Results of a new survey titled “The 2012 Election and the Sources of Partisan Polarization: A Survey of American Political Attitudes” and conducted by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center received national attention after the poll’s May 21 release. MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews as well as NBC’s First-Read, the network’s news and analysis daily summary from the NBC News Political Unit, both reported on the poll. Also reporting on the poll were the political website Political Wire, UPI, The Washington Times and BusinessWeek.

Despite the hope that President Obama’s clear victory last November might lead to a reduction in partisan polarization, the results of a new survey conducted by the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton College indicate that American are as divided as ever. Full poll results will be released on Tuesday, May 21, at 10:30 a.m. at www.hamilton.edu/PostElectionPoll.

The national media highlighted Hamilton College in multiple ways throughout 2012 by focusing on faculty research and expertise, featuring opinion pieces, and announcing new endeavors and special student projects. From The Today Show to NPR’s All Things Considered to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the college was visible in the media across the country.

In a Huffington Post opinion piece appearing on the site’s “Republican Party” homepage, James S. Sherman Professor of Government Philip Klinkner pointed out similarities in arguments and predictions among Republicans in the aftermath of Mitt Romney's loss to Barack Obama and after Gerald Ford lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976. Klinkner warned of “the danger of over-interpreting election results,” in the Nov. 19 “Back to the Future for the GOP?” blog.

In the last talk of a semester-long series on the election season, The Publius Society invited Professor Phil Klinkner of Hamilton’s Government Department to give his thoughts in “An Election Post-Mortem.”

Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, was quoted extensively in a National Public Radio website article that addressed how the GOP might react going forward in light of Governor Mitt Romney’s defeat. Posted hours after President Obama delivered his victory speech, “Republican Response Likely To Be Tactical, Not Transformative” appeared in NPR’s It’s all politics column.

With the 2012 elections less than two weeks away, Think Tank held a session on Oct. 26 focusing on the timely topic of the presidential election.  Phil Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, was invited to lead a discussion with an audience of students, staff and visiting parents.

Tonight Hamilton students will participate with students from six universities across the country in a live, pilot polling project during the presidential debate. Via a new smart phone application, more than a hundred students will be able to “register their in-the-moment reactions to what candidates are saying during a debate, using button taps (e.g. Agree and Disagree), and answering pre- and post-debate survey questions (e.g. partisanship, issue priorities, demographics),” according to the developer’s website.

In a Huffington Post article titled “Why the Ryan Pick Fizzled,” Philip Klinkner, the James S. Sherman Professor of Government, discussed why assumed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s selection of U.S. Representative Paul Ryan as his vice president nominee didn't generate an overwhelmingly positive response among voters.

Despite being the world’s oldest continuous democracy, the United States has one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the developed world. Peter Adelfio ’13 and Benjamin Anderson ’14 have been awarded a Levitt Group Research Grant to study this paradox by conducting a controlled experiment on methods of increasing voter turnout. They’re being advised by James S. Sherman Professor of Government Philip Klinkner.