Candidates for the Democratic Party nomination will square off Wednesday night in the first of two televised debates. Pundits will focus on what the candidates say. But how politicians speak can be just as important. If you watch, keep your eyes on the candidates’ mannerisms — from hand gestures to […] Read more »
Watching the Democratic debate tonight — with Twitter on the little screen? Keep this in mind.
As the Democrats debate tonight and tomorrow, many people — journalists included — will be watching two screens: on one, the debates themselves, and on the other, Twitter’s stream of hot takes. Recent reports remind us that Twitter does not mirror the world at large. Yet journalists’ reliance on it […] Read more »
Do Debates Change Voters’ Minds? Here’s What the Research Says.
With the 2020 election still more than a year away, there is plenty of time for the people of the United States to shape and reshape their opinions of the 24 candidates currently vying for the Democratic nomination. This week, 20 of those candidates will attempt to shift opinions in […] Read more »
A Lot of Candidates May Make It Seem Like Democracy Is Working, But It Isn’t
If you were hiring someone for a vitally important job, would you begin by interviewing 10 applicants at a time, hoping that the ones with the snappiest sound bites might also be most qualified for the job? Of course not. And yet that’s the bizarre logic behind this week’s Democratic […] Read more »
Cory Booker Is Trailing In The Polls, But Some Democratic Activists Really Like Him
The first Democratic primary debates are nearly here, but the early-state Democratic Party activists I’m interviewing for my book on the future of the party are still largely undecided. Three more activists have committed to supporting just one candidate, but what struck me in this latest round of surveys was […] Read more »
What We Know About The Impact Of Primary Debates
… Political science tends to be skeptical of general election debates. The people who are most likely to tune into debates tend to be highly informed and already engaged in politics — and thus already likely to have formed an opinion. This has become especially true in recent years as […] Read more »