Politics

Why Obama is Losing Independents

Gallup reported last week that President Obama’s job approval among Independent voters dipped to 38 percent, the lowest support he has ever received from this group of voters. It would be too easy for Democrats to blame these numbers on the Tea Party movement. Some Independents are Tea Partiers – and those the President has forever lost – but not all Independents are Tea Partiers. To understand why Obama has lost so many other Independents, we need to understand that Independents are a curious bunch. They don’t believe in partisan loyalty, yet they are notoriously fickle. They may be fairer than Fox and more balanced than MSNBC, and yet because they are beholden neither to personalities nor parties, but to issues, their love for a politician can be vanquished as quickly as s/he fails to perform.

Is Greece Relevant? Seven Lessons for the U.S. From the Greek Fiscal Crisis

Are Greece’s fiscal woes relevant to the United States? Responding to the simmering national debate on this issue, Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times, answers with an emphatic “no.” “America isn’t Greece,” Professor Krugman confidently tells us. With equal assurance, Charles Krauthammer on Fox News comes to the opposite conclusion. Given current trends in U.S. public finance, Dr. Krauthammer contends, Greece is our “future.” In a similar vein, former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan approvingly cites the analogy between Greece and the U.S. as setting “the stage for a serious response” to the United States’ budgetary challenges. The Greek experience is not inevitable, but it is instructive.

Ethiopia Since Live Aid, Part III: On Africa, aid, and the West

This third and final part of our ‘Ethiopia Since Live Aid’ blog feature is an original post by Peter Gill, in which he discusses the West’s view of aid and Africa. If you missed it, on Tuesday we read an excerpt from the book, and yesterday we ran an exclusive Q&A with Peter.

Ethiopia Since Live Aid, Part II: A few questions for Peter Gill

This exclusive Q&A is the second of three OUPblog posts from Peter Gill. Yesterday we read an excerpt from his book, and check back tomorrow for an original post by him.

The Meaning of Independence Day

Americans celebrate Independence Day on July 4, the day the words of the Declaration of Independence were set on parchment. John Adams had famously predicted that this day “ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” Because these celebrations have become annual rituals, we have stopped thinking about exactly what it is we are celebrating.

Ethiopia Since Live Aid, Part I: An Excerpt

Kicking off three great OUPblog posts on Famine and Foreigners: Ethiopia Since Live Aid is a short excerpt from the first chapter. Come back tomorrow for an exclusive Q&A with Peter Gill, followed by an original post by him on Thursday.

The Fourth of July and the Separation of Powers

Donald A. Ritchie is Historian of the Senate and the author of Our Constitution, The Oxford Guide to the United States Government, Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps, and most recently The U.S. Congress: A Very Short Introduction. In this original post, he reflects on the legacy of the Declaration of Independence on the U.S. Government.

Measuring Progress in Afghanistan

David Kilcullen is a former Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General David Patraeus in Iraq as well as a former advisor to General Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. Kilcullen is also Adjunct Professor of Security Studies, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, a Fellow at the Center for a New American Security, and the author of The Accidental Guerrilla (2009). His new book, Counterinsurgency, is a no-nonsense picture of modern warfare informed by his experiences on the ground in some of today’s worst trouble spots–including Iraq and Afghanistan. In this excerpt, Kilcullen shares a few insights as to how progress in the Afghan campaign can be properly tracked and assessed.

Why McChrystal’s Out, but Obama’s Still Down

Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. See Lim’s previous OUPblogs here.

The President Doth Gesture Too Much

Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at Obama’s gestures. See Lim’s previous OUPblogs here.

‘Life Cheapens’: On Bloody Sunday and the Troubles

Yesterday the Saville Report, which looked into the events of and surrounding Bloody Sunday in 1972, was published after 12 years. It is the longest and most expensive public inquiry in UK history, costing £195m ($288m). Today I bring you a short excerpt from Northern Ireland: A Very Short Introduction by Marc Mulholland, which talks about Bloody Sunday and other incidents from the Northern Irish Troubles.

Two Fundamentals of Counterinsurgency

David Kilcullen was formerly the Senior Counterinsurgency Advisor to General David Petraeus in Iraq and is currently advising General Stanley McChrystal in Afghanistan. Killcullen is also Adjunct Professor of Security Studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and a Fellow at the Center for a New American Security. His new book, Counterinsurgency, is a picture of modern warfare filled with down-to-earth, common-sense insights which helps makes sense of our world in an age of terror. In the excerpt below, from the beginning of the book, Kilcullen explains the two fundamentals of counterinsurgency warfare.

Tim Parsons Podcast: Do Empires Exist Today?

Recently Tim Parsons, author of this month’s Rule of Empires: Those Who Built Them, Those Who Endured Them, and Why They Always Fall, stopped by Oxford with his wife Ann. Here Ann asks Tim a few questions about his book and what empires past tell us about the present.

The Limits of Presidental Leadership

Elvin Lim is Assistant Professor of Government at Wesleyan University and author of The Anti-intellectual Presidency, which draws on interviews with more than 40 presidential speechwriters to investigate this relentless qualitative decline, over the course of 200 years, in our presidents’ ability to communicate with the public. He also blogs at www.elvinlim.com. In the article below he looks at Obama’s leadership. See Lim’s previous OUPblogs here.

Gaza, France, Monaco and the Double Standard for Israel

Nicholas Sarkozy, the president of France, has condemned as “disproportionate” Israel’s response to the flotilla bringing cargo to Gaza. Gaza today is controlled by Hamas, a terrorist organization which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and which has repeatedly launched attacks on Israel and its civilian population. Israel had told the flotilla’s organizers to bring their goods to the Israeli port of Ashdod for inspection, with all civilian goods to be trucked subsequently from Ashdod to Gaza. The Israeli offer was rejected.

On This Day in History: Tiananmen Square Protests

On this day in 1989, 100,000 Chinese citizens gathered in Tiananmen Square. I wanted to learn more about the event so I turned to Oxford Reference Online which led me to The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics edited by Iain McLean and Allistair McMillan. Below the entry on Tiananmen Square is excerpted.