John Sides and Lynn Vavreck, "The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election" (Princeton UP, 2013)

Summary

One of 2013's most important new books in political science was The Gamble: Choice and Chance in the 2012 Presidential Election (Princeton UP 2013). I had the chance to interview one of the co-authors, John Sides (Associate Professor of Political Science at George Washington University), for the podcast about the early web-exclusive release of several early chapter. You can find that interview here.

This fall the final book was released and I interviewed the other co-author, Lynn Vavreck. Vavreck is Associate Professor of Political Science and Communication Studies at UCLA.

The Gamble delivers on the promise of its initial chapters. Sides and Vavreck challenge conventional notions of what explains why candidates win presidential elections. They sift through the popular myths with extensive, original data that explains why President Obama won re-election in 2012.

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