John Sides

This is a guest post by Jonathan Oberlander, Professor of Social Medicine and Health Policy and Management at UNC-CH. He is is author of The Political Life of Medicare and is currently working on a book entitled Against All Odds: The American Struggle for Health Care Reform. ***** The Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the […]

The Court has held that Congress can (of course) expand Medicaid to enroll additional people at higher income thresholds, but it cannot take away states’ existing Medicaid funding if they refuse to participate in the expansion.  Of course, states right now are cash-strapped and will be reluctant to turn down federal dollars.  But some may.  […]

Michael Tesler follows up on my earlier post.  He demonstrates two key facts.  First, people who knew of Obama’s comment appear less persuadable than those who did not know of it.  This is why campaign gaffes are not necessarily consequential: the people who know about them have already made up their minds. Second, Tesler compares […]

After Obama made his comment that the “private sector was doing fine” at that press conference, Chris Cillizza defended the notion that “political gaffes matter” and wrote: Is there anyone paying even passing attention to politics who hasn’t seen the Obama clip five times at this point — which, by the way, is less than […]

Washington Post columnist Charles Lane’s opposition to National Science Foundation funding of the social sciences elicited various rebuttals on this blog and elsewhere (e.g., here, here, and here).  Yesterday Lane elaborated his critique here.  Lane’s critique centers on his beliefs that social science research is not rigorous enough to warrant federal funding.  As he put […]

Nate Silver runs down the numbers.  Let me also link to this post.  It cites a study (gated) of the 1932-2000 presidential elections by Richard Powell.  The upshot: Generally, parties do not derive significant electoral benefits in states selected to host the national convention or those in which they control the governorship. Emphasis mine. [Cross-posted […]

Here are a couple graphs for the next time you hear that the “independents are the largest group of American voters” and some species of “to appeal to this vast number of independents you have to take moderate positions.”  Graphs are courtesy of the new Pew Center report (p.28 and 98 of the pdf): First, […]

In the new Marquette Law School poll, there is this finding regarding the gubernatorial recall election: Walker holds a 51 percent favorable to 46 percent unfavorable image among voters, with just 3 percent unable to give an opinion. Walker’s job approval rating is similar, with 51 percent approval and 45 percent disapproval. For Barrett, 41 […]

So this Politico story by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen is making the rounds.  How about we move beyond the claims and counter-claims of Democrats and Republicans to some actual data?  The Project for Excellence in Journalism has been tracking the tone of news coverage since the summer of 2011.  More about their data and […]

Bonus tributes to Earl Scruggs and Merle Watson too.  Here is the Los Angeles Times obituary. [Cross-posted at The Monkey Cage]