Current Event #6

This week's current event is from an article on msnbc.com called "McCain says Bush failed in a number of areas" by Alex Johnson.

The article discusses how McCain feels about Bush's administration and that Bush's unpopularity is the biggest obstacle for the Republican Party in this election. He wants to remind the voters that he is not George W. Bush. He claims that he agreed with Bush 90% of the time but on important issues such as the economy, the environment, and the war in Iraq, he is disagreed with by his own party. McCain showed up on "Meet the Press" for the 41st anniversary of when he was shot down on his Navy jet in North Vietnam. He says that that day and the five and a half years he spent in captivity and being tortured taught him to depend on himself and stick to his own guns.

Reports say that Sarah Palin is another obstacle for the Republican Party. They say that she doesn't have enough experience but McCain claimed that she has a lot of executive experience as opposed to Obama, Biden, and McCain himself who have spent the majority of their careers in a legislative position. McCain reacted sharply to Brokaw when he said that McCain is defending her too much. McCain says that he isn't defending her, but praising her; she doesn't need any defense.

I think that Bush has definitely failed in more than just a few areas. The country is in a recession, we owe trillions of dollars to foreign countries who hate us, people are losing their jobs, people aren't getting enough health benefits, the war in Iraq is going nowhere, and hundreds of soldiers are dying everyday. I can see why the majority of the states are voting against the Republican Party because we all want to see change. McCain says he's not like Bush, yet he agreed with over 90% of his policies. I agree that Palin is an obstacle because not many people like her and she really doesn't seem like she knows what she's doing. She really doesn't have any experience or any skills to run a country. In my eyes, experience has nothing to do with success because Bush had a lot of experience and look where that got us. Right now, all we can do is hope for the best once election day comes and that the recession will end in the next year or so.

Service Hours Blog #1

Yesterday, Jessica Fauteux and I went canvassing for Obama and like she said in her blog, it was raining like crazy. Our first shift was three hours (10 am-1pm) and we drove around to all of these different streets just knocking on doors and asking our questions. Our second shift was two and a half hours (3:30 pm- 6 pm). It was pretty bad because I was already sick, it was cold, and we ended up soaking wet. The experience overall wasn't anything new to us, it was sort of like a tag day except we were polling. Some parts of it were pretty funny. There was one particular house that we went to where no one was home but when we were sticking a pamphlet in the door, a cat jumped up in the window and scared the @#$% out of us. If it wasn't for the glass, that cat would've definitely attacked us. There were only maybe two people who were rude and didn't want anything to do with us, despite of the fact that we were in the rain for six hours. But overall, we had a lot of people voting for Obama and a handful of people voting for McCain. Pictures will be posted as soon as I can get them on my computer.

Week 5- Election Post

This week's election blog is about swing states. The two states that I picked were Florida and Virginia.

Florida is a swing state in this election and so far, recent polls are showing that McCain is in the lead in this state 46% to 45%. Florida has always been won over by the Republicans in the past elections except for 1996 when Democrats won by 48%. In the previous election, Bush won this state by 5 points. Obama has been competing fiercely for this state and at this point, Florida could go either way. I think that Florida is indecisive because they have major cities that are different for example, Miami is heavily Democratic but Jacksonville and the Florida Panhandle are heavily Republican.

Virginia is also a swing state in this year's election and recently, polls are showing that Obama is ahead 54% to 44%. Virginia has been known as one of the most Republican states and has been won over by the Republican party for the past 40 years. Because of all of the money that Obama has been pouring into this state and how hard he's been fighting for it, we're starting to lean more towards the Democratic side.

I predict that McCain is going to win Florida because the majority of the state is Republican and Obama was ahead last week but he's been dropping in the polls. I predict that Virginia is definitely going to be won over by Obama because he is ahead by double digits and there is a big margin difference. Just a week and a half left until election day, so we'll see how it turns out.

Current Event #5

This week's current event is from an article I found on msnbc.com by Alex Johnson titled "Powell endorses Obama for president."

We all are familiar with Colin Powell as the former Secretary of State and retired General of the U.S. Army. He was considered to most likely be the first African-American candidate to be elected president for many years.On Sunday, he criticized his own Republican Party of being too narrowly focused on the issues in this election, saying that they've been more focused on personal attacks against Obama. He also said that at first, he thought that either candidate would have made a good president, but seeing as how the Republican party has been campaigning, that sparked questioning towards McCain's judgment. Selecting Sarah Palin to be his running mate was a shiny example of that; Powell doesn't consider her to be ready for the presidency and Joe Biden would be ready on day one.

Powell said that he was "troubled" by the false intimations by the Republican party that Obama was Muslim when in reality, he has always been Christian. He said that those intimations were not only insulting to Obama but to all Muslims. Recently they've also put an emphasis on his relationship with William Ayers. Obama said in a recent interview that he welcomes Powell's support and would like to discuss any role, if any were available, to him if he were elected President. McCain said that despite of this endorsement, he has always admired and respected Colin Powell and that they just have a respectful disagreement. Powell said that he was hesitant at first to electing an African-American and that it would be "electrifying" to the world, but after watching both campaigns closely, he decided that Obama would be a transformational figure and that is what we Americans need for the future.

I would definitely say that I share the same opinions as Colin Powell. At first I really wasn't sure who was going to be a better president, so I called myself independent. But after watching the presidential and vice presidential debates, reading a few news articles, and keeping an eye on the campaigning, I would definitely say that Barack Obama has my complete support. The attacks have gone way out of line and I feel like I know Obama's flaws through the Republican campaign ads than what McCain has planned for the future. I think that Obama has a more open mind to change that is what we need to turn the past eight years around.

Week 4- Election Post

Presidential Race

Rasmussen Reports 10/13-10/15:

• Barack Obama- 50%
• John McCain- 46%

The Early Line: Diageo/Hotline Tracking Poll 10/13-10/15:

• Barack Obama- 49%
• John McCain- 41%
• Undecided- 7%

Looks like Obama's in the lead and is holding an advantage over the battleground states. And recently, he's had a double digit lead. John McCain is going to have to step it up a notch if he wants to beat Obama.

Senate Race

PPP 10/06-10/07:

• Mark Warner- 58%
• Jim Gilmore-31%

SurveyUSA 10/04-10/05:

• Mark Warner- 61%
• Jim Gilmore- 31%

Mark Warner is in the lead by double digits as well. He's been in the lead since the race started so there really isn't any surprise here. Gilmore hasn't been in the lead for any polls yet and it looks like it's going to stay that way.

Polls are widely used for many elections, particularly the presidential election. They're useful in showing the public information such as people's opinions, who's in the lead for the election and statistics of the people who are running. They have the power to sway a lot of votes and can be analyzed year after year to find trends that can be useful for predicting future election results. They are accurate most of the time, but once in a while they can be inaccurate. The 2000 election between Al Gore and George W. Bush is a shiny example. Gore was winning in all of the polls but Bush ended up winning the election. According to this year's election's polls, we can't really determine who is going to win. The numbers aren't too far apart so either candidate could win in the end. Overall, polling is the best technique in gauging public opinions.

Current Event #4

This week's current event was on an article I found on msnbc.com called "Biden calls McCain a sidekick, not a maverick.

Basically the article revolves around all of the mud-slinging that has been happening at the rally in Florida and the debates between the presidential candidates and the VP candidates. In the article, Joe Biden calls John McCain an angry man making ugly attacks against the Democratic ticket to cover up his support for President Bush. Biden said to McCain "you can call yourself a maverick when all you've ever been is a sidekick." His attacks were during an appearance at the University of South Florida's Sun Dome where thousands of people lined up to hear him speak.

Biden's spokesman David Wade says that Biden is going to continue with the attacks up until Election Day. Wade said that Biden would be Obama's "defender-in-chief." Biden argued that they have won all three presidential debates so far showing "what a majority of Americans are looking for: a steady hand, leadership, an optimist; not an angry man, lurching from one position to another." He also attacked VP candidate Sarah Palin for her attacks against Obama saying that he is friends with terrorists which was over the top. She also said that Obama is close to William Ayers, a founder of the violent Weather Underground in the 1960's and that relationship showed bad judgement. That claim sparked a lot of booing in Florida on Monday, and someone even shouted "Kill him!" The sheriff who introduced Palin at the rally introduced Obama as Barack Hussein Obama.

Overall, I think that the mud-slinging is getting out of hand with this year's election. It's starting to become the focus of every campaign ad, presidential debate, newspaper article, news headline, rally, etc. Rather than pointing fingers at each other, each candidate should focus more on the national issues, especially during the debates where all eyes and ears are on them. Criticism is acceptable up to a certain point, but now all of these attacks are just juvenile. In my opinion, both candidates need to cut it out and turn things around before Election Day.

Current Event #3

This week I read an article I found on washingtonpost.com called "Will $700 billion bailout unfreeze credit markets?" And will it? Only time will tell.

We all know about the bailout plan and its goal to pump money back into our faltering economy. It was rejected by Congress the first time but it passed through the second time and was signed by George W. Bush. Recently, Wall Street has been falling at a record of 778 points and after the bill was rejected, it fell another 157 points. House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio claimed that if lawmakers hadn't acted on this crisis, it would "put us in a slump the likes of which most of us have never seen." The Bush administration gained authority to buy up toxic mortgage-related investments and other assets from unstable financial institutions in hopes of restoring confidence in the markets and thaw a near-freeze in credit availability that has begun to affect the ability of banks to lend, businesses to obtain money for payrolls and investments, and individuals to gain credit.

The House vote was 228-205 against the rescue plan. 95 democrats and 133 republicans who voted against the bill were responding to calls and messages from constituents demanding defeat of the plan. Many see it as a $700 billion giveaway to Wall Street when average working families weren't getting any support. The plan was approved on Wednesday and linked to the extension of popular tax breaks, renewable energy, and repair after natural disasters. Barack Obama spoke to many people in the Congressional Black Caucus and helped persuade 13 voters to switch to approving the plan. In the end, 33 Democrats and 25 Republicans switched their votes. Overall, 91 Republicans joined the 172 Democrats to support it while 108 Republicans and 63 Democrats voted "no."

Overall, I think its a start to getting out of this financial crisis. Its too soon to tell if it would do much and Bush said that its going to take time for results. I thought that it was going to pass through the first time, I was pretty surprised to hear that it got rejected.

Week 3- Election Post

For this week's election post, I decided to look at the Virginia Senate Seat.

Democratic candidate: Mark Warner

1. Was Governor of Virginia from 2001-2006
2. Grew up in Illinois then moved to Connecticut
3. Graduated Rockville High and majored in political science at GW
4. Earned his A.B. at GW and later earned his J.D. at Harvard
5. Served as a senate staff member to Senator Christopher Dodd
6. Was a keynote speaker at the 2008 DNC
7. Was the managing director of Columbia Capital Corporation where he founded and invested in a number of technology companies

Republican candidate: Jim Gilmore

1. Served as the Attorney General of Virginia from 1994-1998
2. Was Governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002
3. Born in Richmond, VA
4. Graduated from John Randolph Tucker High and received an undergrad degree from UVA
5. Also graduated from University of Virginia Law School
6. Tried to run for president this year but didn't because he thought he couldn't raise enough funds
7. Current Chairman of the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness program

Issues at stake:

1. Radical Centrist Coalition- Warner claims that the coalition would improve cooperation in the Congress
2. Alternative energy- Warner is very focused on this issue, however Gilmore is arguing for offshore drilling just like McCain
3. 2004 tax increase

Recent Polling

1. Rasmussen Reports: Gilmore 34% Warner 60%
2. Survey USA: Gilmore 34% Warner 57%
3. Christopher Newport U: Gilmore 30% Warner 54%
4. Public Policy Polling: Gilmore 33% Warner 57%
5. Washington Post: Gilmore 31% Warner 61%

The polls are generally at a 40%-60% ratio. If the polls keep resulting in these numbers, it looks like Warner is going to win.

Current Event #2

This week, I came across this article on Washingtonpost.com titled "McCain attacks Obama over bailout failure" written by John Whitesides. Basically, this article talks about how John McCain accused Barack Obama of sinking a $700 billion rescue plan for Wall Street, but Democrats feel that this attack is a deflection of the attention that was drawn to his own mistakes. Obama feels that there can still be an agreement even though Congress rejected the bailout. A majority of the House Democrats supported the plan while a majority of the House Republicans opposed it. The House voted 228 to 205 against the plan with 133 House Republicans and 95 House Republicans against it. McCain's adviser said that Obama failed to lead, phoned it in, attacked John McCain and refused to say if he supported the final bill. He also said that the bill failed because Obama put politics ahead of country. Last week, McCain said that he would put his campaign on hold to help create a deal and threatened not to participate in the upcoming debate on Friday. He was in Washington for the weekend making calls to participants in the negotiations but never traveled to Capitol Hill. Obama claims that Democrats and Republicans need to join together to come up with a rescue package to stop some of the immediate problems. I think that this dispute over the rescue plan between Obama and McCain is pointless. Obama is trying to help out the faltering economy and McCain is just trying to point out all of his mistakes. I agree with Obama when he said that Democrats and Republicans need to join together and come up with a solution together to help the economy. That is the best thing to do right now, rather than wasting time blaming each other for mistakes.

Week 2- Election Post

The most important issue in this year's election, I would say, is the economy. According to what the candidates have been saying, this has been the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. We already owe billions of dollars to countries that hate us, we're paying taxes that are too high, and people are starting to lose their jobs. We need to find a way to put money back into the economy and at the same time, help Americans who need it more than others. The most important state/local issue in my opinion is gay marriage. I think it's wrong to deprive people of their rights just because of their sexual preference. It is something that should be legalized in all states and the government shouldn't waste their time on the issue. There are more important things to focus on such as the economy and the war.

The debates have been interesting. I'd say both candidates are doing well, but Obama was more successful in arguing his points. What was interesting is that Obama kept addressing McCain by his first name and McCain wouldn't even look at him. Despite of the times that the moderator Jim Lehrer tried to get them to face each other and argue directly, McCain wouldn't look directly at Obama. Obama kept attacking McCain on the Iraq issue, saying that he was wrong. Throughout the debates, they kept attacking each other and interrupting. But overall, Obama was the one who was more successful.