… Frustration with the refusal to stand up for principle is boiling over among younger Democrats. On issue after issue — impeachment, Medicare-for-all, a $15 minimum wage, free public college, a Green New Deal — the answer from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and other Democratic leaders is consistent: Now […] Read more »
Democrats and the ‘electability’ trap. Can anyone define what it means?
“Electability” is the watchword among many Democrats this spring as they begin to evaluate the ever-growing field of candidates for their party’s presidential nomination. The question of who can beat President Trump weighs heavily in voters’ assessments. But is that the real measure that produces presidents? Electability is an elusive […] Read more »
Pessimism Might Not Be a Winning Bet for Republicans
A political lifetime ago, Ronald Reagan’s pollster seized on this question to frame the campaign’s argument during his 1980 presidential campaign: “Is the country headed in the right direction, or is it on the wrong track?” … In the New York Times-CBS News poll for July, 26 percent of respondents […] Read more »
Dissecting Trump 2016 and Reagan 1980 Image Comparisons
How similar are the images of Donald Trump today and Ronald Reagan at the comparable point back in 1980? One of the most striking aspects of Trump’s journey to front-runner status in the GOP campaign has been his extraordinarily negative image — as of today, 63% unfavorable compared with 32% […] Read more »
Sanders’s Practically Unprecedented Success
By steadily increasing his support in national polls to the point where it now essentially equals Hillary Clinton’s, Bernie Sanders has crossed a threshold that few other challengers to a heavily favored front-runner have ever reached. But those gains still leave him facing a steep uphill climb to overcome her […] Read more »
Donald Trump Is No Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan is the Frank Sinatra of Republican politics — all GOP politicians want to be him, and all GOP voters long for someone like him. (Just Google “second coming of Ronald Reagan.”) Enter Donald Trump, the latest Republican candidate to be compared to Reagan. Specifically, Trump supporters — in […] Read more »