presidential elections

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• 5/30/2021
  

  Disregard for the Electoral Process is New and Alarming

  by Donne Levy

  How did the nation reach the point where one party is openly rejecting the democratic process? 

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• SOURCE: Politico
  11/4/2020
  

  The Political Scientist Who Warned Us About Polls

  by David Greenberg

  Political scientist Lindsay Rogers had been warning about the inadequacies of polling for years before the famous "Dewey Defeats Truman" prediction. It appears the news media has failed to learn from his advice. 

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• SOURCE: NPR
  11/2/2020
  

  How To Lose An Election: A Brief History Of The Presidential Concession Speech

  Ultimately, the concession isn't about the losing candidate accepting the loss, it's about their supporters accepting it.

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• SOURCE: TIME
  11/3/2020
  

  Why Swing States Are a Thing

  by Olivia B. Waxman

  Historians and election scholars explain the changes in the political media and the ideological composition of the parties that have made a small number of states politically decisive in presidential elections. 

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• SOURCE: Columbia Journalism Review
  10/26/2020
  

  Q&A: Historian Rick Perlstein on Media ‘Bothsidesism,’ and Why 2020 Definitely Isn’t 1968

  Rick Perlstein has been reluctant to do media appearances, perceiving that journalists may use historical analogy as a shortcut to investigating and explaining the present. He discusses his thoughts on history and the media with CJR. 

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• SOURCE: Harvard Kennedy School
  9/15/2020
  

  If the Electoral College is a Racist Relic, Why has it Endured? (podcast)

  Harvard professor Alex Keyssar's book examines the persistence of the electoral college against rising calls for its abolition, and the influence of racism on the institution. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/8/2020
  

  The Electoral College Will Destroy America

  by Jesse Wegman

  The real problem with the Electoral College isn't that it inflates the power of small states. It erases the votes of tens of millions through state winner-take-all election rules. 

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  8/11/2020
  

  Shirley Chisholm Blazed the Way for Kamala Harris to be Biden’s VP Pick

  “I am not the candidate for Black America, although I am Black and proud. I am not the candidate of the women’s movement of this country, although I am a woman and I’m equally proud of that. I am not the candidate of any political bosses or fat cats or special interests.”

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• How Has the Electoral College Survived for This Long?

  by Alexander Keyssar

  Long after the abolition of slavery, Southern political leaders continued to resist any attempts to replace the Electoral College with a national popular vote.

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• SOURCE: The Guardian
  6/16/2020
  

  Riots Helped Elect Nixon in 1968. Can Trump Benefit From Fear and Loathing Too?

  According to New York University historian Timothy Naftali, Trump's mimicry of Nixon's '68 campaign is "based upon a fundamental misreading of history."

• 
• 5/17/2020
  

  Morning or Mourning in America? Political Advertising and the Politics of Emotion

  by Wendy Melillo

  The Lincoln Project's recent "Mourning in America" ad seeks to connect Donald Trump to deep misery in America. The history of political advertising suggests it's likely to work.

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• SOURCE: LA Times
  3/11/19
  

  Campaigns without end: Today’s presidential marathons took root in 1968

  “These are no longer job interviews. They’re long courtships where people get to know the candidates as if they were dating.”

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• SOURCE: OUP Blog
  5-22-15
  

  Do America’s political parties matter in presidential elections?

  by Richard M. Valelly

  The evolution of the presidential selection system suggests not that American political parties abandoned a key function of party politics sometime in the 1970s, that is, the task of picking the presidential nominee.

• 
• 12-14-14
  

  Just How Much Does the Economy Affect the Outcome of Presidential Elections?

  by Robert Brent Toplin

  It’s time for the media to stop pretending that candidates’ personalities, rhetoric and strategies are what really count.

• 

• Why (and How) FDR Ran for His Third Term

  by Richard Moe

  Credit: Flickr.Throughout American history presidents have brought very different decision-making styles to the White House. George W. Bush once said he was not a “textbook player” when it came to decisions but rather a “gut player,” while Barack Obama has said he makes decisions “based on information and not emotion.” One observer has described our current president’s style as “defiantly deliberative, methodical and measured.” But Franklin D. Roosevelt was in another class altogether when it came to decision-making, and never was this more evident than when the famously social but obsessively secretive president considered whether to run for an unprecedented third term in 1940.