Politics: January 2008 Archives

Weekly Standard: Dean Barnett: The Truth About Talk Radio

Dean Barnett on the power and limits of conservative talk radio: "[A]nyone who thinks talk radio leads public opinion also probably believes that trees push the wind.... We're factors in the conversation, but we don't lead it. The interests and concerns of the people lead the conversation. It's truly a bottom-up phenomenon." Via Hugh Hewitt, who adds, "[T]alk radio matters primarily because it brings information to the attention of the audience, information presented with good humor and great timing.... Listeners tune them in for information and entertainment, not for marching orders."

Barnett also writes: "What's more, every talk show host knows that if his show fails to entertain, it will also fail to find and keep an audience. Or at least every successful talk show host knows as much.

"There are some local guys who will spend three hours on a Saturday afternoon carrying on an endless monologue about secular humanism and then head home and angrily ask their wives, 'What's Sean Hannity got that I don't?'"

Election Data Services: 2007 reapportionment analysis

Which states will gain or lose seats in Congress after the 2010 census, based on 2007 population estimates and population trends? Arizona, Florida, and Texas are the big winners, along with Georgia, Nevada, Oregon, and Utah. Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are the losers, with Minnesota right on the edge of losing a seat to Texas or Washington. The report includes how an estimate of how much population each state would need to gain or lose in order to gain or lose its next seat. Oklahoma would need to gain 186,954 people to get its sixth congressional seat back. Increasing the U. S. House to 506 members would guarantee that no state loses as seat (and Oklahoma would get its sixth seat back). (Via Election Law Blog.)