Obama 2008 : l’inflexion numérique (encadré)

Barack Obama Executive Order 13505, November 2008

On 20 November 2009 Democrat Barack Obama [5] replaced Republican George W. Bush [6] as president of the United States. Obama soon initiated changes to Bush?s 2001 executive order concerning scientific research involving human stem cells [7]. Stem cell research remains a controversial issue in the US. Some individuals consider it immoral to experiment with an embryo because they regard embryos ...

Courting the Youth Vote in 2008: The Obama Effect

This paper examines a few of the numerous factors that may have led to increased youth turnout in the 2008 Election. First, theories of voter behavior and turnout are related to courting the youth vote. Several variables that are perceived to affect youth turnout such as party polarization, perceived candidate difference, voter registration, effective campaigning and mobilization, and use of th...

Analyse numérique

The Role of Celebrity Endorsements in Politics: Oprah, Obama, and the 2008 Democratic Primary

Candidates in major political contests are commonly endorsed by other politicians, interest groups and celebrities. Prior to the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary, Barack Obama was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey, a celebrity with a proven track record of influencing her fans’ commercial decisions. In this paper, we use geographic differences in subscriptions to O! – The Oprah Magazine and the sal...

Voters , Emotions , and Race in 2008 : Obama as the First Black President

Social desirability effects make it difficult to learn voters’ racial attitudes. List experiments can tap sensitive issues without directly asking respondents to express overt opinions. The authors report on such an experiment about Barack Obama as the first black president, finding that 30 percent of white Americans were “troubled” by the prospect of Obama as the first black president. The aut...