… Many have assumed that adherence to a certain conservative purity was the engine of the GOP, and given the party’s demographic homogeneity, this made sense. But re-evaluating recent history in light of Trump, and looking a bit closer at this year’s numbers, something else seems to be the primary […] Read more »
Dissecting Trump 2016 and Reagan 1980 Image Comparisons
How similar are the images of Donald Trump today and Ronald Reagan at the comparable point back in 1980? One of the most striking aspects of Trump’s journey to front-runner status in the GOP campaign has been his extraordinarily negative image — as of today, 63% unfavorable compared with 32% […] Read more »
Sanders’s Practically Unprecedented Success
By steadily increasing his support in national polls to the point where it now essentially equals Hillary Clinton’s, Bernie Sanders has crossed a threshold that few other challengers to a heavily favored front-runner have ever reached. But those gains still leave him facing a steep uphill climb to overcome her […] Read more »
Donald Trump Is No Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan is the Frank Sinatra of Republican politics — all GOP politicians want to be him, and all GOP voters long for someone like him. (Just Google “second coming of Ronald Reagan.”) Enter Donald Trump, the latest Republican candidate to be compared to Reagan. Specifically, Trump supporters — in […] Read more »
The Myth of the ‘Reagan Democrat’
When pundits claim Donald Trump can win the presidency, they often evoke a fabled political species: “Reagan Democrats.” “Are Reagan Democrats becoming Trump Democrats?” wondered CNN commentator Jeffrey Lord last fall in The American Spectator. “I think there’s a lot of Reagan Democrats waiting to vote for him,” declared MSNBC’s […] Read more »
Obama’s Job Approval at Highest Level Since May 2013
President Barack Obama earned a 50% job approval rating for the week ending March 6, his highest weekly average since May 2013. … His current higher overall rating continues to reflect an extreme degree of party polarization, with 87% of Democrats approving of the job Obama is doing as president […] Read more »