M. Appeal (Mass Appeal)

On September 10, left-wing political group MoveOn ran a full-page ad in the New York Times criticizing General Petraeus’ handling of the war in Iraq. They accused him and the Bush administration of using only selective data to create the illusion of military success in Iraq.

President Bush and Congress were quick to respond with condemnation for MoveOn, painting the ad as an unpatriotic attack on the brave men and women fighting for democracy in the Middle East. The Senate even went so far as to pass an amendment 72-25 to repudiate MoveOn for the strike.

But does anyone remember the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth? In 2004, the group of veterans claiming to have served with John Kerry during the Vietnam War ran several hostile TV ads against him, portraying him as fraudulent and unfit to lead. In truth they distorted his military record and many individual members of SBVT had strong ties to the Republican Party and 2004 Bush campaign.

Many of the same Republicans that are now condemning MoveOn were content to stand by while a Democrat was attacked on an even greater scale. They need to make up their minds—are they against personal attacks or not? Or does it just depend on whether the injured party is their friend or enemy? It is pure political motivation that caused the Senate to formally scold a group for a newspaper ad. Surely they can find a more pressing and significant issue to focus on.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/ This is where I began my research for this week’s blog. And in between the heartwarming photos of the senator stroking the face of an ailing child and the booming “Join Team Hillary!” ads, I saw it. Top 10 Reasons to Support Hillary. I was mildly intrigued, so I clicked the fatal link button which led me straight to a page of empty promises. “To end the War with Iraq,” “To restore America’s standing in the world and repair our alliances,” “To create good jobs for middle class Americans,” were some of her claimed goals. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d be overjoyed to see any one of these fulfilled; they are beautiful ambitions. But honestly, I’ve heard it all before. It’s as if all over again I’m witnessing Senator John Kerry weakly shaking his thumb (as he was so fond of doing) and making empty claims left and right about America’s future.
As I carefully read through each of the reasons I imagined myself sitting in a crowd of students, listening to my comrades and fellows make claims about a jazzy new snack machine for the cafeteria, or a pool for the middle of the soccer field. I couldn’t help but feel that Hillary might be just like them – making empty claims to gain support. What of these ten things might she really accomplish? What might any of these candidates really accomplish?? This is when it becomes tricky for the voters. It’s too easy to look at a “Top 10” of this sort and be satisfied. It is our right and duty as able bodied voters to seek out each candidate and investigate their true political standpoint.
For this reason, I urge all voters to seek out the unheard information. Uncover the truth in our nation’s most dissident forms of media. And be sure your “Top 10” reasons are good, because four years is a hell of a long time.

http://www.hillaryclinton.com/ This is where I began my research for this week’s blog. And in between the heartwarming photos of the senator stroking the face of an ailing child and the booming “Join Team Hillary!” ads, I saw it. Top 10 Reasons to Support Hillary. I was mildly intrigued, so I clicked the fatal link button which led me straight to a page of empty promises. “To end the War with Iraq,” “To restore America’s standing in the world and repair our alliances,” “To create good jobs for middle class Americans,” were some of her claimed goals. Now don’t get me wrong, I’d be overjoyed to see any one of these fulfilled; they are beautiful ambitions. But honestly, I’ve heard it all before. It’s as if all over again I’m witnessing Senator John Kerry weakly shaking his thumb (as he was so fond of doing) and making empty claims left and right about America’s future.
As I carefully read through each of the reasons I imagined myself sitting in a crowd of students, listening to my comrades and fellows make claims about a jazzy new snack machine for the cafeteria, or a pool for the middle of the soccer field. I couldn’t help but feel that Hillary might be just like them – making empty claims to gain support. What of these ten things might she really accomplish? What might any of these candidates really accomplish?? This is when it becomes tricky for the voters. It’s too easy to look at a “Top 10” of this sort and be satisfied. It is our right and duty as able bodied voters to seek out each candidate and investigate their true political standpoint.
For this reason, I urge all voters to seek out the unheard information. Uncover the truth in our nation’s most dissident forms of media. And be sure your “Top 10” reasons are good, because four years is a hell of a long time.

When one makes an attempt to watch the presidential debates of today it is almost as if they fall right in line with the litany of reality shows and game shows that plague the airwaves. It is clear now that the “selling” of a candidate has risen over the importance of the issues talked about. I am not entirely sure of all of the causes for the deterioration of our presidential debates but one that i am sure of is the media.
In 1858 senatorial candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas made an agreement to have a series of seven debates. These debates are entirely different than what you will find now. The candidates were not merely trying to impress, they were trying to display their respective ability to share ideas with the public. The debates did get wide ranging attention from the entire nation, but it was mostly newspapers and word of mouth that spread the news. For this reason many people had to actually sit down and read the transcripts to be informed. Although today this option still exists, television has reinvented the world of debate. Now that candidates are able to reach much wider audiences their answers must be easy to recall and easy for the audience to remember. These dumbed down debates are achieving their goal of reaching mass voters but at the same time they are misinforming them by presenting generic personalities and facades in an attempt to gather as many votes as possible.
Since these debates have become more entertainment than a useful tool of government it accomplishes more negative than positive. The voters that are informed do not take them seriously and the uninformed do, so it becomes a battle of numbers instead of knowledge.

So as I was struggling to find inspiration for what I was going to write about, I stumbled upon CNN.com and saw the side bar for their political ticker and the title read: “Ticker: Is ’08 race too nasty, too soon?” I’ve never followed elections very closely and I’m not a savant of the political realm so this is definitely not my area of expertise to say the least. However, the “low blows” that have been dealt by different parties come at a time where there is over a year until the actual elections. I thought this was really interesting in relation to the purpose of our blog. If meaningful political debates were more common would the “low blows” during the political campaign lessen? Or would the frequent meetings make the conversation so informal that it would be the perfect setting to make personal references to harm the other opponents campaign?

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

There was a video posted this week on Yahoo! News about Fred Thompson and whether or not he belongs to a church. This interested me because is it really that important? Yes, I know candidates and their religion has an important influence on some states (i.e.: the Bible Belt) but is our President’s faith really crucial to our nation as a whole? So far, religion has not played a crucial role in the 2008 election. The current Democratic and Republican front runner candidates are Clinton and Giuliani, and from the voters’ perspective, these two candidates are viewed as the least religious. Ironically, Romney’s beliefs in his religion, Mormonism, seem very disadvantageous to his political standing because voters view him as ultra-religious. In the past, it has been seen as important for the Presidential candidates to have strong religious beliefs because many political issues are based around religion, for example: gay marriage, abortion, stem cell transplants… Voters have previously be in favor of the candidate with similar religious views to theirs, but a recent survey now states “that candidates for the White House need not be seen as very religious to be broadly acceptable to the voting public” (http://pewforum.org/surveys/campaign08/). The government has always been adamant about separating church and state, so why is it so crucial whether or not our Presidential candidates belong to a church or not? Does religion really have a strong impact on which candidate you will vote for, or is it more about their stance on political issues and their intentions if elected as President?

http://pewforum.org/assets/images/246-1.png –> New Poll: How Religious Is…

i recently saw jodie foster’s new movie, The Brave One…. don’t expect to be intellectually stimulated but go prepared to see alot of personal violence as well as alot of personal transformation: jodie’s performance is evocative and honest… more importantly though, her portrayal of victim-turned-victimizer reminded me of the increasing number of female bad-asses in hollywood over the last few years. the strong, heroic woman is a popular figure in movies and television it seems.

and perhaps that’s exactly what we need in politics. our first female speaker has helped pave the way for healthcare and budget reform, a feat democrats were largely incapable of doing during the 12 years prior. and with just over a year before the 2008 presidential elections, another strong, heroic woman is growing in popularity: in a recent cbs poll, 43% of responders said they’d vote for hillary clinton if it came down to a vote between her, barack (22%) and edwards (16%)…. compared to march when the numbers were 36%, 28% and 18% respectively, it’s safe to say that hillary is gaining popularity.

but is she gaining integrity? her push to repeal don’t ask don’t tell and her clear statement that she does not believe homosexuality is immoral tell me she is. arguably, the woman is the crux of a “traditional” family and a strong, heroic woman is the crux of prosperous family. hillary clinton is in a unique position to unite this country through bipartisan support for gay rights because she is both retail politican and proud mother. she’s made some progress already, but she still has a long way to go if she wants my vote.

On May 3, 2007 the Obama campaign sent a letter to Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman Howard Dean regarding a measure to make all Democratic Presidential debates free to view after the actual event. The campaign urges Dean to make these debates available by either placing them in the public domain, or licensing them under a Creative Commons (Attribution) license. They state that by making the debates more readily available, without charge, a broader audience of Americans will be able to participate in the politics honing in on the younger generation of voters. In fact, the Obama campaign acknowledges that the Internet is becoming an important medium for political speech. The letter to the chairman was actually written as a supportive response to a letter sent to the DNC from “a bipartisan coalition of academics, bloggers and Internet activists” who believed that the measure would be incredibly beneficial to the public sector.
Following Obama’s letter, Edwards and Dodd also sent messages in support of the measure. On May 5th, a huge breakthrough occured when CNN decided to televise the June debates and make them available to the public for free without restrictions. The RNC took a different standpoint entirely however, and refused to respond to the call. In fact FOX decided against making the debates free to the public.
Overall, this victory with the Democrats has made a major breakthrough for Internet bloggers, academics, and the American public as a whole. Within this small victory lies a greater issue. The victory proves that the Internet has become an increasingly important medium used by the American public. It also raises the idea that through blogs, letters, petitions, etc. the everyday person can make changes occur.

Without further ado, I present two candidates of the 2008 presidential race – Hillary Clinton and John McCain – and their positions on a topic that students are sure to find relevant…education!!
(For a list of all the candidates and their stances on education –> click here).
Every American feels the effect of this issue through taxes and policies developed at all levels of government, whether it be local, state, or national.