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Vox Pop

The Prospect's election 2012 blog

Romney's Endgame

Jaime FullerFeb 17, 2012
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Mitt Romney’s ambitions for the 2012 primary have never been mysterious. He’s in it to win it, and with a weak field, the primaries should have been a mere prelude to his coronation. Things haven't worked out that way.

Gal Pals

Bob MoserFeb 16, 2012

On a day when Slate’s David Weigel announced the birth of a “kinder, gentler” Rick Santorum—asserting that “his culture war talk is softer, more implied”—the former senator’s super PAC sugar daddy demonstrated that he definitely didn’t get the memo.

Romney's Trouble On The Ground

Patrick CaldwellFeb 16, 2012
(Flickr/yorkd)

I've been arguing over the last few days for journalists to be wary of the Santorum bubble, which I think will pop before it amounts to much, despite the current bounce in the polls. But Nate Silver raised an important point I missed earlier this week:

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The Docket

The Prospect's legal affairs blog

No Celebrity Gossip Here

Garrett EppsFeb 17, 2012
(Flickr/mtsofan)

United States v. Alvarez, which I wrote about yesterday, is fascinating in its complexity. The government in this case has asked the Court to hold that it can punish people who lie, regardless of whether they lie to extort money, win political office, or just to impress people at the corner tavern.  The principle is breathtaking in its sweep. In the past, the Court has approved statutes that punish knowingly reckless false statements of fact—but only when those statements cause some measurable harm.

Damn Lies and Double Jeopardy

Garrett EppsFeb 16, 2012
(Flickr/Diacritical)

The Supreme Court comes back into session Tuesday. On that day, the Justices will earn their salaries (and then some) by considering the following questions:

Government Has to Give Reasons

Garrett EppsFeb 10, 2012
(Flickr/thecrazyfilmgirl)

The Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Perry v. Brown drew a letter to the Court suggesting the decision stemmed from “mold infestation” in court buildings. The correspondent is not the only person who hates the decision but has trouble explaining, in legal terms, why.

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The Monkey Cage

Democracy is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage.
— H.L. Mencken

Unpacking the "Zombie" Confusion

Andrew GelmanFeb 17, 2012

John Sides and Larry Bartels have recently spent some space explaining the “political science” view of social class and voting in American politics, in contrast to the claims of journalists Thomas Frank, George Packer, and Jonathan Chait, that working-class whites vote Republican.

Morphing Zombies

Larry BartelsFeb 15, 2012

One of the commenters on John’s “Zombie Politics” post notes that Jonathan Chait has a new piece applauding George Packer, doubting Sides (and Bartels), then transitioning to a discussion of Packer and others discussing Charles Murray’s new book, Coming Apart.

Zombie Politics

John SidesFeb 15, 2012

Zombie politics—a play on Zombie Economics—refers to ideas about politics that have become so cemented in conventional wisdom that it is virtually impossible to dislodge them. It doesn’t matter what the data says, or what published research says, or what this blog or any blog says. Zombie politics means that even though the ideas are dead, they just can’t be killed. I regret using the by-now-hackneyed zombie metaphor, but it remains apt.

And so, George Packer:

Perhaps the biggest political puzzle of our time is why, as the lives of working-class whites have descended from the stability and comfort of “All in the Family” to the chaos and despair of “Gran Torino” and “Winter’s Bone,” these same Americans have voted more and more reliably Republican.

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