Here are a few scattered thoughts about last night’s entertaining Democratic Debate. There is always a balance between electability and issue or ideological purity. Democrats are confronting it now. In my mind, Sanders and Warren are not electable. Klobuchar and Buttigieg could be. We will know about Bloomberg in the next week. Bloomberg would have […]
Archives
-
The Democrats Go Hard in Vegas
20 Feb 2020
-
Trump & Impeachment Right Now
07 Nov 2019
We are still early in the impeachment saga, but we are at least beginning the next phase. Over the past weeks, Democrats have been conducting a closed investigation into some key evidence and witnesses. The “closed” nature of it was to the public and to members of Congress not on the particular committees (Intelligence and […]
-
Red October: The Democrats Come to Columbus
15 Oct 2019
The Democrats descend on Columbus for the next episode of, “Who Wants to be President?” Twelve candidates will crowd the stage tonight, so expect heavy doses of interrupting, hand-raising, and podium chewing. The debate will be thin on substance–due to time constraints–and thick with drama. Expect an ideal made-for-television event. The race has settled into […]
-
Democratic Debate: S 1, EP 2
01 Aug 2019
Andrew Yang’s closing statement struck near and dear to this professor’s sensibilities. The Democratic debates from the last two nights deserve to be accurately characterized. They are televised events designed to attract viewers. The introductory material feels like a rejected pilot for a dating show. “Here’s Cory–he likes musical montages, dank memes, and chillin’ with […]
-
Campaign 2020 Is Here: Yipee.
26 Jun 2019
The first battalion of Democratic candidates kick off the debate season tonight, and I, for one, could not be happier. There has been a gaping hole in my life, a tireless quest for meaning, a blind shamble toward an existential abyss. A debate season that features two or three dozen candidates getting 90 seconds to […]
-
Mid-term elections are typically rough for the President’s party. Below are some figures that simply lay out results in mid-terms between 1946 and 2014. The first figure looks at results in the U.S. House. Some things jump out quickly. There is a significant amount of variability, but nearly all of it is in negative territory. […]
-
Michael Kruse, of Politico, has written a fascinating piece on rural Democrats in the Midwest. He spoke at length with Terry Goodin, the only Democrat to represent a rural state legislative district in Indiana. Goodin is pro-life, an A+ legislator according to the National Rifle Association, and voted for an amendment to eliminate same-sex marriage […]
-
Coke vs. Pepsi IV
07 Nov 2014
There are few things more fun than sitting back and watching economists fight. My good colleagues Drs. Wheeler and Haymond are in the midst of a tussle over the differences, or lack of differences, between our political parties. Their back and forth is worth a read. In some ways, this is the argument between those […]