RSS

Thomas Schaller

Thomas F. Schaller is an associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and author of Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South.

Recent Articles

I DID WATCH IT....UGH

Thomas SchallerJan 16, 2009

Well, it's an honor to be back here at the Prospect, even for the day, subbing for Ezra, who said in his final post last night that he couldn't bring himself to watch George Bush's farewell speech to the nation.

I did. I even bit a hole through my lip while listening to Bill O'Reilly claim afterward that the American people like Bush as a person, as a "man," even if they don't like him as president.

Five Questions About the New Electorate

For a decade or more, we've been promised an electoral transformation: Younger voters, minorities, and women will prevail over the older, conservative majority. Is this the year the predictions come true?

Thomas SchallerSep 19, 2008

For a decade, Democrats have heard promises that a durable electoral majority was just around the corner. It's easy to construct such a majority on paper: Racial minorities and young voters (those born after 1978) turn out at record levels, working-class whites suppress their socially conservative leanings to vote their pocketbooks, and suburban professionals and their spouses vote together as unified blue households. Such a coalition could obliterate the aging, white, male, socially conservative Republican base that has dominated American politics for most of the past three decades.

A Walk Among the Blue Dogs

Tom Schaller scores a ticket to a Denver event for the Blue Dog caucus and, as Code Pink protests and corporates sponsors look on, considers the role of centrists in today's Democratic Party.

Thomas SchallerAug 26, 2008

Editors' Note: This piece has been corrected.

Jason Smith was not exactly the type of Blue Dog I expected to run into at the invitation-only "A Blue Night in Denver" party the conservative Democratic group hosted here Sunday night.

OBAMA AND CLINTON TO CAMPAIGN TOGETHER.

Thomas SchallerJun 20, 2008

It was announced today that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will campaign together next Friday.

OK, let’s have some fun with this one. What’s going to be the big storyline? And what’s going to be the cute tag name for these events?

THOUGHTS ON RUSSERT

Thomas SchallerJun 20, 2008

Whatever you thought of Tim Russert, boy did it take guts for Linda Hirshman at The Nation to write this critique of him.

As for me, I only had one interaction with him in my life, and it was at a Mike Huckabee event in January at the Val Air ballroom in Des Moines. Russert was standing alone in the crowd near the back and I went up to him. I had a press badge on, though I’m not sure he saw that. I asked him what he thought about Huckabee. He just put his hands up in a semi-surrender way; he literally would not say one word.

Pages