The Big Sort : independents

Still Undecided? Ask Your Neighbor.

Bill Bishop — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:14:00 GMT

Undecideds don't vote on issues. If they were interested in issues—or even in the personalities of candidates—they wouldn't be undecideds. "They are not radical, not liberal, not conservative, not reactionary," C. Wright Mills wrote in 1953, "they are...(read more)

This Campaign Has Gone Positively 19th Century

Bill Bishop — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:08:00 GMT

This election is getting out of hand. For one rally, I read, the locals rigged up six horses to a wagon big enough to carry a pipe organ and a glee club with 40 singers. Was this a prop for another Barack Obama mega-rally? Or maybe a Sarah Palin revival?...(read more)

If This Is a "Change" Election, Then What's Changed?

Bill Bishop — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:56:00 GMT

Let's consider what's not new in this election. There's a lot. The last five or six elections have been pushed along by trends that have been in place since the mid-1970s. Despite the extraordinary circumstances this year, the basic political contours...(read more)