The Almanac of American Politics

by Richard E. Cohen and Michael Barone

Book Overview

The unequivocal 2006 election results suggest we have entered a new period in American politics. When America's votes were tallied this past November, Democrats had won Election Day majorities in both the Senate and the House for the first time since 1992. The House Democrats' margin of victory, furthermore, was very similar to the House Republicans' popular vote margin in 1994--a harbinger, perhaps, of a new political era.
In the wake of such...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0892341173
• ISBN13: 9780892341177
• Release Date: September 2007
• Publisher: National Journal Group
• Length: 1850 Pages
• Weight: 2.96 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Information,please;not spin!!

An hour with TAAP is more informative than a year of watching CNN. If you want the truth about the people who make decisions in your behalf, read The Almanac of American Politics. The book is a fair, comprehensive account of politicians without the manipulation of the networks and their biased reporters. Barone and Cohen take the responsibility of informing their readers of what goes on in Washington; they have no interest in selling cars and beer; but more importantly, they have no interest in who gets elected. If you want to find out the truth, read TAAP, if you want others to do your thinking for you, watch network TV.

For Political Junkies Like You and Me

The most complete collection of information available on American politics. The level of detail is unmatched. The Sunday morning pundits would be lost without it.

There are no adequate adjectives

Mr. Barone and his collaborators continue to produce the benchmark political work of our time, and we get it updated every two years. What a treat to be able to go to this piece of work and get the unadorned skinny about an individual and the region that he represents.

As balanced as I've ever seen it

Here it is again - the political junkie's biennial facts fix. Since the 1970s, all the demographic information, statistics, maps and historical background you could expect in a single volume have been available in this one. That hasn't changed with the latest model, and there's still no rival when it comes to having all the facts in one place. What has changed? As longtime readers know, Michael Barone's conservative bias has been palpable in a number of past volumes (probably peaking along with Republican dominance of Congress in the mid-90s). It has decreased in recent issues, but it's hard for us liberal readers to avoid seeking - and usually finding - examples of Republican rhetoric thinly disguised as fact. I'm pleased to report that this edition is better than most other recent ones in that regard. One can't help but suspect that the 2006 elections made Barone want to chortle about the bleak 2008 prospects for all the new Democratic members - but for the most part, the analysis of past and future elections is straightforward and facts-based, for Democratic and Republican members alike. Certainly, there are still points where you can at least see the bias wanting to come out. For example, the entry for Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) manages to tell the truth about why Casey's father was not allowed to address the 1992 Democratic National Convention - sort of. You can tell Barone wants to repeat the standard Republican lie about it being entirely due to the abortion issue, but instead he argues only that the decision was "certainly related to his stance on abortion but also brought on by his skepticism about Bill Clinton." Close enough, but then, the incident is mentioned again in discussing Sen. Chuck Schumer's DSCC chairmanship in terms that probably do cross the line into rhetoric-land. The more blatantly snide comments (chiding liberal voters for not supporting right-wing black or female candidates, for example) are, however, pleasantly absent this time around. The analysis is sometimes a bit dry as a result of the relative evenhandedness, but I don't suppose that's really something we should complain about. Political junkies on the left and right alike will probably enjoy flipping through this copy.