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.

Flip-flopping

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It seems that every candidate is being accused of and accusing someone else of flip-flopping, and everyone just doesn't want to be the latest one one the accusing side. Edwards accused Clinton of it, Clinton accused Romney, Obama isn't giving clear answers. Last election Kerry was accused of flip-flopping. It seems that it would be better to change one's opinion that keep one that was opposed to new information. I understand that it shows a lack of commitment to one's position that might foreshadow a future change in policies, but aren't there more important things to be worrying about than whether a candidate's positions now and years ago are the same?

Hispanics in the Military

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It is truly a shame that immigrants are not valued more in this country. This country was made by immigrants, and they are still a vital part of our economy. By tricking them into military service, it dishonors the history of our country and lowers the respect that other nations have for us. We need to start valuing of immigrants again, and finding ways for them to be included in the country in ways that do not disrespect them as humans and shame our country.

Immigration Head

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To me, Myers represents the constant stream of bad appointments and patronage that has been prevalent in the past few decades. We think that the days of the party and patronage ended with the Pendelton Civil Service Reform Act, and then a story like this surfaces. When will leaders be able to stop putting their friends in offices that they do not deserve? You would think that they would want to put the most qualified person in the position, because then they would not have to watch them as carefully.

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I do not think that we should question presidential candidates about their beliefs, but the actions of Bush have shown me that it is necessary. He is too influenced by his beliefs, and I am not comfortable with my president telling the country that God told him to do something that affects the entire world. Whether or not to pass legislation, attack a country, etc., is not a subject to decide on based on faith. It takes intellectual thought and discussion. I do not have a problem with the morals of a president affecting his legislation, but we need to make sure that we do not elect someone who will base all of his decisions on a faith that the whole country does not share.

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I think that Edwards knows that his weakness is his money. He is in danger of being cast as a rich man who does not understand the problems of common people, so he makes sure that he focuses on the poor and the farmers. This is a good strategy, but I think that he runs the risk of sounding like a hypocrite.
However, one of his strengths is his wife. She is strong and is able to advocate for him. In her ads she seems trustworthy, and connects with women who may be thinking of voting for him.

Article

The border wall that might cut through people's homes is to me a representation of the ridiculous boundaries that separate people in different countries and the rigid and unfeeling laws that govern our country. Why does it matter if you were born in America or Mexico, Canada or Germany? We need to stop focusing on the qualities that separate us and focus on those that unite us as human beings.
Also, laws like that only make people angry at the government. The government is for the people, by the people, so when it takes peoples homes or cuts through their land, it negates the beliefs that the country was founded on and creates an "us" and "them" mentality.

Clinton

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Clinton is getting a reputation for being the iron rod in the Democratic nominees. I think this is ironic, because it is the opposite that she is simultaneously rejecting and embracing. She wants the public to see her as a woman on the issues that women are strong, such as health care, daycare, and women's rights. However, on issues such as terrorism and security, she wants to be seen as a strong leader, and is projecting more of a male aura.

Yahoo

I have noticed that Yahoo news seems to have a liberal bias. They post more articles about the democratic candidates then the republican ones. I wonder, however, if this is an effect of bias or a plethora of information about the democratic candidates. It seems to be certain that a democrat will win and thus there is more importance attached to who wins the democratic nomination.

Edwards

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Edwards seems to be taking Al Gore's torch of environmentalism. It is a subject that the American people feel strongly about, so it is smart of him to use it to his advantage. I wonder if any of the other candidates will also try to use the topic.
In using the issue of global warming, Edwards is trying to maintain the image of an outsider. He wants to be different in the voter's eyes and wants them to think that he will change the way that Washington works.

Elite

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071029/ap_on_re_us/sarkozy_stormy_interview

In this article, the French president states that in America it does not matter what your name is when dealing with politics. This may be true the public does not judge your name, but the name as a symbol for the family does matter. Those who are elected are part of a political elite that have been raised in a certain manner and have common interests. This results from the amount of money necessary to become a politician. How can we correct this? We could have more public funding, but how much would that help? If you don't have the money for a good education, then you still will not be able to be a part of the political elite.

Clinton

I like Clinton's views on family policies and social progress, as in this article. I wish that the election was more focused on issues such as maternity leave and the crisis of the American family, because these, to me, are the issues that we should be focusing on. The job of the president is to make America a better place, in my opinion. She should also cooperate with those in other nations to make the world a better place.
I think that Clinton is going to have a lot of support from women. As a woman, I know that I might just vote for Clinton because she is a she. She understands me and the woman community like no other candidate, and is ready to effect the changes that need to be made.

Colbert

Colbert "campaign" is going to be an interesting mock of the campaigns of today. I think he will bring out the problems in the system and people might pay more attention to them and ask for reform. I think it would be funny if Stewart "ran" against him, and they used their own shows to advertise and mock the ads and speeches of today. They are beginning to milk elections for all they are worth.

Contraceptives

A middle school in Maine has decided to allow girls as young as 11 to obtain birth control pills without their parents knowing. I hope that other schools follow this example and stop ignoring the pregnancies and diseases that have resulted from abstinence-only education. Not giving someone a drug that could protect them from pregnancy is like turning a blind eye while your child rides a bike without a helmet, just because he was not supposed to be riding it then. We need to stop putting so many morals into our laws and considering instead what is truly in the best interest of children and our nation.

Here is the article

What America Needs

I think that after eight years of Bush, what America really needs is a president that we can respect and that the rest of the world can also see as competent. We need to not have countless videos on Youtube making fun of the missteps of our president, and we need one who can say his thoughts without making mistakes and embarrassing himself (or herself). I thought that both Gore and Kerry were people that I could respect and that I would feel honored to have represent my country. I think that it would be beneficial to our nation if Al Gore would run again. He is respected all over the world, and he has the prestigious title of a Nobel Prise Winner, before a presidency. I understand that he does not want to stop his tours and bookwriting, and global warming is a very noble cause. But I think more pressing issues are the state of our nation and the world, and if we do not get good leadership in the next presidency, then society as we know it will end long before climate change kills us all. And as president he could more directly influence the legislation relating to global warming. So please, Al Gore, throw your hat in the ring. We know you are sore from the last time and you have found a new love, but please, for the sake of us all, give the presidency another chance.

Election Coverage

I think that in the weeks before the primary elections, PBS should do a series about the candidates. Each hour long special should give a biography of the candidate, allow them to speak about their views, have analysts compare their views to other candidates, and list those endorsing them. This would help people who may not have the time or the patience to watch other shows get the information they need to vote intelligently. This would allow some unbiased coverage in conjunction with the typical news shows.

Clinton on Youtube

I found this video on Youtube, and it got me thinking.

Why is Hilary not responding to these criticisms? Does she really not have the time to look at it, or does she just think that putting the video online is enough, if she puts it there it is an effortless way to seem like she is communicating with the common people?
I think Youtube could be a great way for advertising to occur that did not take so much money, but candidates need to respect those watching enough to make the video of good quality and respond to comments.

Warner Brothers

Warner Brothers is not going to have any more female leads in their movies. They say that the films they have made with women in the lead position have not done well. Could it be that it was just the movie, not the woman? I thought that the days of discriminating against women as actors were over.
I think that Warner Brothers is going to get a lot of bad publicity for this proclamation. Feminist groups will boycott their movies, and even less radical groups will be angry.
If Warner Brothers really wants to make more money, they should invest in good directors and screenwriters instead of piling the blame on the women actors.

Here is the article

Clinton

"I pay absolutely no attention to what any poll says or what any pundit on TV says," the former first lady said. "I have absolutely interest in that. Nobody has come to a caucus yet. Nobody has cast a vote yet."

I wonder if anyone in the world actually believes this statement. I am sure that she has people who watch every show for any mention of candidates and so they can see how she is doing in the pundits' eyes. Even thought the current polls do not mean much, they still reflect what the country is thinking, and I am sure she has analysts studying them too.
Has anyone ever seen The War Room, about Bill Clinton's campaign? They have televisions playing news constantly, and every meeting started with a report of the polls. Maybe polls and shows do not matter now as much as they do after the primaries, but I am sure that her statement is a lie.

Here is the story

School

I just read an article in the New York Times about a teacher who requires his student's parents to do homework. They must read what their children are reading every week and post their reactions on a blog. Surprisingly, most of the parents enjoy it and cooperate with the teacher. I think this is a great approach, and it should be broadened to other areas subjects and assignments. Parents could be required to read their children's papers, for example, and thus help them with grammar and critical thinking. The parent would then have to sign the essay to show they read it. Teachers could make up a special study guide for parents to use with their children, so that parents could more easily help their children study, without having to learn the information themselves first. When I was younger, my mother helped me with my homework, which allowed me to learn good study skills that have aided me in high school and now in college. Requiring this interaction would help more students gain the skills they need to succeed in school. I know that this approach might not work in all families, but it might aid enough students that it is worth looking into.

Here's the article

Fantasy Talk Show and Matthews

I would like to see Tim Russert appear on The Daily Show, or have Jon Stewart go on Meet the Press. Hearing Stewart's views on Tim Russert would be interesting, because I see Russert as a positive figure who is good at getting to the truth. He might also be a good match for Stewart because he does not get flustered easily and is very articulate.

I was disappointed in the interview of Chris Matthews. Instead of biting humor, Stewart was occasionally mean and seemed to be grasping for straws. I couldn't believe how nervous they both seemed. It was like boxers getting ready for the championship match.

Interviews

One of the parts of talk shows that I find essential to determining which candidate I want to vote for is the interview. Through interviews, I see how the candidate interacts with others and how they react to pressure and possible insults. The ability to stay respectful and calm is essential in dealing with world leaders and members of Congress. Hilary Clinton is not respectful toward her interviewers, and thus I think that she would have trouble in negotiations. We need a president who knows how to deal with other people and compromise or else we will end up in the same situation we are in now.

Clinton

Hilary Clinton has a habit of interrupting everyone who is talking to her. She either blatantly interrupts them, or she continues talking when it has been made clear that she is not answering the question or that she is out of time. I know she does this so that she may get across all of the things that she wants to talk about, but it seems that this strategy may be counterproductive and instead makes her seem very self-focused and inconsiderate.
I wonder if her pr people tell her that she appears this way, or if they just assume it is part of her personality and cannot be changed.

Bush

After watching Countdown with me last night, my roommate posed this question: Is Bush maliciously trying to destroy America and its relationship with the world, or he is really that stupid that he cannot see the negative effects of his actions? I think he lives in a world that is in his mind. He ignores anything that disagrees with his perspective and thinks of himself as a hero. Is he delusional? He is trying to pass advice on fighting in Iraq down to his successor, ignoring the fact that the next president will most likely be a Democrat whose platform will be based on pulling troops out.
I think Bush imagines himself as a Beowulf-like man, who will go down in history as a great fighter of evil. He does not see himself as the world sees him, a man who made other countries hate America.

Health Care

I wonder if Hilary can make another attempt at a health care plan, or if the failure of her last plan will carry over to the next one. It would be good if America can forget about the old one and focus on the new, but some voters, especially older ones, may blend the two together in their minds.
I think the best approach to health care would be a totally government-run system, but with the insurance companies already in our economy, that would be almost impossible to implement. It is quite ironic that once a civilization is advanced enough to figure out what is best for it, it is too late to do it, because the past has already established the path for the future.

Rather

The Rather case shows that journalists today do not take responsibility for the news they put on the air. It is simply their job to read the news, and they do not put as much effort into giving the public good information. They are pushed by deadlines, and thus do not have the time to determine what information is valid. This is a result of our commercial news culture, and they only way to fix it would to have subsidies that make the networks less dependent on profit, and to then require good news. However, in America, it would take a lot more for most people to realize there is a problem. Thus, when the news situation becomes unbearable, people will begin to want television regulations, but not before then.

O.J.

I wonder how big of a deal the media will make of the O.J. Simpson case. They are already talking about it all the time, and every time I bring up an internet window, there is an article about him in the yahoo news headlines. Will it be like last time, where the whole country seemed infatuated by the news coverage? The crime is not as bad this time, but his celebrity will make the case bigger than it should be. I wonder how he feels about this. Is he thinking, "Oh, no not again, what is it with these people?"Or does he like the media coverage?

The Future of Iraq

The goal of a united, democratic Iraq is unreasonable. The country does not have the history or culture to immediately change to this form of government. The factions will not agree to be ruled together. The most sensible and safest solution is to form more than one country, if they agree to it, and then move people to the country they want to be in. Perhaps in the future, when they have had more time to work out their differences, the countries will be able to merge and form a unified Iraq under a government developed by them. Trying to make a model of America is not a good idea, because it took a certain type of people with a special situation to form our government.

Picking a Candidate

Today, instead of reading about candidates for ourselves, we look to others to show us the way. We listen to those we respect, and use their logic and decisions to shape our own. This explains the importance for candidates to get a sponsor in the media world. When Oprah supports Obama, this gives him a bigger share of her viewer's votes. They listen to her, because that is what they are used to doing. They watch her for advice on raising children, dealing with their families, and everything else under the sun. They know and trust her, and they follow her because they think she is smarter than they are. The question is: is this a bad thing?
I think that complete compliance with the ideas of a popular figure is bad. However, we listen to those we respect when we are making other important decisions, why not when picking a candidate?

The Bush Book

I caught a discussion about this on television the other day, and the descriptions of Bush in the book Dead Certain scare me very much. He never thinks about the decisions he makes, he just knows somehow that they are right. Since when did we begin to teach people that first instincts are always right? How could you go to sleep at night knowing that you have not thought through completely your decisions, especially when they affect the entire world?

The Problem of the Divide

A difficult message to get across is that those against the war are not anti-American. They are not angry at the troops; they support them. They want them home, so that no more die in a war that seems endless. Questioning the actions of the president is not anti-American. It is our right and duty as citizens to tell the government what we want and how we feel. If we do not tell them when they are wrong, that is a true misdeed.
The fear of being seen as unpatriotic has held back the Democrats and some Republicans from speaking out against the war in the past. Hopefully they are past that now, and the government will be able to work with more input from everyone. It is the same as in our politics class. When someone does not speak, we do not hear their perspective and thus lose the chance to learn something.

The War, of course

Sometimes is seems that the government is shooting in the dark when it comes to the Iraq War. There are so many different opinions, and each one is tried. The original plan, the surge, and now the new withdrawal. There is so much talk about how this is a different kind of war; handbooks have been written on how to fight it. So, why exactly is America failing to complete the mission in Iraq? Has it been a failure in the civil leadership? Military planning? It will be many years before historians can be objective enough about the war to actually study what happened and why it happened. So well all can look forward to analyses of these times, and then maybe we can find out how to change America for the better.

Bin Laden

It is interesting that terrorists use the media against us. Osama Bin Laden, by sending another message to America, shows that he also knows how to manipulate the feelings and thoughts of the public through use of video. He dies his hair in an attempt to look younger and healthier and releases the video a few days before September 11. He understands how to play with the emotions of his enemy and taunt them with his apparent success. One thing that I find interesting is that he proposes that if America converts to Islam, the war will stop. This is the equivalent of saying, "If the moon falls out of the sky, I will give you a billion dollars." Even so, the hint of a deal makes him appear to be less malicious.

Craig

Politicians need to be more careful about what they proclaim to the American people. They make loud, deliberate statements that later turn around and bite them. For example, Clinton's lies about Monica Lewinsky, or Bush's proclamation that the Iraq war had been won. Larry Craig has recently joined the ranks of those who have spoken without enough prior thought. He plead guilty to his charges of soliciting sex before and after denying the charges. It is quite ironic that Clinton had a problem because he denied having sexual relations (and was then accused of perjury), and Craig's issue is that he admitted to it and then wished he hadn't.