… Last summer, President Obama conceded that he had failed to “tell a story to the American people that gives them a sense of unity and purpose and optimism.” … The underlying and more ominous question is whether the story of our species — the greater human narrative — has […] Read more »
How far can President Obama go with an executive order on gun control?
Vice-President Joe Biden’s gun panel is set to report to President Barack Obama next Tuesday. The common view is that any legislation that is at all controversial would have a difficult time getting passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives. Now, Biden has raised the possibility of getting gun control […] Read more »
Presidents Typically Less Popular in Second Term
On the eve of a new term, President Barack Obama’s approval rating currently stands at 56% in the latest three-day Gallup Daily tracking average — seven percentage points higher than the average of his monthly approval ratings (49%) for the first 48 months of his administration, between January 2009 and […] Read more »
Congressional Republicans Are Striking Out
Just about anyone who follows baseball has seen a game where all the close calls seem to go one way, benefiting one team at the expense of the other. So it is with the public’s view of the fiscal-cliff debacle that marked the end of the 112th Congress. Neither party […] Read more »
Transcript of Nate Silver’s ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Reddit
Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight took questions Tuesday on the popular social news site Reddit’s “Ask Me Anything” section. What follows is an edited transcript, with the questions and answers sorted into several subject areas. [cont.] New York Times Read more »
Holy Grail of Voters
After covering eight presidential and seven midterm election campaigns, I still manage to learn new things or come to view things differently. For many years, I have been fixated on independent voters as the political equivalent of the holy grail. But now I believe voters who describe themselves as moderates […] Read more »