Footsteps
A footstep is the sound or mark that is made by someone walking each time their foot touches the ground.Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Motivated by Tony Weiner's recent sex scandal, Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight has an interesting piece on the effects of sex scandals on the re-election results. He primarily studies David Vitter's case, an incumbent senator from Louisiana who was re-elected in 2007 despite admitting to be a long-time client of a prostitute ring in the DC area. By comparing Vitter's results with the Republican incumbents in the House of Reprasentatives in the same districts, Silver concludes that the sex scandal cost Vitter about 8 percent of the vote. This conclusion seems to be also backed up by a paper on the subject of incumbent senators and sex scandals. However, I believe there is a significant difference in the re-election results depending on whether the person involved in the sex scandal is a senator, junior congressman, senior congressman or a governor. There is a higher switching cost to change a senator or a senior congressman as a senator who has spent more time in the senate is more likely to be influential in the decision making and negotiation process and be able to pass bills that can be beneficial to the state. This switching cost is on the other hand minimal if the person involved in the sex scandal happens to be a governor. As we have seen in recent years (New York governor Eliot Sptizer, South Carolina governor Mark Sanford and New Jersey governor Jame McGreevey), governors do not even seek a re-election after a sex scandal.
Sunday, June 12, 2011
In the modern ear, being a fan of a sports team is a new form of tribalism. I love sports and watching the actions of great athletes but it is funny how some people get so tangled with rooting for one team over another when there is really no rationale for it. I guess we need the security and safety of a bigger network. We need to remind ourselves that we can make superior choices. We once achieved these goals and still do so by relating to a religion, a country or a race but we now also have another venue: sports teams.
Saturday, June 11, 2011
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