2008 Election Roundtable

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Marc Landy, Boston College
Kay Schlozman, Boston College
Alan Wolfe, Boston College

Date:Ā November 6, 2008

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Abstract

Join us for a spirited discussion of the results of this historic presidential election. Will Americans elect the nationā€™s first black president? Itā€™s first female vice-president? Will the election returns provide a specific mandate to the winner with regard to the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, national security, immigration, education and healthcare?Ā  What role did religion and ā€œvalues votersā€ play in the results? Our panel of distinguished Š”°¬µē¾ŗ political scientists will analyze the election and discuss what the future might hold for the country under new leadership.

Speaker Bios

Marc Landy

Marc LandyĀ is Professor of Political Science and Faculty Chair of the Irish Institute at Boston College. In addition to instructing Boston College students, he regularly teaches public officials from Ireland and Northern Ireland about American politics through a series of executive programs run by the Irish Institute. He has written two books with Sidney Milkis,Ā American Government: Balancing Democracy and RightsĀ (McGraw Hill, 2003); andĀ Presidential GreatnessĀ (Kansas, 2000). He co-editedĀ Seeking the Center: Politics and Policymaking at the New CenturyĀ with Martin Levin and Martin Shapiro (Georgetown, 2001) andĀ The New Politics of Public PolicyĀ with Martin Levin (Johns Hopkins, 1995).

Kay Lehman Schlozman

Kay Lehman SchlozmanĀ serves as J. Joseph Moakley Endowed Professor of Political Science at Boston College. She received a B.A. from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She is co-author ofĀ Injury to Insult: Unemployment, Class and Political ResponseĀ (with Sidney Verba);Ā Organized Interests and American DemocracyĀ (with John T. Tierney);Ā Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American PoliticsĀ (with Sidney Verba and Henry E. Brady), which won the American Political Science Associationā€™s Philip Converse Prize; and, most recently,Ā The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political ParticipationĀ (with Nancy Burns and Sidney Verba), which was co-winner of the APSAā€™s Schuck Prize. She has also written numerous articles in professional journals and is editor of Elections in America. Among her professional activities, she has served as Secretary of the American Political Science Association and as chair of the APSAā€™s organized section on Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior. She is the winner of the APSAā€™s 2004 Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science and the 2006 Frank J. Goodnow Distinguished Service Award. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Alan Wolfe

Alan WolfeĀ is the founding director of the Boisi Center and Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is author of more than a dozen books, includingĀ The Future of LiberalismĀ (Knopf, 2009),Ā Ā (Yale, 2006),Ā Ā (Penguin, 1999) andĀ Ā (Free Press, 2003). Widely considered one of the nation's most prominent public intellectuals, he is a frequentĀ contributor to the NewĀ York Times, Washington Post, and Atlantic Monthly, and has delivered lectures across the United States, Europe and Middle East. (More info on Alan Wolfe...)

Event Photos

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From left to right: Alan Wolfe, Marc Landy, Kay Scholzman

Boisi event

From left to right: Alan Wolfe, Marc Landy, Kay Scholzman

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Alan Wolfe

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Marc Landy

Boisi event

From left to right: Alan Wolfe, Marc Landy, Kay Scholzman

Event Recap

We hardly need to mention how exciting, important, emotional, and historic the 2008 presidential election was for Americans and indeed citizens of the world. As the global economy shuddered and slumped into a severe recession, Americans fought two wars abroad and debated the future of national security, healthcare, energy policy and education. Barack Obamaā€™s election heightened expectationsā€”as well as anxietyā€”about the direction of American politics and public life in the coming years, and the Boisi Center invited its crack team of political analysts to make sense of it all.Ā 

Alan Wolfe joined his Š”°¬µē¾ŗ political science colleagues Kay Schlozman and Marc Landy for the event. The panelists agreed that Obamaā€™s election demonstrated important social progress with regard to racism, though they were less satisfied that Sarah Palinā€™s vice-presidential bid represented a blow against sexism. Schlozman argued that, despite Obamaā€™s commanding win in the electoral college, it is simply too early to tell if a major electoral realignment is in the works. Landy deftly parsed exit polling data, which Wolfe also cited while lamenting the apparent racism revealed in the strong rejection of Obama in counties of the former Confederacy. Wolfe wondered aloud whether the Republican Party that reemerges following this thorough defeat will be more conservative (and primarily Southern) or more moderate. The ensuing conversation with the audience added issues of immigration, gay marriage, media coverage of religion, Obamaā€™s reputation abroad and Rahm Emanuelā€™s selection as White House Chief of Staff. It was, unsurprisingly, a spirited discussion.

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