Tag Archives: WBUR

Clash over the People’s Pledge

Professor U comments on the clash over the People’s Pledge in the Massachusetts Senate race.

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Your Next Senator Will Be . . .

Your next senator will surely be (your guess here) and that will set things up for (who knows?) to be your next governor. There is a lot of speculation about how the next two years of politics will play out and it is this sort of expert attention that boosted the successes of Governor Tom Reilly and Senator Martha Coakley, as well as the inevitable re-election of the unbeatable Senator Scott Brown.

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Candidates, the Public, and Magic Thinking

Parents love those early years when the children engage in so much magical thinking. We can continue that enjoyment throughout our lives by listening to candidates’ proposals to reduce the federal deficit. Mitt Romney in particular promises to reduce the deficit by some magical formula that relies mostly on us trusting his business acumen. But one interesting lesson to come from this week’s MassInc Polling Group/WBUR poll is that the electorate may engage in less magical thinking than our candidates.

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Political Media: Reader Beware

We can learn a lot about politics from news stories and commentary but we can also be misled at times by poor framing and illogical arguments. There are a couple of good examples from recent pieces on the Scott Brown vs. Elizabeth Warren senate race.

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WBUR poll and the Massachusetts Senate race

Professor Ubertaccio commented in this WBUR piece on their latest polling numbers in the Senate race.

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Democratic Insiders are Panicking!

The media narrative that features nervous Democratic pols, activists, and consultants wringing their hands about Elizabeth Warren’s supposed campaign inadequacies has another entry. Dan Payne, a political commentator at WBUR radio in Boston recently published a column on the station’s web site called “What’s Wrong with the Warren Campaign.” In it, he clearly and cogently lists and describes several popular complaints about Warren’s campaign to date. I’m not referring to complaints from Republicans, mind you; Payne’s list of problems actually represents the fears of nervous Democratic “insiders.”

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Dems on Warren: “The Sky is Falling!” (The Sequel)

A WBUR blog post titled What’s Wrong with the Warren Campaign by Democratic media consultant Dan Payne suggests that some in the party establishment are again eyeing the lifeboats. It’s not my job to buck up the Democrats – I’ve tried before in Dems on Warren: “The Sky is Falling!” – but as an act of Christian mercy (Matthew 25:40) let me give it another try.

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Candidates Should Debate the American Dream

My latest piece for CommonWealth Magazine online is “Debating the American Dream.” The American Dream consists of two core beliefs: that hard work will be rewarded, and that our children’s prospects will exceed our own. Both of those promises are at great risk in Massachusetts and nationally. The citizens of the commonwealth recognize this so I’ve called for a debate between Senator Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren on topics like increased productivity but no income gains, the deep problems being faced by young adults, and the stalling of economic and social mobility in the nation. Unbeknownst to me when I wrote the article, CommonWealth, the Boston Globe, and WBUR have approached the candidates for a series of debates that would include The American Dream. Click here to read Debating the American Dream. And urge the candidates to agree to the debates proposed by CW and its partners.

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Of Catholics, Cherokees, and JP Morgan Chase

MassInc Polling Group released the results of a statewide poll of registered voters last week and some of the internals are telling. MassInc and actually polled a religious variable, the first time in years religion has been publicly surveyed in Massachusetts. Since the poll release the race has become a tussle between the Elizabeth Warren as Cherokee controversy and the Scott Brown as dupe of Wall St. angle.

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Scott Brown Makes White Working Class Sexy

 If there’s one group in Massachusetts politics that has long been downtrodden, disrespected, shortchanged, and taken for granted it is the white working class. But thanks to Scott Brown white workers are cool, hip, sexy, and even – gulp – Republican?

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