Democracy | News-Opinion

Will Election Be A Referendum On Obama?

Excerpt: Judgments of the incumbent’s record are certainly central to any campaign for reelection—but so are judgments of the challenger’s record, character, ideology, agenda or party.

No, the Election Isn’t Just a Referendum on Obama

Ed Kilgore, The New Republic, April 15, 2012

In his TNR column last week, my esteemed colleague and mentor William Galston expressed one of the more regularly repeated convictions about presidential politics: Reelection campaigns are a referendum on the incumbent. As he wrote:

One of the best established findings of contemporary political science is that in presidential contests involving an incumbent, the incumbent’s record is central to the public’s judgment. A race for an open Oval Office is about promises and personalities; a campaign for reelection is about the record and performance of the person currently occupying the White House.

In other words, the results of November’s election will hinge on what voters think of Barack Obama, not what they think of Mitt Romney. But is this really true?

Read the rest of the article at:  http://www.tnr.com/article/politics/102715/kilgore-referendum-tk