There is precedent in the United States for this kind of backroom king-making. Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of the United States, was put into office in part because of strong support by Western Union. In the late 1800s, Western Union had a monopoly on communications in America, and just before the election of 1876, the company did its best to assure that only positive news stories about Hayes appeared in newspapers nationwide. It also shared all the telegrams sent by his opponent’s campaign staff with Hayes’s staff.
.. According to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, since Obama took office, Google representatives have visited the White House ten times as frequently as representatives from comparable companies—once a week, on average.
.. Republicans, take note: A manipulation on Hillary Clinton’s behalf would be particularly easy for Google to carry out, because of all the demographic groups we have looked at so far, no group has been more vulnerable to SEME—in other words, so blindly trusting of search rankings—than moderate Republicans. In a national experiment we conducted in the United States, we were able to shift a whopping 80 percent of moderate Republicans in any direction we chose just by varying search rankings.
.. The best way to wield this type of influence is to do what Google is becoming better at doing every day: send out customized search results. If search results favoring one candidate were sent only to vulnerable individuals, regulators and watchdogs would be especially hard pressed to find them.
Why Television Is Still King for Campaign Spending
Presidential campaign staffers like to talk about a digital strategy, and with good reason. But television continues to occupy the vast majority of most campaigns’ budgets.
Here’s why: TV reaches 87 percent of Americans 18 and older, according to a new report from Nielsen, which tracks media usage across platforms and devices.
The report suggests that nothing will displace television as the centerpiece of presidential campaign media strategy in 2016. Television-watching adults spent an average of 7.5 hours a day in front of the set during the first three months of this year, according to the Nielsen report, far more time than people spend on their personal computers, smartphones and tablets. And older Americans — among the most dependable voters — watch more television than their younger counterparts.
Republicans Should Reform Obamacare, Not Repeal It
The Republican presidential candidates have reacted to the latest court case by recommitting themselves to Obamacare repeal after a Republican victory in 2016. They are thereby transforming the coming election from a debate over the Obama record—and over the Hillary Clinton agenda—into a stark referendum on universal health coverage.
.. More than 80 percent of those who have gained coverage under the ACA were pleased with the coverage they got. Everything we know about voters tells us that they are much more motivated to protect something they already have than to vote to gain something new.
.. Riling those voters is especially unwise for a party that does best when voter turnout is low. In off-year elections, when participation drops below 40 percent, Republicans dominate. As voter numbers rise, Republicans find it harder to compete.
.. Yet even delayed, the mandate has become a major disincentive to the employment of less-skilled workers.
.. The ACA is here to stay. Its core principle of universal coverage is welcome. Its working mechanisms—regulated private markets plus Medicaid expansion—are consistent with conservative thinking. Its details, however, are troublesome and cry out for tough-minded reform to control costs, emancipate local governments, and end the fiction that the top 1 percent can pay the medical bills of all of American society.