republican brand and tarnish the ideals of freedom, rule of law, and fiscal conservatism."

On Heterogeneity within Parties

See Seth Masket on majority party dissent with respect to the healthcare bill. A better subtitle might be: what it takes to prolong majority party status -OR- how the Democrats didn't go the the NY23 route.

Also here's an article on Joseph Cao (LA-2), the only Republican to vote for the healthcare bill. More from Politico on party dissenters. Cao is very much not a dissenter in the mold of the so-called "tea-partyers" who have been making up the most interesting faction in the Republican party of late.

UPDATED: There was also some interesting Democratic dissent too from Dennis Kucinich and with the Stupak amendment.

Also Political Scientist Simon Jackman shows that Democrats voting against the healthcare bill in the House tended to represent districts where Obama received a lower vote share in the 2008 presidential election. The New York Times put together a useful interactive table on the 39 Democrats who opposed the bill. And of course, still more about the Democratic schism from Politico.

Exit Polls

Exit Polls from New Jersey and Virginia 2009 elections.

November and the NY 23rd Special Election

UW–Madison's Charles Franklin on the prospects for the remaining candidates in the NY 23rd special election.

More on Third Parties

The GOP hasn't given up in NY-23 special election. Well, at least part of the party hasn't given-up. The National Republican Congressional Committee is maintaining support and Politico Reports:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is warning conservative activists that their support for a third-party candidate in a key upcoming New York special election is a “mistake.”

Contrast Gingrich's GOP boosterism to Sarah Palin's endorsement of the Conservative Party candidate. And she's not alone.

Three's Company

This week we've been reading about third parties in elections and what do you know there is a third-party candidate in the New Jersey gubernatorial election that's getting blamed for making it a squeaker.

Pollster has race at 40.5/40.1/14.6.

The popularity of the independent candidate seems to be based on the unpopularity of the incumbent Democrat and the Republican challenger. It will be exciting to see how many voters show up at the polls on election day and spurn the major parties.

Olympia's 'Betrayal'

Former Republican congressman from Oklahoma on Olympia Snowe's Senate Finance Committee vote. He's suggesting that representatives don't owe their constituents or parties any votes, but only whatever they believe to be in the "nation's interests."

An All New GOP.com

Take a moment in your own blogs to consider the new Republican Party website. How does it relate to the Teachout reading from a couple weeks ago?

Bipartisan Unicorns

Perhaps a (small) bit of bipartisanship is possible in the US Senate in 2009 after all?

First an Op-Ed from John Kerry and Lindsey Graham and today Olympia Snowe votes with the Democrats on healthcare.

More on the US Senate from Rutgers political scientist Ross K. Baker.

Nobody Likes Congress

“When Congress is in the news a lot, it tends to be less popular.”

– John R. Hibbing

Who is in Charge?

Republican congressional leaders (Boehner, McConnell, Kyl, Alexander, and Thune) seem to have grown tired with Michael Steele handling of their party's agenda and image.

Meanwhile, Politico reports that John McCain "has expressed serious concern about the direction of the party and is actively seeking out and supporting candidates who can broaden the party’s reach." McCain seems intent on playing a role in manufacturing future Republicans in Congress.

Speaking about the Steele rebuke, but perhaps also about party politics in general, Senator John Cornyn (R-TX):

Coordination is always tough. We’ve got a bunch of independent actors — everybody is elected from their states or their congressional districts — so it’s always a challenge and always something we can do better.

UPDATE: More on that Republican faction called tea parties.

CQ Race Ratings for Congressional Races in 2010

A nice interactive map identifying the House races by predicted level of competitiveness.

UPDATE: A Senate watch list from Politico.

On the Ability of Parties to Define Themselves

A number of recent articles have focused on the difficulty that the national parties have in picking their preferred candidates for local races.

Obama, somewhat famously now, seems to have tried to meddle (without success) in the New York gubernatorial election and perhaps the Colorado senatorial nomination contest as well to similar result.

The Republicans don't seem to be fairing much better:

The push by Washington Republicans to identify preferred Senate candidates has stirred resentment and prompted competition from those not impressed by the Washington seal of approval.

In this era of strong congressional parties, it's particularly important to remember the limits that each party faces in simply making itself up.

Health Care, Race and Political Polarization

Marc J. Hetherington and Jonathan D. Weiler:

Former president Jimmy Carter caused a stir when he suggested that opposition to health care reform reflected negative racial attitudes. While there is surely anecdotal evidence to suggest Carter is onto something -- a widely circulated image of President Obama clad in a loincloth and sporting a bone through his nose comes to mind - commentators, conservatives, and the White House dispute the former president.

Our research favors Carter's interpretation and adds some hard data to the debate. In fact, the partisan divide today is even more troubling than if it was driven by race alone.

and

Among whites with above average racial resentment, only 19 percent favored fundamental health care reforms and 57 percent favored the present system. Among those who have below average racial resentment, more than twice as many (45 percent) favored government run health care and less than half as many (25 percent) favored the status quo.

via The Monkey Cage

Baucus's bill gets no love from GOP

That mythical ship of bipartisanship has sank:

But after months of closed-door talks, none of the three Republicans involved the bipartisan Gang of Six is expected to declare support for the bill Wednesday.

See also Jonathan Chait on moderates.

GOP's New Diversity Push

New faces for the Republican Party:

From the West Coast to the East Coast, in some of the smallest and largest states in the nation, the party is currently fielding an unusually diverse crop of serious statewide candidates drawn from the seemingly endless list of constituencies the GOP lost in 2008—notably women, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans and young people.

Talking about Talks

Barack Obama is giving a healthcare address tonight in front of a joint session of Congress. The media and associated pundits are billing this as a “It’s a dramatic moment, almost like a heavyweight fight.” But political science suggests otherwise.

The Monkey Cage cites George Edwards:

…statistically significant changes in approval rarely follow a televised presidential address. Typically, the president’s ratings hardly move at all. Most changes are well within the margin of error— and many of them show a loss of approval.

Welcome to Fall

The D2L site is going live today. I'm so excited my hands are shaking as I type this.

Specter To Switch Parties

Of course the important bit is that the Democrats will have 60 votes once the Minnesota business wraps up in June or July.

UPDATE: The complete announcement from Specter.

UPDATE 2: Michael Steele:

Some in the Republican Party are happy about this. I am not. Let's be honest -- Sen. Specter didn't leave the GOP based on principles of any kind. He left to further his personal political interests because he knew that he was going to lose a Republican primary due to his left-wing voting record.

UPDATE 3: Go read this insightful post Why Specter Did It -- And Had To Do It by Eric Kleefeld on TPM.

UPDATE 4 (last one): So what kind of Democrat is Specter going to be? Nolan McCarty cites actual research on the topic and suggests that "he'll be the 34th most liberal. Such a move would put him solidly within the Democratic fold near Herb Kohl and Diane Feinstein."

The Partisan Filter, Once Again

John Sides reproduces this graph:

Stopping Dem 60 ‘real hard,’ Cornyn fears

John Cornyn (Texas):

Everybody who runs could be the potential tipping point to get Democrats to 60. We’ve not only got to play defense; we’ve got to claw our way back in 2010. It’ll be a huge challenge.

Specter's Stimulus Vote Looms Large in Race

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) on Arlen Specter and his mounting primary challenge:

While I doubt Arlen could win an election in my home state of Texas, I am certain that I could not get elected in Pennsylvania. I believe that Senator Specter is our best bet to keep this Senate seat in the GOP column.

New York Times/CBS News Poll

Why the Democrats Can't Govern

The Democrats have met the enemy and they are.....the Democrats?

Popularity and the NES Feeling Thermometer

Phil Klinkner uses the National Election Study data from 2008 to show why Rush Limbaugh is such an attractive target for the Democrats. He's massively unpopular.

Liberal Groups Are Flexing New Muscle in Lobby Wars

The Democrats have an extended party too.

R.N.C. Chairman Apologizes to Limbaugh in Flap Over His Role

It's pretty amazing that the newly installed RNC Chair has to kowtow to a talk radio host. If we're searching for some sort of hierarchy of elites in the extended GOP (and we are), it's clear that Rush Limbaugh is above Michael Steele.

Video of Steele making comments about Limbaugh from D.L. Hughley Breaks the News. However, it's the Republican Party that seems broken.

Rush Limbaugh on Bipartisanship

"Where the hell do we get to compromise when we believe in our principles?"

Newt. Again.

Fits nicely with our readings for the Congress week.

One Side to Every Story

With attempts at bipartisanship, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Deal Struck on $789 Billion Stimulus

But even as Congressional leaders and top White House officials went through the package with a carving knife, it was clear that the three Republicans who agreed to support the bill in the Senate wielded extraordinary power, and along with conservative Democrats in their coalition, had put a firm stamp on the stimulus package.

Democrats target the Weak... Like Jim Sensenbrenner???

The Democrats are doing what all parties do, targeting opponents they think are vulnerable. 28 Republicans in the House of Reps are being pelted with radio ads because of their votes on the stimulus bill. So why then, are they targeting Jim Sensenbrenner in WI-05!? He has about as safe a district as any Republican in the Midwest. What do you think? Do Democrats on Capitol Hill actually think they can win in Waukesha, or are they just trying to make Jim squirm?

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.

New York Times Endorsements Through the Ages

The New York Times has endorsed Obama today which isn't very interesting (or at least it's not very surprising). They do have a very interesting time line of their past announcements. Included is this gem from the three candidate race of 1912:

"It is to the interest of the Nation that the Republican party should be preserved as an organized, coherent opposition. The public welfare is not preserved by the collapse of a great party, by the rise of discordant factions in place of a compact organization."

House Republicans Bow to Political Reality

The budget constrained National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has had to make some tough choices about which incumbents to support.

Undecided

David Sedaris on undecided voters, not for the faint of heart.

Obama’s Ad Effort Swamps McCain and Nears Record

More on Obama's groundbreaking advertisement efforts.

The Blogging Scholarship

See, blogging is different than discussion boards. Cash money offer. No need to even send me ten percent.

Obama Ads Invade Video Games

So the Obama campaign has purchased ads in video games. Since I'm not much of a gamer (go Wii Sports!!), I don't think I'll run across any of these. Politico has a gallery of them if you want to take a look.

Is It Over?

Larry Bartels on the probability that Obama wins the election.

Debate Reaction: Town Hall Debate

On pollster.com there is a collection of surveys related to last night's debate. Most interesting to me is the CBS News survey of 500 voters who previously claimed to be uncommitted. Check it out.

The No Votes

Cool info graphics from the New York Times on the no votes on the bailout plan.

Candidates Clash on the Economy and Iraq in Debate

Who won the debate? Discuss on your blogs.

Lawmakers Agree on Outline of Bailout

Here is post. Here is another interesting post about the bailout.

Now this is a party.

All-Time Favorite Political Ads

This is both a history of TV and political ads. Very interesting and someone requested more video clips.



You can find more ads at The Living Room Candidate.

Big Financiers Start Lobbying for Wider Aid

Did you think the bailout would be politics free?

Pact on Debates Will Let McCain and Obama Spar

The story about the negotiation for setting the rules for the debates is pretty interesting. I also like the idea that the candidates are watching film of their rivals previous debates.

Bush Urges Congress to Enact Rescue Package

Almost by definition a crisis will shock the system it is occurring in. It's fascinating to watch the political system, and in particular the party system, absorb and react to the ongoing economic crisis.

It's easy to mumble vague sentiments about coming together or issue attacks at your rival partisans. But it will be more interesting to see who gets to (re-)build the new regulatory regimes and institutional structure of capitalism that is currently being handled by Treasury Secretary Paulson and the Federal Reserve. Congress will likely not sit on the sidelines for too long.

See also this WSJ article:

"Why does one person have the right to grant $85 billion in a bailout without the scrutiny and transparency the American people deserve?" asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.), a reference to the loan the Fed gave AIG with the Treasury Department's blessing.

More in the NY Times which features supportive Democratic Senators.

2008 Iowa Caucus

Pictures from your humble instructor. We were told the Republicans just sorta show up and vote as if it were a primary, so most of the action captures the Democrats.

The Electoral College favors voters in small states

An excellent (and highly readable) post by a political scientist and statistician.

The Power of Political Misinformation

Interesting article on attempts to correct misinformation during campaigns. Note some of the research mentioned was conducted by graduate school friends (and a co-author of mine, Brendan Nyhan, who also provided the pointer).

All Palin all the time

They don't seem to be gathered all together well, but if you click around the ABC News site you can find quite a few video clips of the Palin/ABC interview.

UPDATE: This clip is pretty long.

will.i.vote: Can Young People Actually Make A Difference This Year?

Signs of an increasing youth vote.

Palin Profiteers

Fox News has an article up on different merchandise being sold to cash in on Sarah Palin's sudden popularity. More evidence that parties (and even candidates) have declining ability to control their own media images. Also a gallery of products.

Electoral College Calculator

From the Wall Street Journal, a nifty electoral college calculator.

Obama on Letterman

I tend to find candidates' appearances on The Daily Show to be pretty awesome. McCain is certainly at his best on the couch as compared to the stump. Last night's clip shows that Letterman can still compete with Stewart. Obama is pretty funny too.

Polls, Polls, Polls

In my mind, the best source for kind of horse race polling data we all crave this season is at Pollster.com. One of the nice things they do is to aggregate different polls from many polling firms. This helps to cancel out bad samples that any one pollster might draw in a given week. For the state-level polls this is probably particularly useful.

The 2008 political conventions of the United States

The Big Picture is a blog where each post is a photo set involving some current event. This week, the national political conventions.

Good Blogs

People often ask what are good blogs about politics.

I often point them toward my friend and co-author Brendan Nyhan who maintains a blog that is often focused on spin, the media's coverage of politics, and fact checking more generally.

UWM's Tom Holbrook is maintaining a blog about Election '08. Over at Madison, Charles Franklin has a blog about polling, Political Arithmetik.

The New York Times is now maintaining a fairly large stable of blogs as well. And not all of them are about politics. I'm quite fond of Mark Bittman's food blog Bitten.

If you start to follow multiple blogs you might want to check out using a feed reader so that the posts come to you. Check out Google Reader or maybe NewsGator (I use their NetNewsWire).

The Party Conventions

Among many other places you can find the speeches from the Republican National Convention and the Democratic National Convention at the iTunes Music Store.

Welcome to Fall

Welcome to the Fall 2008 Party Politics in America online course blog.

No Joke: Colbert's Campaign May Run Afoul of Law

Nice article detailing the swamp that Colbert is wading into.

Follow up with "Clean Election"

My last post was rather jaded toward campaign finance reform. But as many students have expressed in blogs, money has a lot to do with parties, candidates, and the party system... which may make things less democratic.

I criticized this issue due to lack of a concrete way for money in politics to get in control. I followed up with what campaign finance people on campus to see what they thought about my concerns. I found out they are doing some interesting things with petitioning for local legislation, make college government "clean" (meaning many different things and will have to be well defined) as well as gaining support from candidates who are willing to run a "clean election." What I was surprised to find out was that they have had some success in a few states/elections (2 to be exact). Here's some evidence of the success of this reform effort from Democracy Matters:
"Maine:• In 2006, 78% of the Maine legislature had run as "clean candidates," owing their allegiance to no one but their constituents.• The number of competitive races doubled between 1998 and 2004, and the number of incumbents re-elected declined.• In 2004, 8 of 11 third party candidates (Green Party) qualified for the same level of public financing as other candidates."

Like we talked about in class today (10-18-07), money affects access, which affects how the entire party system looks and works. There are obviously other structural and psychological factors that may.

Maybe Wisconsin could be the next or maybe it will have to start with UWM's Student government. It seems that if enough people care about money in campaigns (like expressed in 421 blogs) there could be an increase in "clean elections."

The Difference Between a Party and a Faction

In today's New York Times, James Dobson nicely sums up the difference between partisans and issue activists:

The other approach [to voting], which I find problematic, is to choose a candidate according to the likelihood of electoral success or failure. Polls don’t measure right and wrong; voting according to the possibility of winning or losing can lead directly to the compromise of one’s principles. In the present political climate, it could result in the abandonment of cherished beliefs that conservative Christians have promoted and defended for decades. Winning the presidential election is vitally important, but not at the expense of what we hold most dear.

The text of the op-ed reads like a not-to-subtle threat to the GOP presidential candidates.

Does Democracy Matter?

From reading many of your posts last week, I mulled over previous notions about campaign finance reform, clean elections, and other notions that seemingly advocate for a political system with less focus on money and more focus on the masses.

Reform is a political beast. Honestly, reform of financing in our system seems so overwhelming in terms of what can actually change. The McCain-Feingold reform was a rollercoaster with lots of hype, but in the end it was just a bunch of loopholes. This is frustrating to those who value the ideals of democracy.

There are advocacy groups, one here on campus in fact, that work toward cleaner elections. Group's website. Their ideas are working toward a more ideal democracy; potentially a more democratic democracy, but how do I know it will matter? Activity toward reform still seems so overbearing it's hard to latch onto on more than a conceptual basis.

Reform is a political beast, but just not a sexy beast.

A Guide to the Political Herds (nytimes.com)

The link to the New York Times piece on political herds as mentioned in class on Monday. It's a fancy flashy web interactive experience.

Do Primary Polls Matter?

Every presidential election there is always a buzz surrounding the first primaries. Iowa and New Hampshire, South Carolina, and now Florida, get attention in a diversity of ways. These states get more visits, more rallies, more pictures are taken, and more babies kissed. Another election essential that shows up is polling. The national and statewide polls are adding up already, but some question the early bird validity.

In an article from Pollster.com, primary polls that are taken several months in advance are given a skeptical eye. Do people know already who they want to vote for? At one point, I thought I knew, but now I'm not so sure. The poll in this article reports around 85% of voters being fairly certain of who they are voting for between Iowa, NH, and SC.

The media and the polls have a great deal of influence over the primary scene and polling data at this point. They call it a "horse race" for a reason. The front runner gets all the attention while those not in first are pinned as losers and tend to receive more negative attention. Is that the case in this election? It seems Clinton has been getting more attention, some positive and some negative, but more than the runner's up. The same could be said for Giuliani. Are folks like Kucinich and Brownback sitting on their couches? Why aren't they in the news? Or maybe these candidates are doing a better job of getting positive media attention, like with Clinton's Health Care sweep this weekend. The Times speaks Clinton's weekend.

If you have made up your mind this early in the race or not, I believe it is hard to deny the constant polls telling you who is the likely winner. Even President Bush couldn't bite his tounge when it came to talking about the '08 prospects. Article. It's real nice to root for the underdog, but who doesn't like a winner?

41

We received URLs from 41 students in the class. You've probably noticed the links to their blogs now appear in the sidebar. Please start using them.

If you don't see your name on that list, we think you don't want a very good grade in the class. Of course, you may have slipped through cracks, but please take this time to convince us that your love for Party Politics in America is strong by (re-)emailing us with your name and URL.

UPDATE: If you can't see the links in the sidebar, please try reloading the page.

Blogger in the News!

For those of you who are new to blogging, welcome. Personally, I cannot say I have gone out of my way to compose a blog outside political science classes, but many do use blogging on a very serious level. I came upon an article that may or may not legitimize blogging and its content, but certainly the potential to say make some debatable formidable statements. Here is a man, a political blogger more precisely, who went out of his way to construct some extremely juicy content for blogging... and was rewarded with publicity (an article in the NY Times at least). Granted, "Low Blow Joe," is not new the the political arena, and received more attention from his blog than a Political Parties student might. But who knows, successful blogging could lead to more than a good grade in this class, it may just lead to juicy enough content (with evidence of course) to have some influence over an election.

Do you think a blog has that potential? How much of a factor will this technology be in the time leading up to the primaries?

Welcome to POL SCI 421

On the course page you can find the syllabus and links to some of the readings:

Party Politics in America

Get Ready for Fall 2007

Lectures MW 12:30-1:45pm.

What's the Matter with Liberals?

"For more than thirty-five years, American politics has followed a populist pattern as predictable as a Punch and Judy show and as conducive to enlightened statesmanship as the cycles of a noisy washing machine. The antagonists of this familiar melodrama are instantly recognizable: the average American, humble, long-suffering, working hard, and paying his taxes; and the liberal elite, the know-it-alls of Manhattan and Malibu, sipping their lattes as they lord it over the peasantry with their fancy college degrees and their friends in the judiciary."

Context needed on Kerry's botched joke

Context is everything, except when its not.

Cursive writing rapidly becoming passé

Justification?

How the Republicans Can Win

How the Democrats Can Win

End of the Revolution

Every revolution begins with the power of an idea and ends when clinging to power is the only idea left. The epitaph for the movement that started when Newt Gingrich and his forces rose from the back bench of the House chamber in 1994 may well have been written last week in the same medium that incubated it: talk radio. On conservative commentator Laura Ingraham's show, the longest-serving Republican House Speaker in history explained why he would not resign despite a sex scandal that has produced a hail of questions about his leadership and the failure to stop one of his members from cyberstalking teenage congressional pages. "If I fold up my tent and leave," Dennis Hastert told her, "then where does that leave us? If the Democrats sweep, then we'd have no ability to fight back and get our message out."

A Guide to The Political Herds

Elephants and Donkeys of different colors, stripes, and locations.

The Inside Agitator

Howard Dean Profile.