At this point in the 1992 election cycle, George H.W. Bush’s approval rating was over 80 percent. A little more than a year later, he trailed the independent candidate Ross Perot in national polls. So it is probably premature to confidently assess whether there’s an opening for Howard Schultz, a […] Read more »
The Ross Perot Myth
George H.W. Bush only lost his re-election bid in 1992 because a peculiar independent candidate from Texas, Ross Perot, drew more voters away from Bush than from Democratic candidate Bill Clinton. It’s one of the most enduring myths in U.S. presidential election history. CONT. FiveThirtyEight See also: Vengeful billionaire sinks President’s […] Read more »
Americans Really Dislike Trump, Clinton. So Why Aren’t Third Parties Doing Better?
So many things about this election are unprecedented — and one of the most obvious is how much voters dislike the candidates. By now, everyone knows that this year features the two most unpopular presumptive major-party candidates on record. But in some ways, Americans’ dislike of the presidential candidates isn’t […] Read more »
2016 Hillary vs. 1992 Bill: How does their polling compare?
As Bill Clinton navigated his way around table corners and selfie-snapping voters at a café in New Mexico this week, he ran into a reporter who asked a question being pondered by pundits: How can Hillary Clinton boost her general election poll numbers against Donald Trump — who already appears […] Read more »
What makes Donald Trump a new kind of candidate
Have we ever seen a candidate like Donald Trump before? Not exactly. Trump combines two political traditions: the political outsider and the fringe candidate. We’ve seen each of them before. But not in one candidate. … It sounds far-fetched to describe Trump as an ideologue. The only cause he deeply […] Read more »
Is Donald Trump the New Ross Perot? Or the Next Pat Buchanan?
We all know what Donald Trump is saying and the issues he’s emphasizing. Many have noted the strong reactions of the media, pundits, and his business associates, some of whom have cut ties. Now the most recent surveys show Trump in the double digits among Republicans nationally. Two new polls […] Read more »