By Popular Demand

By Karen Tumulty | March 30, 2007 | +

After so many commenters last week smacked me and professed what is apparently an insatiable demand for coverage of health care policy (you know who you are, Jake Gittes and Brad DeLong), I thought I should provide a link to my story in this week’s dead-tree TIME. There will be a quiz.

P.S. There’s plenty more in the mag this week to satisfy your inner policy geek, including Jeff Kluger’s story that leads a terrific cover package on global warming, so take a look when you are in the checkout line at the grocery store this weekend.

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Mitt Romney May 16, 2012

Why Romney Is Dodging the Press

Joe, the Romney campaign’s control-freakery makes for bad democracy, but I suspect it’s a smart strategy. Consider the way Mitt’s personal approval rating has bounced back over the past several weeks. As the GOP primaries wrapped up, Romney was roughly as unpopular as late-era George W. Bush. Now he’s about even with Barack Obama.

Since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Romney’s favorable-unfavorable rating has jumped to 50%-41%, his best ever and in the same neighborhood as Obama’s 52%-46% standing.

What changed? Well, for one thing, other Republican rivals are no longer attacking Romney. That helps. But it’s not like he’s had a free ride: the Obama camp has picked up where Rick and Newt left off. An alternate explanation would be that Americans are simply seeing less of Romney, and that makes them like him better.
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