Jacob Christensen

Greg Morrow of democraticSPACE has some thoughts about why Hilary Clinton would stay in the race even if she has no chance of winning the Democratic nomination:

This effort will keep pressure on Obama to broaden his appeal. Indeed, Clinton taking up the cause of rural working-class whites has forced Obama to make adjustments, and he has make been making some progress from Ohio to Pennsylvania to Indiana. If she can convince these voters that the Democratic Party will look after their interests, and she ultimately backs Obama 100%, many of these voters will follow her (although Democrats would be naive to believe that rural voters are going to abandon the Republicans en masse).

If she stays positive, there is some benefit for Democrats in both the short- and long-term. It will mean that ground operations will become more fully developed in the remaining five states (Puerto Rico doesn’t vote in the Presidential election) since Clinton and Obama will compete there, which has some added benefit for the fall general election, particularly in a battleground state like Oregon. Having competed across the country (unlike the Republicans who wrapped their nomination up early), the Democrats can more plausibly implement the 50-state approach that DNC Chairman Howard Dean has promoted. This might help in the short term in key states, but it really benefits the Democrats in the long term. Equally importantly, the 50-state approach feeds into Obama’s message of unity.

So, is HRC policy- or office-driven? (Yes, unlike journalists, we political scientists believe there is something to discuss here) Her latest statements and proposals have looked annoyingly populist – “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists” – and crypto-racist – “hard-working voters, white voters” – and strangely at odds with the centrist policies of the Bill Clinton campaigns and administration. But as the Swedes say – he who lives, will see.

John Sides on splitting and bandwagoning in the Democratic Party. But the really interesting claim is in the footnote:

Independents, by the way, favor Obama over McCain, 52-41. That difference should be close to statistical significance.

Via Dani Rodrik – who also asked an interesting question about Denmark yesterday – mention of a conference about the Nordic Model at Harvard University’s Center for European Studies:

A common view among critics of the large EU countries’ social policy and labor market institutions is that the economic inefficiency and social inequity they ascribe to those institutions can be remedied by transforming them in the direction of the Nordic social model. The purpose of the conference is to subject this view to critical scrutiny. It will do so by exploring:

1) the relationship between the social models and the problems ascribed to them,

2) the extent to which Nordic institutions and practices point to remedies for those problems, and

3) the extent to which such remedies are institutionally and politically applicable to the continental cases.

Papers available here.

By the way: A Danish translation of the Robert Kuttner article has been published in the Danish newspaper Politiken – part 1, part 2.

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Quote from today’s Dilbert strip:

Dilbert: I finally made a difference at work today.

Dogbert: How many victims?