Link Banana

Intrigued by Sarah Palin high (in-state) approval rating, Andrew Gellman ran some quick numbers and came to this conclusion:

It seems to be easier to maintain high approval in a small state. What’s going on? Some theories: in a large state, there will be more ambitious politicians on the other side, eager to knock off the incumbent governor; small states often have part-time legislatures and thus the governor is involved in less political conflict; small states (notably Alaska) tend to get more funds per capita from the federal government, and it’s easier to be popular when you can disburse more funds; large states tend to be more heterogeneous and so it’s harder to keep all the voters happy. As the graphs show, the pattern isn’t perfect, but it looks real to me. Next step is to get data from other years.

(via Brainiac)

World opinion diverges enough to shock Blake Houshnell. While the greatest number of people appear to believe that it was Al Qaeda, Israel and America also won big votes. Israel was most often blamed by Arabs, with Egypt showing 43%, Jordon 31, and Palestine a (mere) 19.

Curiously, Mexicans were the second most likely — at 30% of those polled — to blame the United States. Turkey (36%) was the first, Palestine third at 27, and Germany fourth at 23.

There is now greater equality of happiness in America than there was in the 1970s. Eduardo Porter considers why:

Still, it is not surprising that happiness among blacks rose in the years after the civil rights law outlawed segregation and discrimination on the basis of race. Mr. Wolfers speculates that the gay-straight happiness gap is also likely to have declined over the period, for similar reasons. Changes in family life might also help. Married people are happier than unmarried people, on average. Still, later marriages and more divorces might have winnowed out the unhappiest marriages. And while the shift to two-earner families brings to mind the stressful rush from work to pick the kid up at day care, it also has empowered unhappy stay-at-home moms.

I note this just because I’m rather surprised anyone actually bothered to conduct such a poll. But SurveyUSA did — maybe hoping that people like me would like to it? — their explanation is here.

(via Waxy)

Though the headline result of Gallup’s survey about what former presidents should be our new president isn’t too surprising, I was surprised that Mr. Clinton placed third overall. Also surprising: Mr. Kennedy was the second favorite among Republicans. Showing our short collective memory, anyone president before 1940 did rather poorly — with Mr. Lincoln doing the best among those more historic candidates.

(via The Page)