I've often said that the blogosphere is kind of incestuous. We all just keep linking to each other, and after a while, you are sent in circles back to where you started. Well, case in point: earlier this week, PolitickerNH announced that Prof. Dante Scala has joined their staff. Hooray for them, lucky us. Maybe the site now will have a little bit more umph to it, rather than just competing press releases.
If you've been reading my humble writings for a while, you already know that I am a huge fan of the GraniteProf and have been for a few years, usually just catching him on NHPR after a debate and being glued to my radio. I'd never seen him on TV and had created a completely off mental image of him based mostly on his fabulously-Italian name.
Early last spring, he somehow caught wind of my blog and admiration, and we became email pals. Not much later, he disclosed that he was leaving Saint Anselm's College for UNH, where he is now the Chair of our Political Science Department. For me, his book Stormy Weather put the science in Political Science. I highly recommend it. I'm not much one for statistics (as my graduate school pals from MSU can attest), but this really helped me see how they can be applied to real life politics, and used in social science courses. [Maybe now we'll see some sort of quantitative or reseach methods course requirement in the POLT major!?!]
Although he enjoyed a bit of a cult following at Saint A's, he has had humble beginnings here, surprisingly. Several of my staff colleagues & fellow junkies haven't realized he's here now. And students, POLT majors in his classes!!, have no idea that he's one of THE go-to guys for the NH Primary. I find that amazing, since he was on some form on mass-media every Wednesday morning--very early morning, I might add-- through most of this primary cycle. Either our students are cluess or he's very humble. I think maybe it's a little bit of both.
I'd let you borrow my copy of the book, but it's making its way around Hood House right now for beach reading. (When I eventually get it back, Dante, I will finally ask you to sign it.)
So, if you are a political junkie or wanna be, please buy your own copy; it's an easy read and they're cheap. Until it arrives, get a glimpse of his writing and his numbers at PolitickerNH.
