Politics: More

Jo Freeman, Obama Inspires Republicans: African-Americans achieved a visibility at the winter meeting of the Republican National Committeenot seen in the memory of anyone there, and perhaps not ever on the national level

The States' Parmarks

From Stateline.org's article, States made history Nov. 4, too by Pamela M. Prah

"New Hampshire became the first state in US history to give women the majority in a legislative chamber, said Tim Storey, a state elections expert with the National Conference of State Legislatures. Women will hold 13 of 24 seats in the state Senate.

Meanwhile, the South Carolina Senate went the opposite direction and will become the only state legislative chamber in the country without any female members. The last all-male legislative body was the Louisiana Senate, which had no women from 1980 until mid-1991, NCSL said.

In gubernatorial races, Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue (D) will become North Carolina’s first female governor

Colorado is poised to become the first state to have black lawmakers leading both legislative chambers.

The Alabama Legislature, in Democratic hands since 1872, continues its streak as the legislature held the longest by either party in any state. Close behind, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi have been under Democratic control for more than a century.

Every legislative chamber north of Virginia will be in Democratic hands except for the Pennsylvania Senate, making the Northeast a sea of blue.

The Delaware House went Democratic after 24 years in GOP hands, burnishing its record as one of the most volatile lower chambers in the country. Like the Indiana House, the Delaware House has flipped hands 19 times in 100 years.

Politics

The Secret Lives of Liberals and Conservatives: Personality Profiles, Interaction Styles, and the Things They Leave Behind

"Although skeptics continue to doubt that most people are "ideological," evidence suggests that meaningful left-right differences do exist and that they may be rooted in basic personality dispositions, that is, relatively stable individual differences in psychological needs, motives, and orientations toward the world. Seventy-five years of theory and research on personality and political orientation has produced a long list of dispositions, traits, and behaviors. Applying a theory of ideology as motivated social cognition and a "Big Five" framework, we find that two traits, Openness to New Experiences and Conscientiousness, parsimoniously capture many of the ways in which individual differences underlying political orientation have been conceptualized. In three studies we investigate the relationship between personality and political orientation using multiple domains and measurement techniques, including: self-reported personality assessment; nonverbal behavior in the context of social interaction; and personal possessions and the characteristics of living and working spaces. We obtained consistent and converging evidence that personality differences between liberals and conservatives are robust, replicable, and behaviorally significant, especially with respect to social (vs. economic) dimensions of ideology. In general, liberals are more open-minded, creative, curious, and novelty seeking, whereas conservatives are more orderly, conventional, and better organized."

Monitoring the Election Process

"The non-profit, non-partisan Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) has launched a dynamic new website to help safeguard the fairness and integrity of US elections, using the power of citizen journalism. The Election Protection Wiki is now online at ElectionProtectionWiki.org or EPWiki.org. It enables citizens, journalists and government officials to actively monitor the electoral process in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. CMD and its community of volunteer editors will continue to improve, expand and update the EP Wiki beyond the upcoming November 4th election."

"The Election Protection Wiki is part of CMD's award-winning SourceWatch.org website and operates on wiki software which allows anyone who registers on the website to participate in creating and updating articles. SourceWatch contains in-depth articles on every member of (and most candidates for) the US Congress at Congresspedia.org. CMD employs both professional and volunteer editors who work together online to ensure articles are accurate, fully documented and fair."

"Recent presidential elections were marred by controversies and disputes. Scores of individuals and organizations have been working to investigate and reform US elections, issuing reports and information on topics such as electronic voting machines, voter suppression campaigns and student voting rights. However, this information is spread across many different websites, news sources and databases. The Election Protection Wiki seeks to provide a single web portal for accessing this disparate information. Its information is non-partisan and factual; anyone of any political persuasion will be able to access and use it to protect every American's right to vote."

Sunlight Foundation’s Party Time Project

“ ' The very lawmakers in Congress who are making the decisions about the most massive proposed bailout of industry in history are those who have been wined, dined, and sushi-ed by lobbyists the financial sector,” said Nancy Watzman, director of the Party Time project. “But it’s almost impossible to get this information, because of an embarrassing lack of transparency about the web of relationships connecting lawmakers and lobbyists.' "

"There is no official requirement that these party invitations be reported to the public, although they go out by the dozen to lobbyists. The Sunlight Foundation collects them from sources whose anonymity is protected. Many of the invitations state that lawmakers are members of a particular committee as a draw for donors. While some invitations list hosts who can be looked up on federal lobbying records to see their affiliations, as illustrated above, many do not. With regulations on disclosures of bundling on hold with the US Federal Election Commission (FEC), there is no simple way to trace how much money is raised at such events and from whom."

Dover publications has lightened the political wars. McCain and Obama Paper Dolls are finally available. "Each paper doll set includes a brief biography, descriptive notes, and a bonus 'Election Night Scorecard.' "

McCain Paper Dolls includes white tie and tails, a sweater and slack combo, and more for John McCain while Cindy can be dressed in her wedding dress, full-length gown, and others.

The Barack Obama Paper Doll collection features Senator Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and their two daughters, Malia and Sacha. This elegantly designed set also includes a stunning wardrobe of authentic outfits — both casual and formal styles — worn by the Obama family both on and off the campaign trail.

Campaign Falsehoods and Chain Emails

FactCheck.org compiles a weekly enumeration of the the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases entitled Just the Facts. We've often run excerpts from their findings as well as their website address but it's possible to subscribe to a weekly accumulation of those transgressions.

"The APPC accepts no funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation."

"Yes, there are a few chain e-mails floating around the Web that are actually true – but not many. And when it comes to messages about the top presidential contenders, truth in e-mail is an elusive quality. In our Ask FactCheck feature, launched late last year, we've looked into several e-mails our readers have sent to us. We're just getting started, but overwhelmingly they have turned out to be false. Snopes.com has been investigating e-mail and other urban legends since 1995, and the site's founders, Barbara and David Mikkelson, have written articles about 31 e-mails about Barack Obama and Hillary (and Bill) Clinton. Only two e-mails were completely accurate. While a handful had elements of truth in them or couldn’t be verified, the vast majority were flat-out false."

Finances & Mortgages

"Thanks to a request from Politico, all senators but one have revealed details about their home mortgages — information they aren't required to report but that has been sought after in light of recent revelations that Countrywide Financial cut Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) a break on their loans."

Internet and Politics

A record-breaking 46% of Americans have used the Internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the campaign, share their views and mobilize others. And Barack Obama's backers have an edge in the online political environment.

Furthermore, three online activities have become especially prominent as the presidential primary campaigns have progressed: First, 35% of Americans say they have watched online political videos--a figure that nearly triples the reading the Pew Internet Project got in the 2004 race.

Second, 10% say they have used social networking sites such as Facebook or MySpace to gather information or become involved. This is particularly popular with younger voters: Two-thirds of internet users under the age of 30 have a social networking profile, and half of these use social networking sites to get or share information about politics or the campaigns.

Third, 6% of Americans have made political contributions online, compared with 2% who did that during the entire 2004 campaign.

A significant number of voters are also using the internet to gain access to campaign events and primary documents. Some 39% of online Americans have used the internet to access "unfiltered" campaign materials, which includes video of candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and speech transcripts.

The Naked Campaign From The New Yorker

Mesmerizing we call the videos done by cartoonist Steve Brodner for The New Yorker Magazine in a column called The Naked Campaign. Watch him turn John McCain into Winston Churchill, for instance. Or his surprise about Angelina Jolie's membership on The Council on Foreign Relations.

Voting and Genetics

Phineas

Phineas Finn is not the name of a new candidate in upcoming national elections but the leading character in the second of Anthony Trollope's six "Palliser" novels. Ken Emerson of the Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article, "What the Pols Should Read; Trollope's Phineas Finn is still a politically savvy novel" and we present a brief excerpt from a novel that can be downloaded:

How was it possible that Phineas should stand for Loughshane? From whence was the money to come for such a contest? It was a beautiful dream, a grand idea, lifting Phineas almost off the earth by its glory. When the proposition was first made to him in the smoking-room at the Reform Club by his friend Erle, he was aware that he blushed like a girl, and that he was unable at the moment to express himself plainly — so great was his astonishment and so great his gratification. But before ten minutes had passed by, while Barrington Erle was still sitting over his shoulder on the club sofa, and before the blushes had altogether vanished, he had seen the improbability of the scheme, and had explained to his friend that the thing could not be done. But to his increased astonishment, his friend made nothing of the difficulties. Loughshane, according to Barrington Erle, was so small a place, that the expense would be very little. There were altogether no more than 307 registered electors. The inhabitants were so far removed from the world, and were so ignorant of the world’s good things, that they knew nothing about bribery. The Hon. George Morris, who had sat for the last twenty years, was very unpopular. He had not been near the borough since the last election, he had hardly done more than show himself in Parliament, and had neither given a shilling in the town nor got a place under Government for a single son of Loughshane. “And he has quarrelled with his brother,” said Barrington Erle. “The devil he has! said Phineas. “I thought they always swore by each other.” “It’s at each other they swear now,” said Barrington; “George has asked the Earl for more money, and the Earl has cut up rusty”. Then the negotiator went on to explain that the expenses of the election would be defrayed out of a certain fund collected for such purposes, that Loughshane had been chosen as a cheap place, and that Phineas Finn had been chosen as a safe and promising young man. As for qualification, if any question were raised, that Loughshane had been chosen as a cheap place, and that Phineas Finn had been chosen as a safe and promising young man. As for qualification, if any question were raised, that should be made all right. An Irish candidate was wanted, and a Roman Catholic. So much the Loughshaners would require on their own account when instigated to dismiss from their service that thorough-going Protestant, the Hon. George Morris. Then “the party,” — by which Barrington Erle probably meant the great man in whose service he himself had become a politician — required that the candidate should be a safe man, one who would support “the party,” — not a cantankerous, red-hot semi-Fenian, running about to meetings at the Rotunda, and suchlike, with views of his own about tenant-right and the Irish Church. “But I have views of my own,” said Phineas, blushing again. “Of course you have, my dear boy,” said Barrington, clapping him on the back. “I shouldn’t come to you unless you had views. But your views and ours are the same, and you’re just the lad for Galway. You mightn’t have such an opening again in your life, and of course you’ll stand for Loughshane.” Then the conversation was over, the private secretary went away to arrange some other little matter of the kind, and Phineas Finn was left alone to consider the proposition that had been made to him.

To become a member of the British Parliament! In all those hot contests at the two debating clubs to which he had belonged, this had been the ambition which had moved him. For, after all, to what purpose of their own had those empty debates ever tended? He and three or four others who had called themselves Liberals had been pitted against four or five who had called themselves Conservatives, and night after night they had discussed some ponderous subject without any idea that one would ever persuade another, or that their talking would ever conduce to any action or to any result. But each of these combatants had felt — without daring to announce a hope on the subject among themselves — that the present arena was only a trial-ground for some possible greater amphitheatre, for some future debating club in which debates would lead to action, and in which eloquence would have power, even though persuasion might be out of the question.

Review

Two Papers On Personal Appeal and Politics

"Students who saw silent videos picked the right candidate 58 percent of the time, whereas those viewers who heard full sound or muddled sound were only right 52 and 48 percent of the time, respectively, no better than the results of random guessing."

Forget the campaigns. Disregard the position papers and attack ads. One of the best ways to tell who's going to win an election is to see the candidates on TV, watching them for 10 seconds and keeping the sound off. That's how more than 260 Harvard undergraduates, watching gubernatorial candidates in 58 races, compiled a rather impressive record of forecasting elections. They picked the winner an average 58 percent of the time, according to Thin-Slice Forecasts of Gubernatorial Elections (NBER Working Paper No. 12660). The students were more accurate than any economic measure that the paper's co-authors, Daniel Benjamin and Jesse Shapiro, tested. They were far more accurate than the Harvard students who actually heard what the candidates had to say.

If this gut-level, insta-pick method seems disturbing, take heart. At least Americans aren't alone in skin-deep politics. A study of the 1996 presidential race in Romania found that people could predict the outcome of the first round of voting based merely on photographs and video clips of the candidates. A study last year of Finnish elections found that ratings of candidates' physical attractiveness predicted their success better than ratings of their competence.

Read the rest of the NBER Digest release about the study by Daniel Benjamin and Jesse Shapiro

The Looks of a Winner:
Beauty, Gender and Electoral Success

We study the role of beauty in politics. For the first time, focus is put on differences in how women and men evaluate female and male candidates and how different candidate traits relate to success in real and hypothetical elections. We have collected 16,218 assessments by 2,772 respondents of photos of 1,929 Finnish political candidates. Evaluations of beauty explain success in real elections better than evaluations of competence, intelligence, likability, or trustworthiness. The beauty premium is larger for female candidates, in contrast to findings in previous labor-market studies.

1. Introduction
It is well established that being beautiful confers many advantages on a person. Langlois et al., in a meta-analysis of 102 studies, report that the looks of people influence how they are perceived and treated by others, even by those who know them. And interestingly, attractive persons exhibit more positive behaviors and traits than unattractive persons. An emerging literature in economics demonstrates that the benefits of having good looks, as perceived by others, extend to and are substantial in the labor market. Beautiful people receive higher wages (a so-called beauty premium). According to Hamermesh and Biddle, workers of above-average beauty earn about 10 to 15 percent more than workers of below-average beauty ...

We take this line of inquiry further and ask whether there are benefits to being beautiful in the political arena as well. Is there a political “beauty premium”, such that better looking candidates have a higher chance of becoming elected to public office? In fact the advantage of beauty could, according to the logic of expressive voting, be even greater in elections: in the absence of opportunity cost people might as well vote for the most handsome or beautiful candidate.3 If so, this might be part of what some see as a tendency in elections to legislatures to put focus on candidates rather than on political platforms. We are the first to study how evaluations of male and female political candidates, in particular of their beauty, by male and female respondents differ. Our use of photos representing real political candidates allows us to outline how gender differences in evaluations are related to the electoral performance of male and female candidates.

Third Parties in American Politics: Rich History, Many Roles

Interview with Professor J. David Gillespie, now retired as Presbyterian College's vice president for academic affairs

The Republican and Democratic parties have long dominated the American political landscape. Since 1856, every president elected by US voters has belonged to one of those two parties. Almost every state's governor, members of Congress, and state legislators are also members of these two political groups. But they are not the only political parties active in the United States. There are more than 30 others, which are referred to as third parties.

J. David Gillespie, professor of political science at Presbyterian College and author of Politics at the Periphery: Third Parties in Two-Party America, notes that third parties have always been a part of America's political process and although a third-party candidate has never won the presidency, the organizations play several important roles — from educating voters on specific issues to affecting real change in government policy.

Third parties actually strengthen the government, Gillespie says, by providing a legitimate outlet for those unhappy with the status quo. They give "dissidents a chance to air their grievances within the confines of the electoral process," he explains. "And that, then, probably reduces the prospect of more violent or more aggressive kinds of approaches to political action in this country."

According to Gillespie, however, third-party candidates find the chances of actually getting elected very slim. Factors like ballot-access rules, campaign-finance laws, debate-participation policies, and media focus on the Republican and Democratic candidates all combine to keep other parties out of the White House.

In an interview with the Washington File, Gillespie talked about dualism in American politics and provided his views on the important roles of third parties.
Following is the transcript of that interview:

Interview of J. David Gillespie
Professor of Political Science
Presbyterian College, South Carolina
"Third Parties In American Politics"

QUESTION: The general perception around the world is that the US is a two party system. But, recently, I saw a website listing of 37 independent American political parties. So, clearly, third parties play a role in American politics. Could you explain a little about their role?

MR. GILLESPIE: I would say that the American two party system is probably the most stable two party system on Earth, and there are a number of reasons for that. But third parties have been around since the AntiMasonic Party [which campaigned against secretive, privileged societies] back in the 1820s at the national level, and local third parties existed even before the 1820s. They have been part and parcel of our electoral process throughout most of American history.

The roles that they play in some ways overlap with the roles of the major US parties, the Republicans and Democrats. They help to organize the electoral system by educating voters, and, thereby, organizing voter choices. They play some, usually, rather transitory or peripheral roles, in helping organize the government.

New Link

Washington Wire - An "informal behind-the-scenes look at the capital's comings and goings in a series of newsy, and sometimes even gossipy, items" from the Wall Street Journal. It is collectively produced by some 40 journalists of the newspaper's Washington bureau.

Links

AnnenbergFactCheck - "We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 'consumer advocate' for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in US politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major US political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding."

Washington News - The New York Times has included on this site a link to political organizations, 'Parties & Persuasions,' information, media and commentary (Requires first time registration)

Common Cause - Corporate welfare, soft money, ethics in government, civil rights and other issues form the core of this organization's efforts. There are letters forms to be used to contact representatives.

Center for American Women and Politics - The Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) is a university-based (Rutgers and part of the Eagleton Foundation) research, education and public service center. Its mission is to promote greater understanding and knowledge about women's participation in politics and government and to enhance women's influence and leadership in public life. Facts, research, positions, leadership programs, election information and links. The organization launched Elección Latina whose purpose is to increase the number of Latinas elected to public office at all levels.

C-Span: The Road to The White House - In case the weekly program is missed, use the RealPlayer software to watch programs which focus on the men and women running for office without commercials, the whole mouthful nstead of just the sound bites.

Common Dreams - "An eclectic mix of politics, issues and breaking news with an emphasis on progressive perspectives that are increasingly hard to find with our corporate-dominated media."

CNN Inside Politics - An election calendar offers day-by-day rundown of the election primaries, conventions and debates for 2004. Money, issues, polls and a Who's In, Who's Out feature are available on the site.

House of Commons Debates - Daily oral questions and debates, written answers to questions and a table of contents with names of commons members. Searchable by member's names, dates and document type. Available at 9 ayem on day following debates. The Lords' Debates and written answers also browsable chronologically. C-Span broadcasts the Prime Minister's Question Time.

A section from the site, American Museum of the Moving Image, is dedicated to The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004. It's an online exhibition that presents 250 television commercials from every election year beginning in 1952, when the first campaign ads aired, and including ads from this year’s campaign. The exhibition also features a sidebar section, “The Desktop Candidate,” about the growing role of the Internet in presidential campaigns.

MoveOn - When there is a disconnect between broad public opinion and legislative action, MoveOn builds electronic advocacy groups. Examples of such issues are campaign finance, environmental and energy issues, impeachment, gun safety, and nuclear disarmament. Once a group is assembled, MoveOn provides information and tools to help each individual have the greatest possible impact.

OpenSecrets.org - A nonpartisan, nonprofit research group based in Washington, DC that tracks money in politics, and its effect on elections and public policy. Includes documents about your rep's personal finances through the most recent filings; campaign contributions from gun control and gun rights groups, vote correlations; Campaign finance data for Congress, delegates, and everyone who ran for federal office in 1998; compare the presidential race front-runners' war chests, find top contributors, and search for donors online.

Pew Research Center for the People and the Press - Although this free service is a resource for political leaders, journalists, scholars, and public interest organizations, it's an informative area for all voters, consumers and investors. The Center's Director is Andrew Kohut, a frequent guest on PBS' Lehrer News Hour.

Public Agenda - Overviews, recent articles and arguments for and against the major positions on policy questions. The site is a nonpartisan, nonprofit public opinion research and citizen education organization founded in 1975 by social scientist and author Daniel Yankelovich and former Secy. of State Cyrus Vance in order to, in part, help citizens understand critical policy issues and make informed decisions. Funding is from foundations, professional associations, coalitions and corporations such as AT&T, BellSouth, IBM Intl, William & Flora Hewlett, Fidelity Investments, Charles Stewart Mott, Rockefeller and The Pew Charitable Trust.

The Note from ABC.com - The site defines itself as " a morning news summary that will tell you what you need to know about politics at that critical moment in the news cycle." A frequent guest during the election season on PBS' Charlie Rose talk show (which we TiVo) , Mark Halperin, the unit's director, manages the editorial coverage of politics for ABC and contributes frequently to ABC News broadcasts. To sign up, go to the e-mail registration center, and sign up for the Political Unit, The Note.

TomPaine.com - A journal of opinion inspired by the patriot Thomas Paine, featuring the ideas, opinions, and analyses by historians and critics that are overlooked by the mainstream media. There's a department called Take On The News which reports on the media's failings and successes, an index of the best environmental stories on the web. The site is foundation supported and nonpartisan.

True Majority - An organization founded by Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s, TrueMajority is the education and advocacy project of Priorities, Inc., a nonprofit, nonpartisan, tax-deductible corporation. TrueMajority monitors Congress on issues of social justice and the environment. After registering you'll be sent a short email alert that describes the pending legislation. Then, if you choose, True Majority will send a free fax to your Congressperson for you. The site is also aligned with Rock the Vote, a service registering new voters.