Current Events and the Psychology of Politics
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Summary: A psychological profile of Rudy Giuliani, prospect for Secretary of State in the Trump administration, shows he may not be temperamentally suited for the position. Mitt Romney, though a harsh critic of President-elect Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign, would be a safer choice for Secretary of State.



Summary: A psychological profile of Mitt Romney, prospect for Secretary of State in the Trump administration, shows he is temperamentally fit for the position. Rudy Giuliani, though closer to President-elect Donald Trump, would be a riskier choice for Secretary of State.



Chronicle of Michele Bachmann’s 2011-2012 presidential campaign.



Summary: Among Republican presidential candidates, only Rep. Michele Bachmann is given relatively high marks by proponents of limited immigration and enforcing immigration law — though even Bachmann has been relatively muted on the issue of immigration. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 25, 2010, Aubrey Immelman featured a biographical profile of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann by Paul Harris of the London Observer, annotated with sidebars for context and background information.



Summary: At the Iowa GOP / Fox News Debate in Ames, Iowa, Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty fought a rhetorical slugging match, with Bachmann likening Pawlenty to President Barack Obama and Pawlenty charging that Bachmann’s record of accomplishment in Congress “is nonexistent” and that “she has a record of misstating and making false statements.” … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 11, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported and analyzed the primary election results in Minnesota’s 6th Congressional District (MN-06).



Summary: Politico reports that Barack Obama’s aides and advisers are preparing to center the president’s reelection campaign on a ferocious personal assault on Mitt Romney’s character and business background, a strategy grounded in the early-stage expectation that the former Massachusetts governor is the likely GOP nominee. However, the Obama campaign would be sorely misguided if it diverted inordinate resources to fending off Romney as Barack Obama’s likely opponent. Despite being the early front-runner in public opinion polls, Romney is unlikely to be the Republican presidential nominee, with the vastly underestimated Michele Bachmann potentially posing the greater reelection threat to Obama in terms of personal charisma. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on August 9, 2010, Aubrey Immelman appealed to Minnesota voters to support Independent Tom Horner for governor in the August 10, 2010 primary election.



Summary: In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann has surged into second place behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, with support from 16 percent of GOP primary voters, according to a new NBC / Wall Street Journal poll. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on July 21, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that the St. Cloud Times — the largest newspaper in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s congressional district — had a letter to the editor in which the letter writer offered a broad-ranging indictment of Bachmann, in which the congresswoman was characterized as self-centered, unresponsive to the needs of her district, meager in her legislative accomplishments, and shirking the hard work of effective governance. Immelman noted, however, that it was not until the end of the letter that the writer touched on the real problem with Bachmann: her delusion-like paranoia, her shameless conspiracy-peddling, and her incessant fear-mongering.


Jun 26th, 2011

Summary: Rep. Michele Bachmann is statistically tied with Gov. Mitt Romney at the top of the first Iowa poll of the 2012 Republican presidential primary campaign season, conducted by the Des Moines Register. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on June 26, 2010, Aubrey Immelman reported that central Minnesota voters had the opportunity to meet gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner’s running mate, lieutenant-governor candidate Jim Mulder at the Granite City Days parade in St. Cloud.



Summary: With former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee bowing out of the 2012 presidential contest as a potential Republican contender, only two remotely viable candidates remain — former Massachussetts governor Mitt Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. Much of the rest of the field has been characterized as reminiscent of the “Star Wars” bar scene: “passionate-about-his-country-and-worked-so-hard-that-he-felt-compelled-to-seek-God’s-forgiveness” Newt Gingrich; birther Donald Trump; and conspiracy nut Michele Bachmann, to name a few. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 15, 2010, Aubrey Immelman commented on the opening of Minnesota’s 2010 open-water fishing season.


May 12th, 2011

Summary: NBC’s Chuck Todd writes that if the object of 2012 Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney’s May 12 health-care speech was “to put the health issue behind him, then the address was an ‘un-Mitt-igated’ failure.” Research conducted at the Unit for the Study of Personality in Politics under the direction of Aubrey Immelman, Ph.D., suggests that Massachusetts’ health law, enacted during Romney’s tenure as governor, may be the least of his problems as he vies for the Republican nomination in a crowded GOP field. In short, Romney lacks the personal charisma to sway non-base voters, as measured by the Personal Electability Index for presidential contenders, developed at the Minnesota-based political psychology research unit. … One-year retrospective: One year ago today, on May 12, 2010, Aubrey Immelman announced that Independence Party-endorsed gubernatorial candidate Tom Horner scheduled a press conference at Stop Light Bait in St. Cloud, ahead of the weekend’s Minnesota’s fishing opener.