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***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org ***** Well, I think they both are salient: the media has investigated Obama for buying his house from indicted political fundraiser Tony Rezko and they have investigated McCain for buying too many houses (as an academic, I too lose count of how many houses I own sometimes). and the media was also quite interested in who Bill Clinton kissed (now *that's* a lot of collaboration) and now who Sarah Palin's daughter kissed (Bill swears it wasn't him). so from their point of view, a past connection could mean a current, hidden connection, and thus current influence.... but, yes, that way of viewing the world asymptotes all of us towards having a Palin number of 2! :) James H. Fowler http://jhfowler.ucsd.edu On Sep 15, 2008, at 3:02 AM, Blyden Potts wrote: > The most interesting question here IMO is: Which kinds of compound > relations have political salience? > > I would imagine that buying your house from a person who had a > personal relationship with the candidate would have not have any > appreciable impact on voting behavior or political ideology. Does > the relation "buying a house from" or any compound relation stemming > from that direct relation have any impact on one's politics? Does it > make your politics more similar to Palin's than they otherwise be? > Or do you find yourself more likely to vote for her on account of > your closeness? OTOH if you were close friends with someone who had > been intimate with her that seems more likely to matter. Also the > direction of that impact, of each relation, could be either positive > or negative. > > Timing would seem to be a factor. Your relation to the house seller > is in the past, and his relation to Palin is in the past, so you > only have a Palin number of 2 if you consider relations in > cumulative time. Wouldn't your current Palin number matter more? > > I used to be 2 steps from Jesse Ventura, and when I was there was > some minor active political influence that came across those two > links, but now my Ventura number must be at least 3, and I no longer > get that active political influence. I'm no longer even sure what > the path distance may be. Across all time my Ventura number would > still be two, but clearly the impact has changed. > > Blyden Potts > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Social Networks Discussion Forum [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > On Behalf Of James Fowler > Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 1:16 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: me, Paul Erdos, and Sara Palin > > ... > > I bought my house from a man who kissed Sara Palin. > > > ... > > All sorts of interesting questions arise. > > *In high school was Palin as prolific in "collaborating" as Erdos was > at publishing? > > *Could this be a factor behind "the Palin bump?" > > > > _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.