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Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts surprised many in media and political circles. But surely the local press and pundits who followed the race closely for months saw it coming? Not so much. Boston Phoenix political reporter David Bernstein describes what he, and the rest of the local media, missed.
The results of Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts were a clear repudiation of President Obama’s health care reform plans. Or, a vote of frustration against federal government overspending. Or, a vote against Martha Coakley’s abysmally run campaign. In fact, choose whichever you prefer, because without reliable polling before or after the vote it’s anyone’s guess. Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press explains man’s search for meaning.
We recorded this interview during the presidential campaign when the "Bradley effect" was getting a lot of media play. The term comes from Tom Bradley's 1982 California gubernatorial campaign, in which the discrepancy between polling (which predicted he was ahead) and the actual result (he lost) was attributed to white voters not being able to pull the lever for a black candidate. But Democratic and Republican strategists who worked on that campaign tell us there was no Bradley effect even for Bradley. And Nate Silver of the blog 538 says the misnamed phenomenon hasn't been observed since the early 1990s.
On Tuesday night, by 9:30pm anyone who was able to add could predict Barack Obama’s victory. But as Brooke experienced firsthand, many waited to mourn or celebrate until the authoritative voices on the networks called the race. Brooke reflects back on election night.
America voted and the world celebrated. Well, most of the world. The Week's Susan Caskie says that while there was much global exuberance, editorials in the Muslim world tempered expectations with a healthy dose of skepticism.
The Barack Obama campaign's winning web strategy employed the latest in social networking to create a highly efficient update of old-fashioned politicking. Marshall Ganz designed the field-organizer and volunteer training systems that turned Obama's campaign volunteers into organizational leaders.
On Thursday, 20 or so fundraisers, grassroots organizers and political strategists met in Virginia to discuss the future of the conservative movement, soon to be in exile from the federal government. Ross Douthat, senior editor at The Atlantic and author of Grand New Party, says a split is emerging in the center-right mediasphere over what to do next.
Lee Atwater became one of the most complicated and successful Republican political operatives in history by employing a triple threat; spin when you can, change the subject when you can’t and if all else fails – mine the voters’ resentment, and fear, usually of blacks. Stefan Forbes, director of Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, explains the dark legacy of Atwater’s Southern strategy.
