Jeb Bush has long been one of the GOP's most moderate voices on immigration reform, and now the former Florida governor is out with a new book that offers a plan for "resolving immigration issues for the long term" and making gains among Hispanic voters. Alas, it is not a persuasive plan. READ MORE >>
Yes, Nate Silver, Democrats Got Lucky in the Electoral College
A redrawn U.S. map starts a debate over how the party got its edge
Last week, I wrote about a fun "art project" that redrew the country into 50 equally populated states. READ MORE >>
Washington's preferred legislative tool, the manufactured crisis, is based on the idea that when Democrats and Republicans are forced to choose between catastrophe and compromise, they'll choose the latter. READ MORE >>
If the U.S. Looked Like This Map, Romney Would Have Won
A fun, fair attempt at Electoral College reform is still deeply flawed
It was easy to be offended by last month’s movement, among several GOP-led states that went for Obama in 2012, to reapportion electoral votes by congressional district, but it was hard to be surprised. After all, it was just a self-interested scheme to rig presidential elections, and no one mistook it for a serious effort to correct problems with the Electoral College. READ MORE >>
Marco Rubio Is Not the Republican Savior
Appealing to Latinos alone won't solve the GOP's woes
Senator Marco Rubio's quick ascent in Republican politics, as Jonathan Chait has pointed out, is the product of a convenient, simplistic electoral calculus: Mitt Romney lost partly because his opposition to immigration reform alienated an historic percentage of Latino voters. So who better to lead the GOP than Rubio, a charismatic Latino who promises to reverse the party's stance on immigration reform? READ MORE >>
Last summer, President Barack Obama expressed the hope that, if he won the upcoming election, "the fever may break"—a reference, of course, to Republican obstructionism in Congress, the House in particular. Obama won the election; the fever did not break. Why not? READ MORE >>
Karl Rove's bizarre denial after Fox News projected Ohio for President Barack Obama was the only election-night performance worse than American Crossroads'. His super PAC distributed more than $175 million to 30 candidates, of whom 21 lost, despite ample opportunities to take down vulnerable Democrats, like Claire McCaskill, or win open seats, like Dick Lugar's in Indiana. READ MORE >>
The sabermetrics revolution in baseball has been around long enough to warrant a bestselling book and a Hollywood film with several Oscar nominations. Advanced statistics in football, however, haven’t even come close to a Moneyball moment. They haven’t overturned the conventional wisdom or precipitated a titanic struggle with management over how to evaluate players. It’s possible they never will. But football statistics might still be nearing a tipping point, and they’d have very different consequences than sabermetrics. READ MORE >>
One Man, One Vote, One Republican President
Why Ditching the Electoral College Would Benefit the GOP
When Republicans recently announced plans to manipulate how states apportion their Electoral College votes, they were met with a public outcry: An unfair, sneaky exercise in goalpost-moving, critics said. Some architects of the proposed changes have since appeared to back off. READ MORE >>
The Virginia GOP's Self-Defeating Power Grab
Many Democrats were irate at the news that Virginia Republicans are considering changing their state's election laws so that future Electoral College votes will be apportioned by congressional district, rather than on the basis of a winner-takes-all popular vote. READ MORE >>
