The 72 Percent White Gabfest
Listen to Slate's show about President Obama’s re-election, the future of the GOP, and ballot victories for marriage equality and marijuana decriminalization.
Posted Friday, Nov. 9, 2012, at 3:19 PM ET
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On this week’s Slate Political Gabfest, Emily Bazelon, John Dickerson, and David Plotz discuss President Obama’s election to a second term, the future of the GOP, and the ballot victories for same-sex marriage and legalized pot (well, at least until the feds get involved).
Here are some of the links and references mentioned during this week's show:
- John says changing demographics, a well-run campaign, and a relentless effort to define Romney were the key features of Obama’s victory.
- Sasha Issenberg describes how the Obama campaign used innovative, data-intensive tactics to get nonwhite voters to the polls.
- John says “Obama did worse with white voters, but there were [fewer] of them; he did better with minorities, and there were more of them.” Tom Scocca has a closer look at the demographic profile of Romney voters.
- Nate Silver defines the electoral ceiling facing the GOP as the country’s demographics change.
- David thinks the GOP needs an emotional separation from Fox News; Slate’s Allison Benedikt agrees that Fox and other conservative media outlets hurt the Republicans’ electoral prospects.
- Dave Weigel has more on the Republican super donors who didn’t get their money’s worth.
- David says Obama has greatly improved his leverage heading into discussions about the fiscal cliff—in New York magazine, Jonathan Chait describes how and why.
- Emily thinks the GOP should reposition and pass immigration reform. But she doesn’t think that will be sufficient by itself, a point Matt Yglesias describes as “the GOP’s Hispanic nightmare.”
- Slate’s Nathaniel Frank describes how gay marriage finally won.
- John recommends a piece by Ana Marie Cox that describes the dramatic evolution of American views on gay marriage.
- Emily says Eric Holder should allow Colorado and Washington room to experiment with drugs.
John chatters about the Gabfest’s amazing fans—thanks especially to listener Jeff Cardille for sharing an electoral vote tracking spreadsheet. And John reflects on the Obama team’s better use of data.
Emily chatters about the passage of a ballot initiative that will reform California’s three strikes law.
David chatters about foreign election officials who were impressed with a trust-based U.S. voting system.
Topic ideas for next week? You can tweet suggestions, links, and questions to @SlateGabfest.
The email address for the Political Gabfest is gabfest@slate.com. (Email may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.)
Podcast production by Michael Vuolo. Links compiled by Jeff Friedrich.
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Emily Bazelon is a Slate senior editor and writes about law, family, and kids. Her forthcoming book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Empathy and Character, will be published in February. Find her at emilybazelon@gmail.com or on Facebook or Twitter.
John Dickerson is Slate's chief political correspondent and author of On Her Trail. He can be reached at slatepolitics@gmail.com. Read his series on the presidency and his series on risk. Follow him on Twitter.
David Plotz is the Editor of Slate. He's the author of The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and Good Book. He appears on Slate's Political Gabfest.