Terrorism typically ratchets up nationalistic impulses in presidential campaigns, a Stanford sociologist says. But which candidate benefits from this dynamic is more nuanced than most political observers realize, said Robb Willer, a Stanford professor of sociology. Stanford News Service interviewed him recently about how terrorism may impact the 2016 presidential […] Read more »
Shocked at evangelicals’ flocking to Trump? Blame it on Reagan
Among the more bizarre developments of the campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is Donald Trump’s apparent popularity among evangelicals. Several polls show Trump garnering a plurality — though not a majority — of evangelical votes. Pundits, religious and otherwise, have been shaking their heads about this. Some evangelicals […] Read more »
No Drama Obama
President Obama’s middling job approval rating has been quite steady over the last few months, devoid of much movement outside of the relatively subtle shifts seen from poll to poll. This is nothing new: Based on Gallup’s polling, Barack Obama’s approval rating has the smallest standard deviation of any modern […] Read more »
How Jimmy Carter championed civil rights — and Ronald Reagan didn’t
… Carter is largely remembered as a feckless leader; even his own party tends to ignore his time in the White House. But he had a strong record on civil rights, and his work to advance the cause would have been far more consequential if his successor, Ronald Reagan, had […] Read more »
Trust Me: We All Liked President Carter Then Too But …
… But, given his defeat in the 1980 presidential election after serving only one term, it is easy to forget that even while serving as president he was held in relatively high esteem by the public for his personal qualities. … The lesson, as I discussed in a previous post […] Read more »
How the Great Wage Slowdown Hurts Democrats
It’s a simple rule: A weak economy makes for an unpopular president. President Obama is on course to become the fourth president of the last six to leave office with an approval rating well below 50 percent. Each of the previous three — both Bushes and Jimmy Carter — also […] Read more »