Author: jplucas

Quoted: But as University of Wisconsin law professor Ann Althouse, no wild-eyed liberal, pointed out, Obama â??is not saying that judges should distort the meaning of law so that people they empathize with can win cases. He’s saying judges need to understand the realities of the world, most significantly, what life is like for people.â?

Quoted: “The reality is that young people are much more supportive of Obama than McCain,” said University of Wisconsin at Madison Professor Diana Hess, who specializes young people and politics.

Quoted: “When a party is facing bad economic times and an unpopular president, over the past 50 years that party typically loses seats in the Congress,” said Charles H. Franklin, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Quoted: “At some point, the tonnage of Obama commercials makes it difficult for McCain to get his message out,” said Ken Goldstein, a University of Wisconsin-Madison political scientist who studies political advertising.

Quoted: James Johannes, director of the UW-Madison Puelicher Center for Banking Education.

Quoted: “There’s no competitive race in a top 10 media market,” said Ken Goldstein, director of the Wisconsin Advertising Project, which studies political campaigns at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Quoted: Racism is far from dead in the United States, said Charles Franklin, a political-science professor at the University of Wisconsin who helped conduct a three-part national survey on race and the 2008 election.

Quoted: Stephen Ward, a journalism ethics professor at the School of Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the payment of money to a charity was less worrisome than putting cash in the pocket of the person who was interviewed.

Quoted: The election is now just a week away, and on UW-Madison political scientist says it’s doubtful the race is still competitive for Republican nominee John McCain.

Tom Holbrook says the unpopularity of President Bush and the tanking economy have been real drags on McCain’s bid for the White House. He says Democrat Barack Obama maintains a sizeable lead in most polls as well.

Noted: Senior strategists in both campaigns said in interviews this week that they had identified women, specifically the so-called â??security momsâ? who are worried about national defense, as a crucial part of the undecided vote.

That both campaigns have tried hard to reach them this year is underscored by the list of their top shows compiled by the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project: â??The Oprah Winfrey Showâ? is the top, non-news program for the advertising of both campaigns, followed by programs like â??Regis & Kelly,â? â??Rachel Rayâ? (one of the few programs that has included more advertisements from Mr. McCain than from Mr. Obama) and â??The View.â?

Quoted: Another researcher, Song Jin, a chemist at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison, is experimenting with nanometer-scale wires instead of clusters of molecules to convert solar energy (light) into chemical energy (fuel).

Noted: â??Thatâ??s an enormous part of this phenomenon â?? no one has the time to collect all that information,â? said Mark Blumenthal, who started Pollster.com in 2006 with a University of Wisconsin professor, Charles Franklin.

Quoted: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal have both endorsed Democrat Barack Obama. James Baughman, Director UW Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, says this hasn’t happened since Bob Dole versus Bill Clinton when in 1996 both papers endorsed the Republican Dole.

Quoted: Barry Orton, UW-Madison telecommunications expert.

Noted: Richard Davidson, who directs the Laboratory for Affective Neuroscience at the University of Wisconsin, used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (fMRI) to “read” the minds of meditating monks in a 2003 study. While engaged in a type of Buddhist contemplation known as compassion meditation, these monks showed extraordinarily high levels of activity in the left dorsolateral regions of their prefrontal cortex.

Quoted: The younger Stubergh “was a master of wax figures, an artist of the first rank,” said Blake Kellogg, professor emeritus of journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an amateur sculptor who studied under the Stuberghs.

Quoted: There are also questions whether street protests can change anything, said Jeremi Suri, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of the 2005 book “Power and Protest.”

Quoted: The falling prices are a result of less speculation in the crude oil market because of the world’s shaky financial situation and less consumption by consumers, said Rodney Stevenson, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor specializing in energy and regulation.

The depth of their challenge was made plain yesterday by eight surveys produced by the Big Ten Battleground Poll. Obama not only leads in all eight Midwestern states by hefty margins but has improved his standing since the last time the group surveyed these states.