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Why Negative Ads Backfire
Tweet Share on Facebook October 30, 2010 Comment (10)To listen to the barrage of political ads in the last week of the campaign, one would think that Satan is running for office--many offices, in fact, across the country.
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Obama Shouldn’t Hate the Filibuster
Tweet Share on Facebook October 29, 2010 Comment (4)President Obama hates the filibuster, as he explained in his Wednesday night appearance on the Daily Show. Of course, that was after Senator Obama defended the filibuster in 2005.
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A GOP Sweep Would Be the Best Thing to Happen to Democrats
Tweet Share on Facebook October 28, 2010 Comment (9)Things are looking awfully dismal for the Democrats, who--despite an uptick in some polls and fundraising--appear poised to lose control of the House. If there is an enormous wave and low Democratic turnout, it’s conceivable the GOP will take back the Senate, too. But as dispiriting as that may be for the Democratic policy agenda, it could be the best thing to happen to the Democrats politically.
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The Tea Party's 'Real America' Is a Fantasy
Tweet Share on Facebook October 26, 2010 Comment (27)“Real America” is back. And it’s more disingenuous than ever.
The Tea Party movement, we are told by followers and academics studying the phenomenon, is a backlash against the so-called “New Elite,” those who went to prestigious schools, married others who (surprise!) went to prestigious schools, eschew NASCAR for yoga, and live in allegedly “elite” communities in and around New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and San Francisco. Tea Party denizens shout that they want their country back. But the country and communities the Tea Party activists have romanticized don’t exist anymore--or at least, they aren’t dominant enough in American demographics to claim the mantle of “real America.”
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GOP Mud-Slinging in Massachusetts May Alienate Women Voters
Tweet Share on Facebook October 22, 2010 Comment (19)There’s a very dangerous game being played in the campaign for Massachusetts’s 10th District congressional seat (from which Democratic Rep. Bill Delahunt is retiring). And the results could have implications for candidates for higher office as female voters assess GOP candidates’ reactions to the handling of a sexual assault case in the 1990s.
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Why Did Virginia Thomas Call Anita Hill?
Tweet Share on Facebook October 20, 2010 Comment (12)Of all the cringe-inducing and explosive statements made during the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991, one of the most inadvertently entertaining came from the late Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, who was trying to understand why Hill would accuse Supreme Court nominee Thomas of sexual harassment.
“Are you a scorned woman?” Heflin asked in his heavy Alabama drawl.
In retrospect, perhaps the question was legitimate. But it was directed at the wrong woman.
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The 2010 Elections' Shocking Numbers: Spending Up, Turnout Down
Tweet Share on Facebook October 19, 2010 Comment (5)The sad state of American politics is easily summed up in the alarming comparison of two sets of numbers: one, by the Center for Responsive Politics, and the other, by the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University.
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Brett Favre May Be Sleazy, Deadspin Definitely Is
Tweet Share on Facebook October 18, 2010 Comment (15)There are some legitimate issues to consider in the sexting case involving Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre. It is pretty creepy to send via cell phone, as a gossip Web site has alleged without definitive proof, pictures of one’s genitalia, as Favre is accused of doing. Most of us don’t want to see that. Then again, I also really didn’t need to see the gag-inducing photos of Favre’s banged-up ankle and hamstring, as Favre appeared to have sent to a blogger for Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger last winter. Some things are just better left covered up.
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Sharron Angle Insults Women in Debate With Harry Reid
Tweet Share on Facebook October 15, 2010 Comment (23)The record number of Republican women running for statewide offices this year was an encouraging historical development, marking an important diversification in politics. The Democratic party had long driven the growth of females in elected office, and an influx of GOP women—particularly conservative Republican women—is an important advancement.
So why did Sharron Angle have to ruin it?
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Christine O'Donnell Must Drive Serious Republicans Crazy
Tweet Share on Facebook October 14, 2010 Comment (24)Chris Coons had the best question for GOP opponent Christine O’Donnell in Wednesday night’s Delaware Senate debate: “what is she talking about?”
But if Coons, the Democratic nominee, was frustrated or baffled at O’Connell’s uninformed answers, or just non-answers, one can only imagine how it must feel for the serious minds in O’Donnell’s own party.
