After an era of presidential elections often defined by landslide results, the nation over the last dozen years has entered a period of close contests for the White House. The 2012 voting is the third in the last four to be decided in the popular vote by a margin of […] Read more »
Though More Optimistic, Americans Are Still Sharply Divided
After a campaign season of unprecedented expense and duration, taming the federal deficit and avoiding the fiscal cliff top the public’s To Do list for President Obama and Congress, the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor Poll has found. But in contrast to Washington’s nearly exclusive focus on the budgetary standoff, […] Read more »
The 2012 Enthusiasm Mirage
Key subgroups of President Obama’s winning coalition including Hispanics, young voters, and unmarried women outperformed their 2008 turnout levels, even though these cohorts exuded less enthusiasm to get to the polls than Governor Romney’s core supporters. [cont.] Resurgent Republic Read more »
The Secrets of the 2012 Campaign
… The Romney campaign was shocked on election night. Advisers had predicted that Romney would win decisively. That confidence was based largely on their polling, which was based on a generous interpretation of the electorate. The Obama campaign, by contrast, had several different streams of polling information coming in. [cont.] […] Read more »
Report & video: The Obama Coalition in the 2012 Election and Beyond
Since Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1968 and George McGovern’s run in 1972, progressives have sought to create a multiracial, multiethnic, cross-class coalition—made up of African Americans, Latinos, women, young people, professionals, and economically populist blue-collar whites—supporting an activist government agenda to expand economic opportunities and personal freedoms for […] Read more »
One month later, Republicans find plenty of blame for election loss
Almost a month has passed since Mitt Romney’s defeat in the 2012 presidential election, but the finger pointing continues. Some Republicans charge that Romney was a flawed candidate, while others insist the party’s image was a drag on the ticket. There’s the argument that the Romney campaign was outmaneuvered by […] Read more »