The Gamble

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691163634
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (911 download)

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Book Synopsis The Gamble by : John Sides

Download or read book The Gamble written by John Sides and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-09-07 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique "moneyball" look at the 2012 U.S. presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney "Game changer." We heard it so many times during the 2012 U.S. presidential election. But what actually made a difference in the contest—and what was just hype? In this groundbreaking book, John Sides and Lynn Vavreck tell the dramatic story of the election—with a big difference. Using an unusual "moneyball" approach and drawing on extensive quantitative data, they look beyond the anecdote, folklore, and conventional wisdom that often pass for election analysis to separate what was truly important from what was irrelevant. The Gamble combines this data with the best social science research and colorful on-the-ground reporting, providing the most accurate and precise account of the election yet written—and the only book of its kind. In a new preface, the authors reflect on the place of The Gamble in the tradition of presidential election studies, its reception to date, and possible paths for future social science research.

Barack Obama and the New America

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Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1442222654
Total Pages : 253 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (422 download)

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Book Synopsis Barack Obama and the New America by : Larry J. Sabato

Download or read book Barack Obama and the New America written by Larry J. Sabato and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2013-01-16 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Larry Sabato, one of the leading experts in American politics, has brought together respected journalists and academics from across the political spectrum to examine every facet of the 2012 election, and what its development and outcome will mean for the nation moving forward. In frank, accessible prose, each author offers insight that goes beyond the headlines, and dives into the underlying forces and shifts that drove the election from its earliest developments to its dramatic conclusion. Contributing authors joining Larry Sabato with chapters in the book include: Professor Alan Abramowitz of Emory University; Professor Diana Owen of Georgetown University; Jamelle Bouie of American Prospect; Professor James Campbell of SUNY-Buffalo; Political writers and commentators Kyle Kondik and Geoff Skelley of the University of Virginia Center for Politics; Michael Toner, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission; Karen E. Trainer of Wiley Rein LLP; Nate Cohn of The New Republic; Rhodes Cook, formerly of Congressional Quarterly; Robert Costa of National Review; Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics; and Professor Susan MacManus of the University of South Florida. Following Sabato’s introductory analysis, the contributors provide a comprehensive review of everything in play during the 2012 elections, including the controversial roles that unprecedented amounts of money and media played in deciding who would occupy the Oval Office as well as pivotal seats in Congress. They also explore the nominating processes, conventions, and futures of both the Democratic and Republican parties, and what recent geographic and demographic electoral realignments might mean for America’s politics beyond 2012.

The Timeline of Presidential Elections

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Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226922162
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (269 download)

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Book Synopsis The Timeline of Presidential Elections by : Robert S. Erikson

Download or read book The Timeline of Presidential Elections written by Robert S. Erikson and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-08-24 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In presidential elections, do voters cast their ballots for the candidates whose platform and positions best match their own? Or is the race for president of the United States come down largely to who runs the most effective campaign? It’s a question those who study elections have been considering for years with no clear resolution. In The Timeline of Presidential Elections, Robert S. Erikson and Christopher Wlezien reveal for the first time how both factors come into play. Erikson and Wlezien have amassed data from close to two thousand national polls covering every presidential election from 1952 to 2008, allowing them to see how outcomes take shape over the course of an election year. Polls from the beginning of the year, they show, have virtually no predictive power. By mid-April, when the candidates have been identified and matched in pollsters’ trial heats, preferences have come into focus—and predicted the winner in eleven of the fifteen elections. But a similar process of forming favorites takes place in the last six months, during which voters’ intentions change only gradually, with particular events—including presidential debates—rarely resulting in dramatic change. Ultimately, Erikson and Wlezien show that it is through campaigns that voters are made aware of—or not made aware of—fundamental factors like candidates’ policy positions that determine which ticket will get their votes. In other words, fundamentals matter, but only because of campaigns. Timely and compelling, this book will force us to rethink our assumptions about presidential elections.

The American Election 2012

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Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137389222
Total Pages : 474 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (373 download)

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Book Synopsis The American Election 2012 by : R. Holder

Download or read book The American Election 2012 written by R. Holder and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-01-13 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elections capture a sense of national identity and imply a future direction for the nation. The book seeks to unravel how elections and policies act together dynamically by analyzing parties, strategies, foreign and domestic policies, and the role of religion in political dialogue.

Redefining Urban and Suburban America

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Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 9780815748588
Total Pages : 326 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (485 download)

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Book Synopsis Redefining Urban and Suburban America by : Bruce Katz

Download or read book Redefining Urban and Suburban America written by Bruce Katz and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2004-05-13 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The early returns from Census 2000 data show that the United States continued to undergo dynamic changes in the 1990s, with cities and suburbs providing the locus of most of the volatility. Metropolitan areas are growing more diverse—especially with the influx of new immigrants—the population is aging, and the make-up of households is shifting. Singles and empty-nesters now surpass families with children in many suburbs. The contributors to this book review data on population, race and ethnicity, and household composition, provided by the Census's "short form," and attempt to respond to three simple queries: —Are cities coming back? —Are all suburbs growing? —Are cities and suburbs becoming more alike? Regional trends muddy the picture. Communities in the Northeast and Midwest are generally growing slowly, while those in the South and West are experiencing explosive growth ("Warm, dry places grew. Cold, wet places declined," note two authors). Some cities are robust, others are distressed. Some suburbs are bedroom communities, others are hot employment centers, while still others are deteriorating. And while some cities' cores may have been intensely developed, including those in the Northeast and Midwest, and seen population increases, the areas surrounding the cores may have declined significantly. Trends in population confirm an increasingly diverse population in both metropolitan and suburban areas with the influx of Hispanic and Asian immigrants and with majority populations of central cities for the first time being made up of minority groups. Census 2000 also reveals that the overall level of black-to-nonblack segregation has reached its lowest point since 1920, although high segregation remains in many areas. Redefining Urban and Suburban America explores these demographic trends and their complexities, along with their implications for the policies and politics shaping metropolitan America. The shifts discussed here have significant influence

The Obamas

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Publisher : Little, Brown
ISBN 13 : 031619347X
Total Pages : 276 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (161 download)

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Book Synopsis The Obamas by : Jodi Kantor

Download or read book The Obamas written by Jodi Kantor and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2012-01-10 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Award-winning reporter Jodi Kantor takes readers deep inside the White House in an "insightful and evocative" portrait of Barack and Michelle Obama (Chicago Tribune) that will surprise even readers who thought they knew the two icons. When Barack Obama won the 2008 presidential election, he also won a long-running debate with his wife Michelle. Contrary to her fears, politics now seemed like a worthwhile, even noble pursuit. Together they planned a White House life that would be as normal and sane as possible. Then they moved in. In the Obamas, Jodi Kantor takes us deep inside the White House as they try to grapple with their new roles, change the country, raise children, maintain friendships, and figure out what it means to be the first black President and First Lady. The Obamas is filled with riveting detail and insight into their partnership, emotions and personalities, and written with a keen eye for the ironies of public life.

Who's Counting?

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Author :
Publisher : Encounter Books
ISBN 13 : 1594036195
Total Pages : 306 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Who's Counting? by : John Fund

Download or read book Who's Counting? written by John Fund and published by Encounter Books. This book was released on 2012-08-14 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 2012 election will be one of the hardest-fought in U.S. history. It is also likely to be one of the closest, a fact that brings concerns about voter fraud and bureaucratic incompetence in the conduct of elections front and center. If we don't take notice, we could see another debacle like the Bush-Gore Florida recount of 2000 in which courts and lawyers intervened in what should have involved only voters. Who's Counting? will focus attention on many problems of our election system, ranging from voter fraud to a slipshod system of vote counting that noted political scientist Walter Dean Burnham calls “the most careless of the developed world.” In an effort to clean up our election laws, reduce fraud and increase public confidence in the integrity of the voting system, many states ranging from Georgia to Wisconsin have passed laws requiring a photo ID be shown at the polls and curbing the rampant use of absentee ballots, a tool of choice by fraudsters. The response from Obama allies has been to belittle the need for such laws and attack them as akin to the second coming of a racist tide in American life. In the summer of 2011, both Bill Clinton and DNC chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz preposterously claimed that such laws suppressed minority voters and represented a return to the era of Jim Crow. But voter fraud is a well-documented reality in American elections. Just this year, a sheriff and county clerk in West Virginia pleaded guilty to stuffing ballot boxes with fraudulent absentee ballots that changed the outcome of an election. In 2005, a state senate election in Tennessee was overturned because of voter fraud. The margin of victory? 13 votes. In 2008, the Minnesota senate race that provided the 60th vote needed to pass Obamacare was decided by a little over 300 votes. Almost 200 felons have already been convicted of voting illegally in that election and dozens of other prosecutions are still pending. Public confidence in the integrity of elections is at an all-time low. In the Cooperative Congressional Election Study of 2008, 62% of American voters thought that voter fraud was very common or somewhat common. Fear that elections are being stolen erodes the legitimacy of our government. That's why the vast majority of Americans support laws like Kansas's Secure and Fair Elections Act. A 2010 Rasmussen poll showed that 82% of Americans support photo ID laws. While Americans frequently demand observers and best practices in the elections of other countries, we are often blind to the need to scrutinize our own elections. We may pay the consequences in 2012 if a close election leads us into pitched partisan battles and court fights that will dwarf the Bush-Gore recount wars.

Trump's Democrats

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Publisher : Brookings Institution Press
ISBN 13 : 0815738641
Total Pages : 228 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (157 download)

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Book Synopsis Trump's Democrats by : Stephanie Muravchik

Download or read book Trump's Democrats written by Stephanie Muravchik and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did hundreds of Democratic strongholds break for Donald Trump in 2016 and stay loyal to him in 2020? Looking for answers, Muravchik and Shields lived in three such “flipped” communities. There they discovered a political culture that was Trumpy long before the 45th president arrived on the national political scene. In these places, dominated by the white working-class, some of the most beloved and longest-serving Democratic leaders are themselves Trumpian—grandiose, combative, thin-skinned, and nepotistic. Indifferent to ideology, they promise to take care of “their people” by cutting deals—and corners if needed. Stressing loyalty, they often turn to family to fill critical political roles. Trump, resembling these old-style Democratic bosses, strikes a familiar and appealing figure in these communities. Although voters in “flipped” communities have often been portrayed as white supremacists, Muravchik and Shields find that their primary political allegiances are to place—not race. They will spend an extra dollar to patronize local businesses, and they think local jobs should go to their neighbors, not “foreigners” from neighboring counties—who are just as likely to be white and native-born. Unlike the Proud Boys, they take more pride in their local communities than in their skin color. Trump successfully courted these Democrats by promising to revitalize their struggling hometowns. Because these communities largely stuck with Trump in 2020, Biden won the presidency by just the thinnest of margins. Whether they will continue to support a Republican Party without Trump—or swing back to the Democrats—depends in part on which party can satisfy these locally grown political tastes and values. The party that does that will enjoy a stranglehold in national elections for years to come.

How Barack Obama Won

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Author :
Publisher : Vintage
ISBN 13 : 0345804821
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (458 download)

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Book Synopsis How Barack Obama Won by : Chuck Todd

Download or read book How Barack Obama Won written by Chuck Todd and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-08-28 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This detailed overview and analysis of the results of Barack Obama’s historic 2008 presidential win gives us the inside state-by-state guide to how Obama achieved his victory, and allows us to see where the country stood four years ago. Although much has changed in the nearly four years since, How Barack Obama Won remains the essential guide to Obama’s electoral strengths and offers important perspective on his 2012 bid. The votes in each state for Obama and McCain are broken down by percentage according to gender, age, race, party, religious affiliation, education, household income, size of city, and according to views about the most important issues (the economy, terrorism, Iraq, energy, healthcare), the future of the economy (worried, not worried) and the war in Iraq (approve, disapprove).

The Election Book

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Author :
Publisher : Scholastic Paperbacks
ISBN 13 : 9780545457835
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (578 download)

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Book Synopsis The Election Book by : Carolyn Jackson

Download or read book The Election Book written by Carolyn Jackson and published by Scholastic Paperbacks. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Find out the answers to all your questions about the presidential election race.

Today on Election Day

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Publisher : Albert Whitman & Company
ISBN 13 : 0807593303
Total Pages : 35 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (75 download)

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Book Synopsis Today on Election Day by : David Leonard

Download or read book Today on Election Day written by David Leonard and published by Albert Whitman & Company. This book was released on 2012-07-01 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The school gym is a polling place and Bailey, Ren, David, Meg, Aiden, and Isabella know all about Election Day and voting! Bailey helped her Aunt Julia run for a seat on the city council. Aiden goes with his grandpa to vote. David's brother Jake will be voting for the first time. Meg talks about how years ago, some citizens were not permitted to vote. A perfect picture book for future voters of America, Today on Election Day will simultaneously entertain and educate.

Blue Collar Conservatives

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1621572412
Total Pages : 120 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (215 download)

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Book Synopsis Blue Collar Conservatives by : Rick Santorum

Download or read book Blue Collar Conservatives written by Rick Santorum and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-04-28 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Before Donald Trump successfully mobilized millions of blue collar Americans with his campaign to reclaim America, Rick Santorum was trying to convince his fellow Republicans that it was time to return to the party’s original values: the values of “blue collar conservatives.” In this powerful book that helped inspire President-Elect Trump’s winning message to voters, Santorum calls out Republican establishment leaders for pandering to business owners at the expense of everyone else. Republicans need to regain the trust of the hard-working members of every family, church, and community across America whose most immediate problems are lack of jobs and opportunity. No more pandering. No more ignoring those left behind by globalization. No more broken promises to the frustrated middle class. We're entering a brand new era of conservative politics—and Rick Santorum's Blue Collar Conservatives shows us the way forward.

The Big Sort

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Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN 13 : 0547525192
Total Pages : 478 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis The Big Sort by : Bill Bishop

Download or read book The Big Sort written by Bill Bishop and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2009-05-11 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The award-winning journalist reveals the untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided in this groundbreaking book. Armed with startling demographic data, Bill Bishop demonstrates how Americans have spent decades sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities—not by region or by state, but by city and neighborhood. With ever-increasing specificity, we choose the communities and media that are compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs. The result is a country that has become so ideologically inbred that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away. In The Big Sort, Bishop explores how this phenomenon came to be, and its dire implications for our country. He begins with stories about how we live today and then draws on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.

The Audacity of Hope

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Author :
Publisher : Crown
ISBN 13 : 0307382095
Total Pages : 386 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (73 download)

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Book Synopsis The Audacity of Hope by : Barack Obama

Download or read book The Audacity of Hope written by Barack Obama and published by Crown. This book was released on 2006-10-17 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Barack Obama’s lucid vision of America’s place in the world and call for a new kind of politics that builds upon our shared understandings as Americans, based on his years in the Senate “In our lowdown, dispiriting era, Obama’s talent for proposing humane, sensible solutions with uplifting, elegant prose does fill one with hope.”—Michael Kazin, The Washington Post In July 2004, four years before his presidency, Barack Obama electrified the Democratic National Convention with an address that spoke to Americans across the political spectrum. One phrase in particular anchored itself in listeners’ minds, a reminder that for all the discord and struggle to be found in our history as a nation, we have always been guided by a dogged optimism in the future, or what Obama called “the audacity of hope.” The Audacity of Hope is Barack Obama’s call for a different brand of politics—a politics for those weary of bitter partisanship and alienated by the “endless clash of armies” we see in congress and on the campaign trail; a politics rooted in the faith, inclusiveness, and nobility of spirit at the heart of “our improbable experiment in democracy.” He explores those forces—from the fear of losing to the perpetual need to raise money to the power of the media—that can stifle even the best-intentioned politician. He also writes, with surprising intimacy and self-deprecating humor, about settling in as a senator, seeking to balance the demands of public service and family life, and his own deepening religious commitment. At the heart of this book is Barack Obama’s vision of how we can move beyond our divisions to tackle concrete problems. He examines the growing economic insecurity of American families, the racial and religious tensions within the body politic, and the transnational threats—from terrorism to pandemic—that gather beyond our shores. And he grapples with the role that faith plays in a democracy—where it is vital and where it must never intrude. Underlying his stories is a vigorous search for connection: the foundation for a radically hopeful political consensus. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, Obama says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes—“waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them.”

Identity Crisis

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Author :
Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691201765
Total Pages : 360 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis Identity Crisis by : John Sides

Download or read book Identity Crisis written by John Sides and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-08-13 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A gripping in-depth look at the presidential election that stunned the world Donald Trump's election victory resulted in one of the most unexpected presidencies in history. Identity Crisis provides the definitive account of the campaign that seemed to break all the political rules—but in fact didn't. Featuring a new afterword by the authors that discusses the 2018 midterms and today's emerging political trends, this compelling book describes how Trump's victory was foreshadowed by changes in the Democratic and Republican coalitions that were driven by people's racial and ethnic identities, and how the Trump campaign exacerbated these divisions by hammering away on race, immigration, and religion. The result was an epic battle not just for the White House but about what America should be.

Culture, Rhetoric, and Voting

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Author :
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781629220383
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (23 download)

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Book Synopsis Culture, Rhetoric, and Voting by : Douglas M. Brattebo

Download or read book Culture, Rhetoric, and Voting written by Douglas M. Brattebo and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction : culture, rhetoric and voting in the 2012 election : historical observations / Douglas M. Brattebo and Robert J. Pauly, Jr. -- PART I. PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION, AND CULURE. Understanding Barack Obama's leadership : gamble of the "rational democrat" / William D. Pederson -- Church and state in America : what Roger Williams might say regarding the 2012 presidential election / Max J. Skidmore -- Perceptions of Mormonism : Romney's faith-based challenges / Luke Perry -- The culture wars in the 2012 presidential election / Graham G. Dodds -- PART II. RHETORIC. The irrelevance of truth : postrhetorical campaigning and the 2012 conventions / Justin S. Vaughn -- The politics of inequality : how Team Obama appealed to the base in the 2012 presidential election / Matthew R. Miles -- No Soviet domination : presidential debates, the media, and public reaction / Douglas Mock -- Barack Obama's evolutionary rhetoric as a strategy for supporting same-sex marriage / Casey Malone Maugh -- PART III. VOTING. The predisposing, motivating, and constraining factors of early voting : assessing the impact of campaign strategies and voting laws / Lisa Hager -- Who plays the decider? : analyzing key voters in the 2012 election : "a mad men party in a modern family world" / William J. Miller and Sean D. Foreman -- Constituency appeals and group voting in the 2012 presidential election / Mark D. Brewer and Richard J. Powell

Groundbreakers

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199394598
Total Pages : 269 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Groundbreakers by : Elizabeth McKenna

Download or read book Groundbreakers written by Elizabeth McKenna and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much has been written about the historic nature of the Obama campaign. The multi-year, multi-billion dollar operation elected the nation's first black president, raised and spent more money than any other election effort in history, and built the most sophisticated voter targeting technology ever before used on a national campaign. What is missing from most accounts of the campaign is an understanding of how Obama for America recruited, motivated, developed, and managed its formidable army of 2.2 million volunteers. Unlike previous field campaigns that drew their power from staff, consultants, and paid canvassers, the Obama campaign's capacity came from unpaid local citizens who took responsibility for organizing their own neighborhoods months--and even years--in advance of election day. In so doing, Groundbreakers argues, the campaign engaged citizens in the work of practicing democracy. How did they organize so many volunteers to produce so much valuable work for the campaign? This book describes how. Elizabeth McKenna and Hahrie Han argue that the legacy of Obama for America extends beyond big data and micro-targeting; it also reinvigorated and expanded traditional models of field campaigning. Groundbreakers makes the case that the Obama campaign altered traditional ground games by adopting the principles and practices of community organizing. Drawing on in-depth interviews with OFA field staff and volunteers, this book also argues that a key achievement of the OFA's field organizing was its transformative effect on those who were a part of it. Obama the candidate might have inspired volunteers to join the campaign, but it was the fulfilling relationships that volunteers had with other people--and their deep belief that their work mattered for the work of democracy--that kept them active. Groundbreakers documents how the Obama campaign has inspired a new way of running field campaigns, with lessons for national and international political and civic movements.