Obama's Reelection Research Articles

Documentation: “The Politics of Nuclear Weapons Policy,” Presentation to Johns Hopkins University Graduate School Symposia, Washington, DC, April 8, 2015

Shortly after President Obama's reelection in November 2012, many of my Republican colleagues and I began to dread the inevitable announcement of plans to revise U.S. nuclear weapons employment str...

The Myth of the White Minority

Abstract In recent years, and especially in the wake of Barack Obama's reelection, projections that whites will soon become a minority have proliferated. In this essay, I will argue that such predictions are misleading at best, as they rest on questionable philosophical presuppositions, including the presupposition that racial concepts like ‘whiteness’ are static and unchanging rather than fluid and continually being reconstructed. If I am right about these fundamental inaccuracies, one must wonder why the myth of the white minority persists. I will argue that by reenvisioning whites as a minority culture struggling against a hostile dominant group, and by promoting white solidarity as a response to a (fabricated) crisis, such predictions actually serve to defend and legitimize white supremacy.

The Myth of the White Minority

Abstract In recent years, and especially in the wake of Barack Obama's reelection, projections that whites will soon become a minority have proliferated. In this essay, I will argue that such predictions are misleading at best, as they rest on questionable philosophical presuppositions, including the presupposition that racial concepts like ‘whiteness’ are static and unchanging rather than fluid and continually being reconstructed. If I am right about these fundamental inaccuracies, one must wonder why the myth of the white minority persists. I will argue that by reenvisioning whites as a minority culture struggling against a hostile dominant group, and by promoting white solidarity as a response to a (fabricated) crisis, such predictions actually serve to defend and legitimize white supremacy.

The American election 2012: contexts and consequences

Introduction - The American Election 2012: Contexts and Consequences R. Ward Holder and Peter B. Josephson PART I: THE STATE OF THE PARTIES IN 2012 1. The Consequences of Party Reform in the 21st Century Terri Susan Fine 2. Closed for Repairs So It Can Reengage with the World: Prospects for Reforming the Republican Party Douglas M. Brattebo 3. The 2012 Elections and the Southern Roots of Polarized Politics: The Continuing Power of Southern Conservatives After Obama's Reelection Allen Neal 4. The Ever-Widening Gap: Gender and the 2012 Presidential Election Derya Rix 5. Data, America's Shifting Landscape, and the Meaning of 2012 Dante Chinni PART II: EMERGING STRATEGIES IN THE 2012 CAMPAIGN 6. Are Super PACs Really Arms of Political Parties? A Study of Coordination Dante Scala 7. Economic Appeals in Unequal Communities: Stump Speeches in the 2012 Presidential Election Christopher B. Chapp 8. Casualties of the Ground War: Personal Contacting in 2012 and Its Discontents Robert Boatright 9. Unfriendly to Women? Female Politicians, Rape Comments and the GOP in 2012 Jennifer Lucas and Tauna Sisco 10. Weighing In or Waiting: When, Whether, and Whom Republican Officeholders Endorsed in 2012 Kevin J. Parsneau and Christopher Galdieri PART III: IMPLICATIONS OF THE 2012 ELECTION: DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICIES 11. The Past as Prologue: Obama, Health Care and the Election of 2012 Anne Marie Cammisa 12. Healthcare Spending and Prevention within the Affordable Care Act: Contrasting the Public Health and Medical Models of Prevention T. Lucas Hollar 13. Natural Uncertainty: Reconciling the Contrasting Environmental Goals of America's First Natural Security President - Barack Obama Mark O'Gorman 14. Federal Judicial Vacancies: Obama's Record and Prospects Susan Siggelakis 15. The Politics of Presidential Foreign Policy: Unilateral Authority and the Role of Congress Brandon Prins and Bryan Marshall 16. Decline or Not: America's Continued Primacy in the Persian Gulf? Wesley Renfro and Marc O'Reilly PART IV: FAITH AND POLITICS: 2012 AND BEYOND 17. Courting the Catholic Vote: Obama, Romney, and the U.S. Catholic Bishops in the 2012 Presidential Election Richard J. Powell and Mark D. Brewer 18. Catholic Vice Presidential Candidates and the Politics of Abortion: The 2012 Debate in Context Angela Senander 19. What Romney's Nomination Means for Mormons and the Presidency Luke Perry 20. The Liberal State and the Gay Marriage Debate: Lessons from American Catholic Thought Aaron Taylor 21. Obama and the Common Good Daniel Daly 22. The Rise of the Liberal Protestant? Faith and Politics in the Obama Administration R. Ward Holder and Peter B. Josephson

Smells Like Focus Group Spirit? The Changing Nature of Pop Fandom and its Deployment as a Political Tool

Back in the autumn of 2012, when Obama's re-election looked decidedly dicey, a key endorsement was unveiled that was trumpeted across the Atlantic by the Guardian as potentially being a game-change...

Imagining black America

Scientific research has now established that race should be understood as a social construct, not a true biological division of humanity. In Imagining Black Michael Wayne explores the construction and reconstruction of black America from the arrival of the first Africans in Jamestown in 1619 to Barack Obama's reelection. Races have to be imagined into existence and constantly reimagined as circumstances change, Wayne argues, and as a consequence the boundaries of black America have historically been contested terrain. He discusses the emergence in the nineteenth century--and the erosion, during the past two decades--of the notorious one-drop rule. He shows how significant periods of social transformation--emancipation, the Great Migration, the rise of the urban ghetto, and the Civil Rights Movement--raised major questions for black Americans about the defining characteristics of their racial community. And he explores how factors such as class, age, and gender have influenced perceptions of what it means to be black. Wayne also considers how slavery and its legacy have defined freedom in the United States. Black Americans, he argues, because of their deep commitment to the promise of freedom and the ideals articulated by the Founding Fathers, became and remain quintessential Americans--the incarnation of America, in the words of the civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph.

Book Review: Juan in a Hundred: The Representation of Latinos on Network News, by Otto Santa Ana

Otto Santa Ana Juan in a Hundred: The Representation of on Network News. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2013. 295 pp.Media audiences might have impression that news and commentary on U.S. Latino community is common. They might recall how mass media reported on 2012 Latino vote and how important it was for President Obama's reelection. addi- tion, they might have heard about Latino groups or from Latino voices in reports about immigration. Yet stories covering are less frequent than audience might think. And those of us concerned with media's biases and impact still know little about larger questions of how Latino community is represented in media, and how this representation affects society.These questions were addressed by University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor of Chicana/o Studies, Otto Santa Ana in Juan in a Hundred: The Representation of on Network News. this book, he not only offered a clear and detailed picture of how Latino community has been represented in U.S. net- work news, but also suggested ways in which this representation can be improved in interest of accuracy and fairness. addition, he provided mass communication scholars and students a detailed description of how TV news content can be sampled and analyzed.The book is divided into two parts. The first presents analyses of specific news stories broadcast by ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN in 2004. his research into network coverage of Latinos, Santa Ana found that out of more than twelve thousand stories broadcast by networks that year, less than 1 percent address Latino issues. This is one in a hundred ratio that he alluded to in title of book.The author compared 2004 network news stories with other stories that they did not broadcast, finding that TV news often ignored Latino topics of importance. detailing Latino stories covered in newspapers and ignored by networks, Santa Ana demonstrated that the scarcity of television network news stories about is not due to absence of newsworthy items (p. 21). He found that stories about considered newsworthy were those involving dramatic political events, human calamity or natural disaster, among few other topics.In this analysis of broadcast news, Santa Ana first offered a general picture of net- work news coverage of Latinos, and then a detailed comparison of how a single story was covered on different networks and, in some cases, in newspapers. The thorough examination of these news stories provides some valuable insight as to failures and successes of TV news reporting. However, failures are more salient in this book. For instance, Santa Ana pointed to media's lack of general knowledge about Latino community, as evidenced in their failure to differentiate Latinos' heritage, especially for those who do not originate from Caribbean countries. More specifically, he explained that networks seldom differentiated Mexican, Central American, and South American origin, arguing that they operated with indifference or ignorance about diversity of Latino communities and individuals (p. 82). addition, he found that many stories were constructed without citing expert sources, which might have added informed insights to news being reported.Throughout book, what Santa Ana seemed most concerned about were effects of misrepresentation of in these highly influential news outlets. For example, he argued that media can publicly include and exclude a certain segment of population, concluding, In our nearly comprehensive study of a recent year of network news, single major finding is their gross disregard of Latinos (p. 15).In addition to network news' neglect of and their stories, he pointed to another negative effect of their coverage-the misrepresentation of members of this community. …

Beyond post-racial narratives: Barack Obama and the (re)shaping of racial memory in US schools and society

Drawing from the work of cultural memory and racial formation theory (Omi and Winant 1994) we explore the ascension of Barack Obama as an illustration of how ‘race’ is understood and remembered. This article focuses on the public media discourse of the 2012 Obama re-election to illustrate how the narrative morphed racially from 2008 to 2012. Our findings suggest that the public discourse about ascension and re-election of Barack Obama drew from racial and post-racial narratives to describe his re-election. We contend that attention given to the public construction of Barack Obama in the present is vitally important to how the narrative arc of ‘race’ in the US will be understood in schools and society.

Влияние личностного фактора на формирование политики США

The last five years defined an alternative course in the US foreign policy. Obama's reelection caused staff transfers which notably influenced the course. This comprehensive process is based on tremendous work conducted by the Administration of Barak Obama, in particular by John Kerry, who was appointed as a Secretary of State in 2013. His personality plays a significant role in American domestic and foreign policy interrelation. Adoption or rejection of the bills, which are well-known today, depended in large on a range of circumstances, such as personality, life journey and political leader career of the today's Secretary of State. John Kerry’s professional life is mainly associated with domestic policy; nevertheless, he has always been interested in foreign relations and national security issues. Those concerns generally included: non-proliferation, US security, ecological problems, fight against terrorism. The article is intended to highlight Kerry’s efforts in each of these fields, showing not only his actions, but also difficult process of adoption or banning bills in the USA. The author tried to display the whole complicated decision-making process among different parties, businessmen and politicians, law and money clashes. The results of many former endeavors can be seen today, in the modern US policy. Based on assumptions about Secretary of State’s beliefs, certain road map can be predicted. In conclusion, the article offers several courses, where the United States are likely to be most active during the next few years. It can be judged exactly which way some current political issues will develop, how the US foreign policy will be shaped by today's decision-makers in the White House.

The Economic Consequences of the Obama Reelection: How Stagnation Has Vanquished Growth

The stagnation of the American economy during the past decade is attributable to faulty policies at both the macro and micro level. The efforts to organize stimulus programs and manipulation tax rates create uncertainties that offset any supposed gains from Keynesian policies. At the same time, the failure to address major structural flaws in labor, real estate, free trade and positive rights have resulted in cumulative dislocations that require a shrinkage of government across the board to facilitate any reversal of economic fortune.

The Collateral Source Rule And Medical Expenses: Anticipated Effects Of The Affordable Care Act And Recent State Case Law On Damages In Personal Injury Lawsuits

THE UNITED STATES Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius (1) was one of the most anticipated Supreme Court decisions in recent years. The primary issues--the breadth of the commerce clause, the necessary and proper clause, Congress's taxing power, and the expansion of Medicaid--involve significant constitutional questions and consequences for the health care industry in the United States. But the effective result of universal may, and should, have significant consequences for another industry--personal injury lawsuits--where a significant driver of verdicts and settlements is the amount of medical expenses that are legally recoverable and admissible as evidence. The most recent study by the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that personal injury plaintiffs filed approximately 15,624 personal injury lawsuits in the state courts of the 75 most populous counties in the country in 2005, (2) with a median recovery of about $33,000. (3) The most recent study of federal courts reports that 1,464 personal injury lawsuits were tried before a judge or jury in federal courts in the 2002-2003 fiscal year (4) with an estimated median recovery of $150,000-200,000. (5) As 96% of personal injury suits never reach trial, (6) it is immediately apparent that a tremendous amount of money is paid for medical expenses in personal injury verdicts and settlements. With President Barack Obama's reelection, the future of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the centerpiece legislation of his first term, now appears secure. The Act, signed into law in March 2010, includes a number of provisions intended to make insurance more accessible to currently uninsured Americans. Provisions including the individual mandate (the legal requirement that an individual purchase health insurance or be taxed for the failure to do so), and the requirement for insurers to offer the same premiums and coverage to all similarly-situated applicants despite preexisting conditions, as well as the establishment of health insurance exchanges and federal subsidies, are aimed at reducing the number of uninsured residents by as much as 30 million by 2019. (7) If these estimates prove accurate, the total percentage of American residents who use health insurance to pay their medical expenses will increase to 93%. (8) As the number of uninsured residents in the United States declines, and as payment for health care services becomes almost exclusively the territory of health insurers, and not patients, a number of traditional and more recent tort rules are likely to be, and should be, impacted. More specifically, the collateral source rule, which disallows a tortfeasor from reducing his damages liability when the injured party's medical expenses are covered by insurance or another collateral source, may become almost a mere truism because virtually everyone will be covered. Even when the collateral source rule is not directly implicated, the presentation of evidence and award of damages in personal injury suits are likely to be impacted. As health insurance becomes not just common, but the exclusive method of transacting for health care services, the relevance of the list price of health care services could dwindle to almost nothing. This is especially true in the world of personal injury lawsuits and medical expenses, which constitute a large percentage of the damages for those suits and serve as gauges for settlements of these claims. As health insurance becomes almost universal, the so-called list price of health care services should not be the gauge of damages awarded for past or future medical expenses for much longer. I. Health Care Insurance and the Collateral Source Rule A. Historical Evolution of Health Care Insurance Before 1920, health insurance as we would recognize it today did not really exist in the United States. In 1929, the precursor to Blue Cross was founded in Dallas, Texas, when a group of teachers contracted with Baylor University Hospital to pre-pay for hospital services. …

Training Tomorrow's Comprehensive Primary Care Internists: A Way Forward for Internal Medicine Education

The ground has shifted in US health care. With President Obama's reelection in November 2012, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay, and tens of millions of Americans soon will gain access to health insurance. Numerous experiments are underway to better organize and coordinate care at the levels of the individual practice, the “medical neighborhood,” and the larger health system.1–,5 Underlying these activities is a fundamental switch from a reactive care system oriented toward sickness (in which individual providers were paid for discrete elements of care) to a proactive care system oriented toward wellness, where teams and systems share accountability for the health of individual patients and populations. How can internal medicine graduate medical education (GME) help meet this challenge? This article presents the evidence-based recommendations and opinions of selected leaders in general internal medicine based on iterative conversations before, during, and after the 2011 Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) Education Summit. Recognizing that today's physician training programs may not adequately prepare physicians for tomorrow's models of health care delivery,6,7 there have been many calls over the past decade for medical education reform.8–,14 As we consider the future of US health reform, it is clear we need to address at least 3 interdependent problems. We must (1) improve quality, (2) drive out waste, and (3) expand the notion of health care to include the social determinants of health that account for 70% of the burden of disease.15 These problems require us to reconsider the formation of tomorrow's workforce. Our article focuses on the specific implications of US health reform for internal medicine GME. We describe the required competencies that will allow tomorrow's comprehensive primary care internist to thrive in a proactive US care system. We then propose 3 recommendations for reforming internal medicine GME training to foster that vision. The SGIM Education Summit In 2011, the Josiah Macy Jr Foundation and others sponsored and advised a SGIM Education Summit to address 2 questions: (1) What are the educational implications of current practice transformations to primary care home models? (2) What must we do differently to prepare internal medicine residents for their futures practicing in and leading patient-centered medical homes? The summit included 7 work groups,16 with each group having engaged in prework literature reviews and conference calls to generate preliminary recommendations. A single face-to-face meeting was convened where work groups' concepts and recommendations were shared, debated, and refined. This report is the result of deliberations among the policy work group members.

The Road to Health Reform: What Can Physicians Expect Over the Next 4 Years?

This commentary discusses the political and practical obstacles over the next 4 years on the “road to health care reform” and describes how physicians in the United States can chart a path to a bet...

The Top Health News Story of 2012

The turbulence for the U.S. health care system seems sure to continue in 2013, despite President Obama's reelection and the fact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), signed into law in 2010, weathered a major challenge before the U.S. Supreme Court in June of 2012.

La rielezione di Obama. Un'analisi del voto presidenziale 2012 negli Stati Uniti

This article analyzes the 2012 American Presidential election. It is divided into five sections. The first one is focused on data and numbers of electoral results. The second reflects upon the nature of the Electoral College. The third section examines in depth the vote of women and minorities, which are the two factors that mostly contributed to Barack Obama's re-election. Then, there is a section that scrutinize the electoral campaign, describing the issues, the candidates strategies and the media coverage received by Obama e Mitt Romney. The fifth part concerns the two candidates' fundraising and expenses. Finally we resume the previous analyses and we formulate the hyphotesis that a new electoral bloc is currently under formation: the idea is that there are and political realignment that is going to favour the Democratic Party

Cuts loom over research and industry following Obama re-election

Cuts loom over research and industry following Obama re-election

What Does Obama’s Re-election Mean to South Asia

While the world watched the closely contested Presidential elections in the United States in much anticipation, most observers and policy wonks in South Asia were bracing for change or continuity in the foreign policy that the new administration in Washington would herald. Although India received scant mention during the third Presidential debate which was focused exclusively on foreign policy, Pakistan and Afghanistan gained ample attention but with a caveat. There was little differentiated gap between the positions of the two candidates – President Obama and Governor Romney – on ending the war in Afghanistan. It is therefore no surprise that with President Obama's re-election, many in South Asia are bracing for continuity in US foreign policy. However, with his likely focus on legacy and attention towards other hot spots, there are imminent dangers of other South Asian countries taking a back seat in the US foreign policy priorities.

What Will the 2012 Presidential Election Mean for Physicians?

In this invited commentary, Gail Wilensky provides her perspective on the impact of the 2012 presidential election on health care. She outlines important differences on how each candidate would exp...

The Probabilities of Unique Events

Many theorists argue that the probabilities of unique events, even real possibilities such as President Obama's re-election, are meaningless. As a consequence, psychologists have seldom investigated them. We propose a new theory (implemented in a computer program) in which such estimates depend on an intuitive non-numerical system capable only of simple procedures, and a deliberative system that maps intuitions into numbers. The theory predicts that estimates of the probabilities of conjunctions should often tend to split the difference between the probabilities of the two conjuncts. We report two experiments showing that individuals commit such violations of the probability calculus, and corroborating other predictions of the theory, e.g., individuals err in the same way even when they make non-numerical verbal estimates, such as that an event is highly improbable.

Obama's Reelection Prospects under “Bread and Peace” Voting in the 2012 US Presidential Election

According to the Bread and Peace Model postwar, American presidential elections should be interpreted as a sequence of referendums on the incumbent party's record during its four-year mandate period. In fact postwar aggregate votes for president are well explained by just two objectively measured fundamental determinants: (1) weighted-average growth of per capita real disposable personal income over the term, and (2) cumulative US military fatalities due to unprovoked, hostile deployments of American armed forces in foreign wars. No other outside variable systematically affects postwar aggregate votes for president.