Anna Sale

Banks Abandon Obama: America’s six largest banks have dramatically changed allegiances since the 2008 presidential money race, and GOP candidate Mitt Romney is reaping the spoils. ...

Through the 2012 election cycle, It’s A Free Country will keep a focus on the mechanics of elections, from voting rules, political party rules to redistricting to, of course, the money that fuels campaigns.

As part of that, we'll be keeping a regular eye on top-line news, undercovered stories, and opinion on our changing political process in a weekly roundup. As with most things around here, we welcome tips, thoughts, and fierce debate about whether any or all of this is good for our democracy. 

Hurricane Irene pounded North Carolina early Saturday morning and continued north wrecking havoc all the way up to New England, where floods are reportedly occurring in Vermont. Tomorrow, as residents of cities along the eastern coast of the U.S. attempt clean up Irene's wreckage, the southern U.S. will be reminded of their own recent natural disasters: it's the sixth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Thanks to Katrina, and American outrage over certain politicians' reactions to the storm and its aftermath, the northeast's politicians learned to take every precaution necessary as they deal with Irene.

As Hurricane Irene stormed up through the East Coast, it interrupted political debates about Libya and the 2012 election and focused attention on the most basic services of government: public safety and public infrastructure. That cuts right at the heart of the debate about the proper role and scope of government that has raged in Washington since the 2010 midterms.

But Hurricane Irene is fundamentally about local politics, because as FEMA director Craig Fugate pointed out, the hurricane did not leave a single “place of damage that tells everybody the story about what's happened." Instead, the weekend ended with multiple storylines ranging from devastation to inconveniences to relief. So as Irene's winds weakened up the coast, so did her ability to shape the national debate about the role of government one way or the other.

Here, a look at the political winners and losers in Irene's wake. 

Remember “Heckuva job, Brownie?”

A botched response to a devastating storm can catapult a anonymous midlevel Washington administrator to household name status. And despite a series of crippling storms during his tenure — including the tornado in Joplin, the Midwest’s massive flooding, and 65 major disaster declarations in all this year — Craig Fugate has avoided getting much attention since he was confirmed as FEMA administrator in May 2009. For example, his Wikipedia entry as of Friday afternoon was just three sentences long.

“All indications point to this being a historic hurricane,” President Obama said in remarks about Hurricane Irene on Friday morning from his Martha’s Vineyard vacation.

He emphasized that coordination with local agencies has already begun. “Although we can’t predict with perfect certainty the impact of Irene over the next few days, the federal government has spent the better part of last week working closely with communities that could be affected by this storm to see to it that we are prepared.”

That’s what President Obama said publicly, and for a window into what the private briefings might look today and tomorrow, it’s worth looking back at video of President George W. Bush’s briefing with FEMA and National Hurricane Center officials less than a day before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005. The Associated Press obtained video of that briefing six months after Katrina.

It's A Free Country political reporter Anna Sale continues her monthly series with us. This week: how independent groups are going after minority voters.

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It's A Free Country political reporter Anna Sale continues her monthly series with us. This week: how independent groups are going after minority voters.

It's an understood rule of presidential politics: win over independent voters in November, and the election is yours. But who are the independent voters? Many people think of them as white, educated, socially liberal and fiscally conservative. That may be true of some independents, but the group as a whole is changing and diversifying, and now many Americans who are ethnic minorities are identifying as independents. In 2008, less than 60% of self-identified independent were white, according to American National Election Studies.

It's a Free Country reporter Anna Sale returns to discuss how the GOP candidates are trying to woo the famously independent New Hampshire voter.

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With a state motto like "Live Free or Die," you might expect that New Hampshire has a fair number of independent voters. That’s what prompted Anna Sale — reporter for It’s a Free Country, the politics website of our co-producer WNYC — to report from there. Sale has been on the road speaking to independent voters across the country, in an attempt to gauge which direction this large and crucial demographic is leaning as we approach the 2012 presidential election. She’s spent the last few days in New Hampshire, focusing on how Republicans and Democrats are attempting to capture the independent vote there.

Independent voters in New Hampshire share a proud, stubborn resistance to let a party define their politics, but not much else. These unaffiliated voters are a huge electoral force i...

All August, It's A Free Country's Anna Sale is searching for America's Independent voters. They helped decide the 2008 and 2010 elections, and they'll be courted heavily come 2012. But who are they, exactly?

In this video, Anna explains how President Obama is losing support among independents, and there’s a mad dash among political organizers to grab them as they peel off.

All August, It's A Free Country's Anna Sale is searching for America's Independent voters. They helped decide the 2008 and 2010 elections, and they'll be courted heavily come 2012. But who are they, exactly?

In this video, Anna explains how one Colorado district that has bounced from Democrat to Republican and back again illustrates the general disappointment with our political process.

While the pointed sparring between Minnesotans Michele Bachmann and former Governor Tim Pawlenty drew the most headlines after the GOP debate, there's was just one of many disagreements among the eight Republican candidates on stage in Ames, Iowa. 

President Obama is losing support among independents, and there’s a mad dash among political organizers to grab them as they peel off. But their approach differs on how they diagnose ...

It's a Free Country political reporter Anna Sale discusses the various groups trying to coalesce independent voters, in week two of her search for the independent voter.

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Independent voters were a key part of the coalition that elected Barack Obama in 2008. But President Obama has lost the support of many of those independents, throughout his term. As potential candidates begin to prepare for the 2012 presidential election, the hunt is on to try to capture the independent vote.

As the stock market shed value on Monday afternoon, President Obama offered sweeping remarks designed to sure up confidence and to appeal to the patriotism of his colleagues in Washington.

In a break from the chiding tone that characterized many of his public statements during the debt ceiling debate, Obama sought to create a sense of calm by emphasizing the fundamental soundness of the American economy. 

He made three key points, which taken together, came down to one message: We are better than this. 

 

After Standard and Poor's downgraded the U.S. debt rating for the first time American history, reaction was swift, mixed, and like everything else involving fiscal policy these days, pointedly partisan.