John G. Geer (Ph.D., Princeton University) is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. He has been a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University and a research fellow at the Shorenstein Center at Harvard University. Geer is the former editor of The Journal of Politics. He has published numerous articles and several books, including IN DEFENSE OF NEGATIVITY, which won the Goldsmith Book prize from Harvard University in 2008. He has provided extensive commentary in the news media on politics, includin...