There is a tendency in politics to think of communities as static entities – or at least very slow to change. For some Pittsburgh, Pa., is still a smokestack-laden union town and Orange County, Calif., is still rock-ribbed Republican. But four years can be a long time in some places, […] Read more »
Why the Sun Belt Is Sunnier for Democrats
… For Obama, holding the Sun Belt beachheads that he established in 2008 looms as one of the most formidable challenges of 2012. With the emergence of these Sun Belt battlegrounds, the competition for an Electoral College majority now revolves around two distinct poles: the traditional Rust Belt behemoths of […] Read more »
Obama’s Enthusiasm Deficit Could Soon Haunt Him
… Three demographic groups turbocharged Obama’s 7-percentage-point victory over John McCain in 2008: young voters ages 18-29, Latinos, and African-Americans. Their influx changed the composition of the electorate that year, making it look quite different from the makeup of voters in 2000 and 2004. Whether the 2012 electorate looks more […] Read more »
Race in the 2012 election: more demagogics than demographics
… There have been some arguments that the percentage of whites in this year’s electorate will fall from its 2008 level. That’s based on the belief that Latino communities are a growing segment of the American electorate. There is just one problem with that hypothesis: it’s not happening. [cont.] Harry […] Read more »
Yes, the Rich Are Different
As Republicans gather for their national convention in Tampa to nominate a presidential candidate known, in part, as a wealthy businessman, a new nationwide Pew Research Center survey finds that many Americans believe the rich are different than other people. They are viewed as more intelligent and more hardworking but […] Read more »
Making The Election About Race
The Republican ticket is flooding the airwaves with commercials that develop two themes designed to turn the presidential contest into a racially freighted resource competition pitting middle class white voters against the minority poor. … The importance to the Romney-Ryan ticket of two overlapping constituencies — whites without college degrees […] Read more »