Obama and the politics of economic inequality. "Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt University, one of the nation's leading political scientists, looked at the 2012 election, which was fought over many of the themes and issues Obama highlighted again last week. Bartels concluded that the broad issue of inequality added 2 to 3 percentage points to Obama's share of the overall vote and about 1 point in the battleground states. But his findings came with a caveat: Obama benefited less because of the specific economic policies he championed than because many voters saw Romney as an out-of-touch plutocrat." Dan Balz in The Washington Post