… Coming up with a clear economic message isn’t just a problem for Hillary Clinton. It’s a problem for Democrats in general. In Celinda Lake’s polls, Democrats are consistently behind Republicans on the issue of the economy. In recent general election polls, where Clinton beats Trump handily in the horse […] Read more »
Give positive a chance
Consultants are trained by experience, and by mentors, to go negative. There are few more powerful norms among political professionals. When in trouble, when in doubt — whenever, really — attack. … But going negative can be the wrong move. Witness Donna Edwards’s Maryland Senate campaign. CONT. Mark Mellman (Mellman […] Read more »
U.S. Decline Is Campaign Hype, Not Reality
As in any U.S. national election without an incumbent president, the candidates are painting a not very pretty picture: The country is “going to hell,” bluntly asserts the Republican front-runner Donald Trump. … Certainly, problems abound. The recovery from the 2008-09 recession has been uneven and is characterized by widening […] Read more »
Insults and Ads: How Gender Hurts Trump but Doesn’t Lift Clinton
Donald Trump thinks Hillary Clinton is playing “the women’s card.” But evidence suggests that if anything is making gender a potent issue in this campaign, it’s Mr. Trump’s words, not Mrs. Clinton’s. How do we know? New data on the emotional engagement and effectiveness of different campaign messages suggests that […] Read more »
Is the U.S. Ready for Post-Middle-Class Politics?
On April 12 last year, Hillary Clinton formally announced her run for the presidency by posting a two-minute video on YouTube. For the first minute and a half, Clinton was nowhere to be seen. … When the candidate materialized, she instead said this: “Everyday Americans need a champion — and […] Read more »
Trump and Sanders aren’t blazing new trails. Populism has run through U.S. politics for a very long time.
Populism is hard to ignore in the current primary elections. Donald Trump, the self-described political outsider, is promising to “make America great again” by defending the people against Washington insiders, whom he portrays as self-interested, corrupt and incompetent. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont touts his track record as a longtime […] Read more »