About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored
A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog).
Follow Steven on
Twitter
I am a cat guy. Great pic!
Republicans never forgave Chris Christie for embracing Obama, literally and figuratively, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. Some even blamed him for Obama’s reelection. That’s almost certainly an overstatement, though I do think Sandy gave Obama a political boost, albeit mostly restricted to the already blue states of NY and NJ, and Christie’s support gave his efforts a bipartisan sheen, which helped Christie win reelection in a landslide a year later but hurt his standing within his own party.
Trump’s phony “contests” seem stupid and self defeating. Why not actually hold the contest and get all the free publicity that would come from the smiling pictures? But if you play it out, the answer becomes obvious. Everything about Trump and his campaign is a grift. This one was relatively easy to check and a single enterprising reporter was able to track it down. But there are probably 100 or a 1000 times as many that are more targeted and exclusive, and so don’t make it into the public sphere. If the mentality of the team is “GRIFT! GRIFT! GRIFT!” it’s never even going to occur to them that they should set this particular one up for real.
Illegal border crossings are down? Other crimes are down as well, https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/04/24/what-the-data-says-about-crime-in-the-us/. The price of gasoline is down. The Dow is up. Etc, etc.