Buzz!

Every day, Yahoo puts out a column that deals with the most searched news pieces. Today, it was about candidates and celebrity endorsements. Since Chuck Norris has announced his support of Mike Huckabee, searches on Mike have increased 457%. This is quite and interesting way of keeping up with what the public wants to know, and I think that it should be used more in the study of elections. Hopefully as the election continues, Yahoo will provide more data on searches about candidates.

http://buzz.yahoo.com/buzzlog/80798/chuck-norris-is-a-powerful-man

Articles

I feel that when you read an article in the newspaper, you are always just getting a little glimpse of a candidate. The authors of the stories like to switch between people and events, keeping the reader interested. This is harmful, however, because later you can never remember who said what or what the article was about, because it had to many topics. When articles are supposed to be about a certain event or candidate, they should be about that without a bunch of extra stuff thrown in.

Iowa

I wonder how much influence the Iowa primary is going to have on this election? Clinton is leading in New Hampshire and South Caroline, but she is almost tied with Obama in Iowa. If she loses in Iowa, will this affect her support in New Hampshire and South Carolina as people change their support to the person seen as being the most likely to have the most support? If she doesn't win, how much will she amp up her campaign or will she drop off and let someone else take the lead?

Clinton

I think that Clinton is doing well because she is good about attracting the attention of certain groups. She focuses on health care, and those people who think that is most important favor her. Then she talks about the war, then child-care, and then unions. She is building a coalition out of many small groups, and I think that her strategy will be very successful. Democrats and liberals are not as united by similar factors as conservatives are, so I think that is what must be done to win.

CBS strike and the debate

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I think that the decision of the Democratic candidates not to have a debate if the picket lines are still there on the date of the debate is very wise. It benefits the individual candidates, especially Clinton, because she was the first to announce her decision. It also benefits the party as a whole, and I think it will make those union members who hear about it more likely to vote for the democratic candidate.

Complex

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Obama has announced his plan for health care, and he has been comparing it to plans proposed by Clinton and Edwards. I wonder how many people will actually take the time to understand the differences between the plans and let them affect their decisions in an educated manner? Will the small policy differences between them just turn off some people and cause them to ignore that factor? These big three are going to need to be very specific in telling the public about their plans.

Clinton and Autism

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Clinton is appealing to small sections of the population, like families with autistic children, and tying their problems in to the problems of America in general. She used these families as an example of the failures of our government in dealing with the health care issues and the provision of good, affordable care to individuals with special needs. I think that this is a good strategy. She is simultaneously pulling in a specific group without ignoring others. I know that if I had an autistic child, I would be attracted to Clinton's promises of better government programs for my child.