There’s good news on the horizon for attention-deprived candidates: Millions of voters will soon be glued to their television screens in a normally dead time for campaign advertising. The bad news is that it’s the Summer Olympics, and candidates and outside groups will have to spend a premium to reach those viewers. It’s easily one […]
Moments after the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the constitutionality of the health care law, observers were already assessing its political implications for the November elections. The decision “amounts to a massive political win for the incumbent,” wrote Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post. “The decision will certainly be a plus for President Barack Obama’s re-election […]
Back in October, President Barack Obama’s job approval rating stood at 44 percent in the NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey and only 17 percent of voters said that things in the country were “generally headed in the right direction.” Those numbers suggested that the president would lose re-election unless he was able to change the […]
The 2012 presidential election looks like it could well be another squeaker, and if it is, a number of possible outcomes could produce national hand-wringing, finger-pointing, complaints of unfairness and anger, further dividing Americans and undermining confidence in our political system. A dozen years ago, Democrat Al Gore drew 540,000 votes more than Republican George […]
I never include the Keystone State in my list of presidential swing states for November. Am I making a mistake? Possibly. There are plenty of reasons to leave the commonwealth of Pennsylvania off any list of the most competitive states that will decide the next president. While the 2000 national election split the country almost […]
Little did I know that what I figured was a relatively innocuous column about the Democrats’ problems in North Carolina, where the party will hold its national convention in early September, would generate such a flood of angry attacks. “Dear Stuart,” emailed one man from Beulaville, N.C., “Your article about North Carolina’s political situation shows […]
If national Democratic strategists chose Charlotte, N.C., for the party’s national convention because they liked the facilities, the hotel accommodations or the weather in early September, then I guess I can’t yet quibble with the choice. But if David Axelrod and the president’s other political advisers picked the Tar Heel State to make some broader […]
Over the past few months, I’ve written a couple of columns about presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney’s potential running mates Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. Start with some biography, an anecdote or tidbit, add a dash of analysis and a blind quote and you’ve got an entertaining piece. Given that equation, […]
It’s really amazing how some people with years of political experience change their opinions about the political landscape to match the latest poll. It’s not that poll results shouldn’t affect our understanding of politics or inform us about what people are thinking. It’s that too often people behave as if the most recent poll they […]
Three months ago, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney had a very clear message: President Barack Obama had failed to turn the economy around or create jobs and, therefore, didn’t deserve another term. It was a succinct, uncomplicated message, based on easily accessible unemployment and job numbers, as well as on the public’s dissatisfaction with the […]