by Charli Carpenter | 6 Aug 2008 |
If you've not done so, open up your Political Science & Politics and read James Fowler's article "The Colbert Bump in Campaign Donations: More Truthful than Truthy." In this brilliant piece, Fowler empirically tests whether support exists for Stephen Colbert's claim that Congresspersons who appear on his late-night comedy show receive a "bump" in their approval ratings.Now I need to go back through my video archive to make sure I'm correct in...
by Dan Nexon | 5 Aug 2008 |
Wander around the political blogsphere and chances are, at any given moment, you'll find partisans of all stripes bravely stripping away the deceit of their rivals. Indeed, despite the best efforts of the "MSM" to mislead us all, the bloggers will uncover the facts. In 2004 they poured over maps of the Mekong Delta to prove Kerry's falsehoods. They blustered about partisan weighting to prove that Bush was really behind in the polls. They...
by Dan Nexon | 5 Aug 2008 |
What should we consider the limits of responsible campaigning? Like many people, my ideal campaign would focus on policy issues rather than attacks on character. A President's character matters, of course, and I see no ethical reason why attacks on character should be "out of bounds" in a Presidential campaign (but the qualities that make someone a good leader of the Executive Branch are, I would argue, quite different than those the electorate...
by Dan Nexon | 4 Aug 2008 |
Because I shouldn't assume that all of our readers also read The Monkey Cage, I note the debate between, on the one hand, Raymond "Bud" Duvall and Alex Wendt, and, on the other hand, Henry Farrell, about Bud and Alex's Political Theory article, "Sovereignty and the UFO." Round I: Henry engages (with special guest appearance from PTJ).Round Ia: Henry taunts?Round II: Bud and Alex respond.That's all, for now.
by Dan Nexon | 3 Aug 2008 |
Rasmussen:Sixty-nine percent (69%) of voters have seen or heard news coverage of McCain’s ad including Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Just 22% believe the ad was racist. But, most say Obama’s comment about not looking like other Presidents on the dollar bill was racist.If I understand this correctly--and Rasmussen does not produce numbers, nor the wording of the question, for the second finding--then a majority of the American public is right...
by Charli Carpenter | 3 Aug 2008 |
I wonder what readers of the Duck (and my co-bloggers) think about the DoD's "Minerva" social science initiative. Short story is, the Pentagon plans to fund $8 million worth of social science research through the National Science Foundation this year. The NSF program solicitation is to be found here.Today, the Washington Post reported that one "Network of Concerned Anthropologists" has expressed concern with the initiative: "The Pentagon's...
by Peter | 1 Aug 2008 |
What is the "central front" in the war on terrorism?According to Obama, its Afghanistan. According to McCain, its Iraq. Bush--still president--has long asserted that its Iraq.A pair of articles in the NYT yesterday and today suggest otherwise--Pakistan should perhaps be at the center of the discussion.While Obama may in fact be closer to the mark with is focus on Afghanistan, the source of NATO's troubles in Afghanistan seems to be emerging...
by Peter | 31 Jul 2008 |
Its hard to miss the prevailing idea that American hegemony is in a precipitous decline. Earlier this year, Parag Khanna was “Waving Goodbye to Hegemony” in a New York Times Magazine cover story. In Foreign Affairs, Fareed Zakaria recently argued that America needs fundamental reform if it is to avoid a precipitous fall from grace. There have been countless discussions of the “rise of China,” and a resurgent Europe and the loss of America’s...
by Charli Carpenter | 30 Jul 2008 |
Jon Stewart's guest last night, Bill Bishop, makes an argument about US political culture in his book The Big Sort: both about our tendency to "cluster" with those who think as we do, and its detrimental effects. I concur with Bishop, hence I am writing to express my displeasure with this year's Preliminary Program for the American Political Science Association Annual Conference. (At least, with the paper version.) The program used to be...
by Charli Carpenter | 29 Jul 2008 |
The big news story of the day seems to be the "demise" of Scrabulous. "Scrabulous is dead," claims Slashdot. "Scrabulous No More," begins the equivalent post at Digital Savant. Well no, Scrabulous is not dead (not yet anyway), no matter how many laments may appear on Facebook status messages. You can still play Scrabulous, for pity's sake, just not on Facebook. Instead, you must create an account on the regular Scrabulous site, and play there....
by Charli Carpenter | 29 Jul 2008 |
This post is to briefly announce my departure from University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public and International Affairs and relocation to the Department of Political Science at University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Although I've loved Pittsburgh and my students/colleagues at GSPIA (and though we gave serious thought to remaining in the city solely to help galvanize our neighbors in November's general election as we did in the primary),...
by Peter | 28 Jul 2008 |
Sunday, the Washington Post launched a 4 part series giving an in-depth look at Oil. Sunday's part 1 gave a very solid primer on the global Oil economy, and today's installment looks at the impact that China's growing consumption has on both China and the world Oil market.Oil is a complex thing. It ties together nations who otherwise would have little need to interact. It turns regions into strategic security choke points, it lifts and crashes...