Tag: 2016 Election

  • The Affordable Care Act You Likely Know as Obamacare

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    It just won’t die. Grandma, that is, in front of the death panels of Obamacare. Remember those? Well, even if you don’t, the Affordable Care Act (the actual name for Obamacare) is still around despite repeated attempts to repeal it. So in this piece from Bloomberg, Obamacare is examined from the perspective of leaving 27…

  • The National Debt

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    One of the things discussed during the election season—though very minorly compared to other things—is the national debt. Debt itself is not scary. Look at student loans, home loans, auto loans, &c. Look at the credit cards in your wallet. But running a country is far more difficult and complex than a household budget. That said,…

  • Pennsylvania’s Polls

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Again, the election is next week. And since I have moved from Chicago to Philadelphia, I now find myself in a contested state. This piece comes from the New York Times and explores the polling results across the blue-leaning-but-still-a-swing-state. I find it particularly interesting just how much red and purple there is in the suburban…

  • The Asian Arms Race

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    In case you missed it, two weeks ago President Duterte of the Philippines had some interesting things to say regarding the relationship between the Philippines and the United States. “America has lost” and “separation from the U.S.” were among the two big lines he spoke to a Chinese audience. But the Philippines are an important part…

  • Tracking Polls One Week Out

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Well the election is next Tuesday, and last Friday and this past weekend was…interesting. So one(ish) week to go, and we are going to turn to a few posts that use data visualisation and graphics to explore topics related to the election. Today we start with the latest tracking polls, released on Friday. The piece…

  • Early Voting So Far

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    70+ million people watched the debate last week. But, 2.5 million people have already voted. Me? Well in Pennsylvania there is no early voting, so you queue up on Election Day. But that also means I will have had the full election season to brush up on candidates for president and all the other offices.…

  • Baselines Are Important

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week the Washington Post published a fascinating article on the data visualisation work of the Donald Trump media campaign. In my last job I frequently harped on the importance of displaying the baseline and/or setting the baseline to zero. When you fail to do so you distort the data. But maybe that is the point…

  • When America Votes by Goat

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Last week Twitter went a wee bit crazy when Donald Trump’s son posted an image about how the Republican nominee had gained ground. Except that it turns out the image was from FiveThirtyEight and looked only at a demographic split by gender—it was what the map would look if only men voted. Suffice it to…

  • Pardon the Interruptions

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    Well that does it for the three presidential debates. Didn’t they seem very presidential with all those interruptions and interjections? Thankfully after the debate, FiveThirtyEight put together a quick graphic highlighting the total number of each per candidate per debate. Credit for the piece goes to the FiveThirtyEight graphics department.

  • Trump’s Support

    —

    by

    Brendan Barry
    in

    The debate was Sunday and here we are on Wednesday. The infamous video is, well, still infamous, but not garnering as much attention half-a-week later. On Monday, the Economist published this piece taking a look at how Trump’s support shifted in the hours and days following the video’s release. Credit for the piece goes to…