Q: What is the difference between a caucus and a primary?
A: In presidential campaigns, a caucus is a system of local gatherings where voters decide which candidate to support and select delegates for nominating conventions. A primary is a statewide voting process in which voters cast secret ballots for their preferred candidates.
Year: 2008
Effect of Overturning Roe v. Wade
Editor’s note: We published an updated story on this issue on May 3, 2022.
Q: What would happen if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade?
A: Some states would outlaw abortion but others would not.
Congress to Outlaw Homeschooling?
Q: Is the U.S. Congress considering a bill to outlaw homeschooling in the U.S.?
A: No.
Winning Ugly in Wisconsin
Summary
In a Wisconsin throwdown, incumbent Supreme Court Justice Louis Butler narrowly lost his reelection bid after being hit with a barrage of deceptive attack ads. We’ve written about some of them in recent weeks.
Attack ads targeting the incumbent heavily outnumbered attacks aimed at the business-backed winner, Circuit Court Judge Mike Gableman. In the closing days of the campaign the ratio was roughly 2 to 1.
A misleading attack ad that ran hundreds of times implied that the incumbent overturned a murder conviction despite overwhelming evidence of the convicted man’s guilt.
What is Triangulation?
Q: What is triangulation?
A: In simple terms, it’s Democrats advocating some Republican positions or Republicans advocating some Democratic positions.
What is Public Financing?
Q: What is public financing?
A: It’s the system under which candidates can use U.S. Treasury dollars to fund their campaigns. But only if they agree to play by a complicated set of rules.
Substance Abuse
A misleading e-mail has been making the rounds, alleging that Clinton has fewer legislative accomplishments than Obama, and that they are less substantive. We’ve had questions about it from a number of readers, and blogs have jumped into the fray. So what’s the real story on the Senate careers of the Democratic presidential candidates? We find that the e-mail is false in almost every particular
Federal Reserve Bank Ownership
Q: Who owns the Federal Reserve Bank?
A: There are actually 12 different Federal Reserve Banks around the country, and they are owned by big private banks. But the banks don’t necessarily run the show. Nationally, the Federal Reserve System is led by a Board of Governors whose seven members are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Obama’s Oil Spill
In a new ad, Obama says, “I don’t take money from oil companies.” Technically, that’s true, since a law that has been on the books for more than a century prohibits corporations from giving money directly to any federal candidate. But that doesn’t distinguish Obama from his rivals in the race.
Obama a Constitutional Law Professor?
Q: Was Barack Obama really a constitutional law professor?
A: His formal title was "senior lecturer," but the University of Chicago Law School says he "served as a professor" and was "regarded as" a professor.