PapaBigears

This is a guest post from political scientist Jeremy Pressman: ***** While President Barack Obama said on Sunday that the United States would make sure to  “work in lockstep” with Israel to solve the Iranian nuclear question, a difference of opinion apparently has emerged between Israel and the United States. The Obama administration is leaning […]

…the percentage of respondents who accept the Birther myth is, if anything, even higher than it was before Obama released his long-form certificate. Adam Berinsky, writing at Model Politics.  He is referring to Republican respondents in that passage.

Ross Douthat: In the most recent Gallup poll on abortion, as many Americans described themselves as pro-life as called themselves pro-choice. A combined 58 percent of Americans stated that abortion should either be “illegal in all circumstances” or “legal in only a few circumstances.” These results do not vary appreciably by gender: in the first […]

Bob Beatty emails: I wanted to let you know about something that may be singular: a newspaper syndicated column run by political scientists (and one mass media prof). It’s called “Insight Kansas” and we started it a couple of years ago. Basically, it’s five political scientists from across the state, plus a mass media professor, […]

This is a guest post from previous guest contributor Eric McGhee. ***** The latest legal decision is in, and things are looking even better for California’s nascent Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC).  Last Friday, the California Supreme Court ruled strongly in favor of the CRC, declaring unanimously that the commission’s state Senate map should be used […]

A question from a Monkey Cage reader: Is there any research that looks at how the length of an electoral campaign (particularly presidential campaigns) is correlated with whether the incumbent wins or loses?  I’m curious mostly because it seems that Obama has had a lot of time to reposition himself for the upcoming election in […]

Jeff Ely: The way it works now is you write a paper then you send it to a journal and they review it and decide whether to publish it.  The basic unit is the paper.  What if we made the author the basic unit?  Instead of inviting submissions, Econometrica invites applications for the position of […]

My friend and colleague Daniel Ziblatt, a political scientist at Harvard, writes in response to my post: From a comparative and historical perspective, the interesting thing about this issue is that while we may be correct to assert that “theories of parties” predict establishment candidates win primaries, this is really a theory about the U.S, […]

Cranky Reader: Sides, you’re not just a moron, but a coward. Me: Say what? CR: You’ve been hyping the “inevitability of Romney” since, oh, 2008.  Now the South Carolina primary has made you look like an idiot.  And 24 hours later you still haven’t blogged about it.  Coward. Me: Oh, I see. CR: Admit you […]

So apparently Santorum did win the Iowa caucus.  Maybe.  Eight precincts’ numbers can’t be certified.  Justin Wolfers tweets: Iowa, you are a joke: GOP finds errors in caucus results from 131 precincts, & has no count for 8. I attended only one caucus meeting out of the hundreds across Iowa.  But let me use that […]