Politics and Policy
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Swing States Project — November 1, 2012 02:50 PM
Toledo Blade disappoints on Jeep-to-China claims
For Ohioans targeted by Romney’s misleading rhetoric, the paper confuses more than it clarifies
OHIO — As Toledo became ground zero in the presidential campaigns’ message war in recent days—over auto industry jobs, in general, and Jeep, in particular— The [Toledo] Blade, unfortunately, did not come through for readers.
While The Blade has covered the evolving story almost daily since last Thursday (the day that Romney said at an Ohio campaign stop that he’d...
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Swing States Project — November 1, 2012 01:37 PM
The Ad Wars: Romney’s Last-Minute Deceptions
Swing state reporters—watch for ninth-inning spitballs
As the presidential race enters its critical final days, Mitt Romney’s campaign has drawn fire for two advertisements that it is airing in key swing states. The first, ”Who Will Do More?”, criticizes President Obama’s handling of the auto bailout; the second, ”Can’t Afford Another Term,” attacks Obama on welfare reform and deficits.
The ads have two key things in...
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Swing States Project — November 1, 2012 11:15 AM
Social Security: a Laurel to The Motley Fool
An investment newsletter breaks down persistent myths
The motto of The Motley Fool is “To Educate, Amuse & Enrich,” and its piece called “5 Huge Myths About Social Security” certainly does educate.
A lot of investors come to the site, and so do young adults seeking financial advice—a group that tends to believe that Social Security won’t be there for them. A web manager for a...
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Swing States Project — November 1, 2012 11:00 AM
In Virginia, skirmishes in the voting wars
O'Keefe sting, trashed voter forms lead to some solid coverage
VIRGINIA — With Election Day fast approaching and this swing state looming large in the contests for both the White House and the Senate, there’s a chance for a large-scale outbreak in the “voting wars”—the running battle over the way elections are conducted.
In recent weeks, in fact, there have already been two skirmishes over those issues—one involving a Republican...
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Swing States Project — October 31, 2012 03:00 PM
Detroit papers on Romney’s misleading Jeep ad
A campaign ad airs in Ohio but gets a close (sometimes muddled) look from Detroit reporters
MICHIGAN — Over the weekend, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney began running a new 30-second ad in Ohio in which he argues that he, rather than President Barack Obama, will better serve the American auto industry—an effort, during the final days of the race, to put a new face on an issue that’s dogged his campaign since the primary. (A...
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Swing States Project — October 30, 2012 02:50 PM
Pundits versus probabilities
The misguided backlash against Nate Silver
Who will win the presidential election next Tuesday? Until recently, the market for analysis of questions like these has been dominated by mainstream political reporters and commentators. Their style leans heavily on qualitative impressions and hazy narratives. But as the audience for quantitative analysis of politics has grown, the establishment analysts have become increasingly defensive about their status.
The most...
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Swing States Project — October 26, 2012 03:00 PM
The most potent spin: lies campaigns tell themselves
Plus: is a split between the popular vote and Electoral College really so rare?
DENVER — The dirty secret of campaign journalism for the next 11 days is that there is no way for conscientious reporters to give readers what they crave most of all—advance knowledge of who is going to win the election. We have reached the point in the campaign when the polls are too close and the dictates of spin too...
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Behind the News — October 26, 2012 02:50 PM
The universality of health reporting
Lessons from five European journalists
Last week 112 journalists and academics from 12 countries met in Athens to talk about health reporting—the nitty-gritty of engaging audiences, building networks of honest sources, dealing with the conflicts of interest that are so pervasive in the medical business, and, of course, following the money.
In the US, we like to say all healthcare, like all politics, is local....
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Swing States Project — October 26, 2012 01:40 PM
The Ad Wars: a laurel to the Sunlight Foundation
Report brings scrutiny to new political ad database
In an important victory for transparency advocates, the Federal Communications Commission recently began requiring broadcasters to post the files of political ad buys online. The new system, which went into effect on Aug. 2, meant that public records of campaign ads would for the first time be available in the same place, bringing fresh hope that murky expenditures on...
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Swing States Project — October 26, 2012 11:00 AM
The momentum behind a misleading narrative
Why reporters have been getting the polls wrong in the presidential race
On Thursday night, Politico beat a retreat in the great momentum debate of 2012. The site's Glenn Thrush and Jennifer Epstein opened a big state-of-the-campaign story with this—“In the past 10 days, Mitt Romney’s campaign has gone from Big Mo to Slow Mo”—and went on to note that "an increasing pile of polling data [is] pointing to a race that...
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Swing States Project — October 26, 2012 06:51 AM
Ask Obama This: Will we have to be older to get Medicare?
We know about Romney’s vouchers, but the president is quiet on the subject of raising eligibility
Over the final days of the campaign, CJR is running a series of pieces under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting themes and questions that reporters and pundits can put to the presidential candidates. So far we’ve asked President Obama about his short term jobs plan and about housing, and Africa, among other things, and asked...
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Swing States Project — October 25, 2012 03:00 PM
In Ohio, campaign coverage is anti-social
Reporting on candidates' social media strategies is largely absent in key battleground
OHIO — Anyone even remotely plugged into the 21st century is well aware that the presidential campaigns, and to a lesser extent down-ballot races, have embraced social media to reach potential voters.
This development has not gone unnoticed by journalists. National outlets—from leading newspapers to magazines to tech-focused sites—turn out a steady stream of stories about the social side of...
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Swing States Project — October 24, 2012 03:12 PM
Ask Obama This: Can you imagine criminal justice reform?
A nearly forgotten topic that impacts the budget, families, and communities
Over the final days of the campaign, CJR is publishing a series of pieces under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting themes and questions that reporters and pundits can consider posing to the presidential candidates. This installment focuses on questions that could (and should) be asked of both candidates, but that seems particularly pressing for the...
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Swing States Project — October 24, 2012 11:10 AM
‘Pittsburgh is getting pounded’ by ads
Top priority race for parties is disturbingly low on local TV news radar
PENNSYLVANIA — Don’t cry for Pennsylvania.
“Save the tears for Pennsylvania’s TV stations passed over by the presidential race,” advised the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Tim McNulty on the paper's Early Returns blog last week. “Pittsburgh is getting pounded” with political ads, McNulty wrote, citing data from the Sunlight Foundation’s Political Ad Sleuth project showing that between October 10 and 17, “the...
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Swing States Project — October 24, 2012 11:00 AM
Ask Obama and Romney this: What about climate change?
Schieffer misses media’s last chance to pop the question on a big stage
Over the final days of the campaign, CJR is running a series of pieces under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting themes and questions that reporters and pundits can put to the presidential candidates. Previous installments have posed questions about a short-term plan for the jobs crisis; about housing; and about the Middle East, China, and...
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Swing States Project — October 23, 2012 04:35 PM
The Ad Wars: Obama’s special message in Spanish
A review of Obama’s and Romney’s Spanish-language TV ads finds contrasts in style, strategy, and sophistication
Barack Obama gazes directly into the camera and speaks in his warmest baritone.
“In the young people known as the DREAMers,” he begins, referring to the young undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children who have led a movement seeking a path to citizenship, “I see the same qualities that Michelle and I try to instill in our...
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The Kicker — October 23, 2012 12:50 PM
Let Detroit do what?
What is the most viewed story on The New York Times website right now?
It's an Op-Ed piece from nearly four years ago, November 18 2008. The author is one Mitt Romney, who may regret the headline: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.
The reason, of course, is that the piece came up in Monday night's debate, followed by a long debate over What Mitt Meant.
Romney argued that he had written that the auto companies:
...can get government help and government guarantees, but they need to go through bankruptcy to get rid of excess cost and the debt burden that they'd — they'd built up.
This was followed by a lot of crosstalk and cross talk:
OBAMA: Governor Romney, that's not what you said...
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Governor Romney, you did not...
ROMNEY: You can take a look at the op-ed...
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: You did not say that you would provide government help.
ROMNEY: I said that we would provide guarantees, and — and that was what was able to allow these companies to go through bankruptcy, to come out of bankruptcy. Under no circumstances would I do anything other than to help this industry get on its feet. And the idea that has been suggested that I would liquidate the industry, of course not. Of course not.
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Let's check the record.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: That's the height of silliness...
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Let — let — let's...
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: I have never said I would liquidate...
(CROSSTALK)
OBAM: ...at the record.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMNEY: ...I would liquidate the industry.
(CROSSTALK)
OBAMA: Governor, the people in Detroit don't forget.
A lot of fact-checkers have weighed in on what Romney actually wrote and on whether his idea of private but government-backed financing for Detroit (as opposed to Obama's government loans) was possible when Detroit was sinking and finance was frozen, and they tend to agree with Obama on this one.On the narrow question of whether Romney recommended any government help, FactCheck.org recognizes that he did:
In fact, Romney called for a “managed bankruptcy” that would include federal “guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing,” which qualifies as indirect government assistance by any definition. What Romney opposed was the direct federal aid Obama implemented.
Clearly, Romney wrote this:
But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.
And anyway, readers are checking the piece out for themselves.
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Swing States Project — October 23, 2012 11:26 AM
Ask Obama and Romney this: Where is Africa?
An enormous opportunity for the US could slip past
Over the final days of the campaign, CJR is running a series of pieces under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting themes and questions that reporters and pundits can put to the presidential candidates. So far we’ve asked President Obama about his short term jobs plan and about housing, and Governor Romney about his plans for...
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Swing States Project — October 22, 2012 04:45 PM
Covering the search for noncitizen voters
AP’s Ivan Moreno won well-deserved praise for staying on the (incredible shrinking) story in Colorado
COLORADO — A young Associated Press reporter has won accolades for staying on the story of the search for noncitizen voters in Colorado—a search spearheaded by Secretary of State Scott Gessler whose 2011 estimate of 11,805 potential noncitizens on state voter rolls recently shrank to 141 and then shrank some more.
Earlier this month, AP awarded Ivan Moreno its weekly...
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Swing States Project — October 22, 2012 11:00 AM
Ask Obama and Romney This: What if China squares off with Japan?
An emerging, and little discussed, dilemma
Over the final days of the campaign, CJR is running a series of pieces under the headline “Ask Obama This” and “Ask Romney This,” suggesting themes and questions that reporters and pundits can put to the presidential candidates. So far we’ve asked President Obama about his short term jobs plan and about housing, and Governor Romney about his plans for...
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