John Geer

Despite Mitt Romney’s dominant performance in the first presidential debate, President Obama’s favorability rating has been hovering around 50 percent, not enough deterioration to turn the election around for the challenger. Read More

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast: Why our obsession with stock prices is killing U.S. companies. How powerful is the shrinking undecided voter? Vanderbilt takes you from farm to fork [vucastblurb]… Read More

Mitt Romney can still win the presidential election if he can convince Americans he has the best plan to reinvigorate the economy, according to analysis by Vanderbilt professor John Geer of two new ads released by Romney’s campaign. Read More

There now is only a small and ever dwindling chance that the remaining undecided voters might influence the outcome of the presidential election, said a Vanderbilt University political scientist. Read More

Watch video from the September 21 Lunch and Learn event with John Geer. John Geer, chair of political science, spoke on “Negativity and the 2012 Presidential Campaign: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” This presidential campaign will be the most negative in modern history. Geer argued why that is… Read More

The video of Mitt Romney dismissing 47 percent of Americans as unreachable by Republicans had little effect on swing voters who will probably decide the Nov. 4 election. Read More

A new attack ad that chides Mitt Romney for refusing to release more of his tax return information is failing to spark much of a reaction. Read More

A new survey from the Vanderbilt University/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows that the latest attack ad aimed at President Obama is not working as well as previous efforts. Read More

The latest political ad to be rated by the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows former president Bill Clinton doing a better job of rallying Democratic voters to re-elect President Obama than the president himself. Read More

One of Mitt Romney’s latest campaign commercials against President Barack Obama seems to be hitting a nerve among independent voters, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows. Read More

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast: Vanderbilt goes “through the wormhole” How voters are getting their say on political attack ads From the desert to the dugout… Who ya with? [vucastblurb]… Read More

Positive ads from President Obama won't get the job done of defeating challenger Mitt Romney in the presidential race, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project continues to suggest. Read More

Voter reaction to campaign advertisements by the presidential candidates will be evaluated this fall through a partnership between Vanderbilt University and YouGov, a prominent research firm. Read More

Watch video from the April 18 Lunch and Learn Event featuring John Geer, chair of political science, speaking on “Why the Tea Party is Obama’s Ace in the Hole.” The typical view is that President Obama has been weakened by the strength of the Tea Party movement.  While the Tea Party… Read More

Rick Santorum is the favored candidate in Tennessee as the state approaches its Super Tuesday primary election March 6, according to a new poll from the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions at Vanderbilt University. Read More

George W. Bush can probably look forward to an upswing in popularity as time goes by, say two Vanderbilt political scientists. A poll by CBS News and The New York Times near the end of Bush’s 2001-2009 presidency showed his approval rating at 22 percent, making him one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history. Read More

Watch video of John Geer, the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science, speaking at the Osher Lifelong Learning class, “Politics in a Polarized Polity.” The Jan. 18 class, “Polarization and Public Opinion,” focuses on the controversy of whether the American public is really polarized or is it just reflecting… Read More

Vanderbilt experts are available to discuss negative campaigning, religious bias among candidates, patriotism and the Bible, the GOP's stance on immigration and how to eliminate bias in political polling. Read More

The conventional wisdom about Newt Gingrich's troubles at the Iowa caucuses may be mistaken, says John Geer of Vanderbilt University. Blaming a barrage of attack ads aimed at the former House speaker for his decline in the polls may be inaccurate, Geer believes. Read More

Watch video of a forum discussing a new nominating process for 2012 presidential election. Americans Elect is providing voters the opportunity to directly nominate a presidential candidate outside the two-party system for the 2012 presidential election. Through AmericansElect.org, every registered voter can sign up to become a delegate and participate. Read More