Targeting voters

As Obese Population Rises, More Candidates Courting The Fat Vote

I think that this video perfectly satires what we have discussed at length in class. That is how the politicians of today very specifically target voters based on profiles they get. Although this video is purely fiction the sad truth is, in the future politicians may get this desperate and start targeting specific people on just about anything.

Who will be elected

I think that McCain will be elected president because of the way the democrats have been going at each other. Obama and Clinton have spent so much time, energy, and money beating each other up that they have hardly spent any attention on McCain. Not only that but they have also sharply divided the democrat party between the themselves to such a degree that I think that if for example Clinton does not get the nomination that her supporters will vote for McCain. Also Obama and Clinton have given McCain plenty of ammunition to use against either one of them in the general election. To me it seems like the democrats are treating this primary like the general election and I think that will allow McCain to simply slip through and win the presidency.

Clinton raises money on the internet

Clinton has raised over $10 million on the Internet after her Pennsylvania win. I think that this will make the race even tighter for the democrats simply because Obama used to have a huge advantage with his ability to generate a large amount of money over the Internet, but now so can Clinton. This has made the race even tighter when combined with Clinton's recent wins and now her ability to also raise money on the Internet. If this primary drags on any longer we'll be unable to tell Clinton from Obama simply because as the race progress they become more and more similar on issues and even their financial resources. The only thing left to differentiate the candidates is Clinton's lies and Obama's acquittance's who embarrass him.

Clinton says she's ahead

Clinton recently stated that she was ahead in the primaries because of the states she won that held early primaries. Although Clinton may be technically ahead Obama still basically has the popular vote. However if we have learned anything from previous election you can win the popular vote and still lose the election. However this whole democratic primary has gone on long enough and while the media attention may be good I think many people are just getting tired of it. Also the longer it goes the weaker the democrats become, they lose money they could have used for the general election, the create a sharp divide between supporters which may lead them to vote for the republics instead of the opposite democratic candidates, and they also give McCain an advantage by digging up dirt on each other that McCain can use the general election. I think the democrats just need to get the primary over with as soon as possible if they want to survive the general election.

McCain critizes Bush

McCain recently criticized Bush on his response to Hurricane Katrina. I think McCain is trying to distance himself from Bush without appearing too much like a hypocrite, McCain is for the war and so is Bush so he can't criticize him on that. McCain just found another area where he could criticize him but at the same time not appear as a hypocrite. Obama and Clinton will follow suit I believe and also give some attention to the New Orleans simply because they cannot appear uncaring. Although this is just more political grandstanding I think it will have a positive effect on New Orleans simply because it is finally get some attention again so maybe finally the city can be rebuilt instead of languishing in purgatory.

Obama' speech

I think Obama was taken out of context when he said they people cling to their guns, religion, etc. I think that what he was saying was simply that working class people have a lot of problems and they perceive that the politicians and corporate entities are basically making their lives difficult to live. So when they try to change something or take away a right the people hold to those rights. I think that what Obama was basically saying was that they need to see that not all politicians are bad and that he does want to make meaningful changes to help.

Bennett Chp. 13-14

I think that Bennett is right in the sense that democratic plurality has been diminished by technology. Politicians now can basically lie to everyone. In the past politicians had to choose issues that affected the majority of the people and take a stance on it, however with todays technology politicians basically never have to take a stance. They can be pro gun in South Dakota and anti-gun in California simply because of carefully directed messages. With these kind of directed messages political parties become obsolete. If a candidate can say whatever will get the vote and get away with it basically then there is no distinction between Democrats or Republicans since to a person on the receiving end of those messages they are for and against the same things.

McCain too old?

Recently a Democratic senator, John Murtha age 75, said McCain was too old to be president at age 71. The democratics are gonna have a hard time in the general elections if this is the best they can throw at McCain. While age can be an issue it is not a deciding issue I think when electing a president. McCain on the other hand has a bucket full of stuff he can through at either democratic candidate with little effort from his own campaign since the democratic candidates have been doing all the work for him. It will be interesting to see the opening blows in the general election because McCain can play a lot of established meta narratives to his advantage whereas the democratics will be rushing to find one slightly more effective than, too old.

Clinton too negative

Obama recently held a press conference complaining about how Clinton's campaign was too negative. I believe Obama has made a mistake here. Instead talking about how no serious issues were discussed at the debate, he instead complained about how Clinton's campaign was too negative. Obama should have just come out in his press stating what issues he thought should have been discussed and how he would have solved them. Instead he turned into a drama like you see between Paris Hilton and her friend. This sort of back and forth will just further weaken the democratic party.

McCain running even with democrats

In a recent poll McCain was shown to be even in support with the Democrats. This is the result I believe of the constant bickering that has been going between Obama and Clinton. A couple of months of ago they were very much in the lead over McCain but I now people are just getting tired of this constant back and forth between them. The result being that they are ironically losing the voter they were trying to get the swing voters, independents, and disgruntled republicans. If a victor isn't chosen soon between Obama or Clinton it could have serious repercussions in the general election.

Why do polticians lie?

I think most politicians lie is because they are old. By that I mean they grew up in age of TV and newspapers and with those two mediums there is always a goto guy that they can goto and manipulate by promising and exclusive story or such. They could also have maximum spin because they had more money to dump on "getting the truth out" than a single reporter so that they could bury the story. But nowadays they can't get away from lying I think it is a lot like cloud computing, cloud computing simply means that instead of using for example one server to host a web page and its information it is instead stored on hundreds of servers in little pieces which much more efficient, cheaper, and also not as prone to attack. I think the same thing has happened in journalism whereas before there where only maybe a couple of journalist working on the story what politicians said they are no thousands if not millions of people getting one tiny bit of information and then coming online and making all those tiny bits into a cohesive whole. In short I think politicians lie simply because they have been left behind technologically speaking.

McCain drums up his miltary hertaige.

McCain rectnly touted his miltray legacy to reporters. McCain hopes that this well help show that he has national security experince. I think that McCain will countine on this road by basically asking Americans do you want someone inxpersced as president. This staregy has a good chance of working simply because the democrats are so divided right now. McCain can simply slip under the radar so to speak. With democracts beating each other up so much escapially with Hillary's ads showing Obama as inexeprncied people could just for McCain because they consider him a safer bet.

Women senators shift their support to Obama

Senators McCaskill and Klobuchar rectely switched their support from Hillary Clinton to Obama.
This does not bode well for Hillary since the women vote was one of her strongest. I think that this is just another blow to Hillary and that she should drop out of the race before it becomes to ugly and potentially permanently damaging the chances for the democrats to win in the general election.I think the democrats just need to end this primary now before any long term damage is done.

Will democrats vote for republicans?

I think that while some people who say that if their democratic candidate is not selected and they would vote for McCain are not really going to do that, their is still a significant number of people who will vote for McCain because of it and the other percentage may not vote at all. This is due to the negative campaigning that has been going on between the two candidates, I think that they have a good job, maybe too good a job and getting loyal supporters. The supporters maybe angry enough not to vote or vote for McCain if their candidate is not selected. I think that they should start being more friendly or the very least if Obama wins for example he should make Hillary vice president and vice versa.

Obama and religious support

This article discusses how the recent statements by Obama's pastor may hurt the religious support Obama would have received. While the statements by Obama's pastor may have been inflammatory I do not think that Obama will lose the majority of his support by religious people. Obama gave a very good speech and most people I believe know that Obama cannot control what other people say and that the statements made by the pastor is not a reflection of what Obama believes.

Obama on the economy

Obama recently spoke about the housing slum and what should be done about. He also blamed both democrats and Republicans for this crisis. I think the issue of the economy and regulation in the industry well become more important as the campaigning progress. In part because we are heading into a recessions and people are actually starting to feel it now whereas 6 months or so ago people did not feel it as much. This will become a big issue in the general election as well, I think it may be bigger than the Iraq war simply because of the amount of people this recession will affect.

Dispute over Florida and Michigan

Obama and Clinton are now arguing about how Florida and Michigan should be handled. Clinton says that the results from Florida should count however Obama does not. If Clinton wins this she will narrow the gap between her and Obama and may make this race even longer. I believe that Clinton should just drop out since Obama has a significant lead and it would be better for the Democrats in the upcoming election.

Spitzer

In the last few days it has been revealed that New York governor Spitzer was caught on federal wiretaps soliciting prostitution. I think that this is why many people do not trust politicians. Spitzer was know before this scandal as a man fighting on a high moral ground yet now we can see that he did not hold true to his own principles. The scary thing is that this was just one governor that was caught, how many other corrupt politicians are out there that we do not know about?

Factors a candidate should consider whether to drop out of election

I think some of the factors a candidate should consider as to whether to drop out of an election are, money, people's confidence that the candidate can win, and viability. If the race between candidates goes on for too long it is liable to deplete all three of those factors. The battle between Obama and Clinton being a prime example, they are effectively splitting the total amount of money the Democratic gather between the two candidates instead of focusing on just one. And as the race between them continues it hurts people confidence that either candidate can win and that in turn lowers their viability. I think that the race should be over quickly so they can focus on the actual presidential election.

Clinton says a long battle is still ahead

In a recent article in the New York Times, Hillary Clinton said that the battle for the Democratic nominee could continue for months. I think that this could present a problem for the Democratic party if this drags out any further. Not only is the battle between Clinton and Obama wearing down the valuable resources, such as money, but it is also eroding confidence in both candidates. This battle between the two candidates should be ended quickly so that the winner can focus on taking on McCain.

McCain wins election

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

I think this satire of the elections process is why most young people do not vote. They do not have confidence in their leaders or themselves in the respect that their vote counts. In some respect they are right because interest groups contribute the most amount of money to political campaigns and thus have an influence on the candidates.

Clinton raises more money

Clinton is set to raise $35 million by the end of February. Hillary has been raising close to $1 million a day mostly through the internet. I think that this will hurt the Democrats in the long run. Whereas the Republicans basically can focus all the money receive behind one candidate, the Democrats have to split it between two. People only have so much money to give.

Barrow backs Obama

Rep. John Barrow announced today that he will back Obama instead of Clinton. With Barrow's backing Obama has the backing of all the Georgia super delegates. This I think signals that Obama will probably get the Democratic presidential nomination. However if Hillary does not drop out soon she could in fact hurt the presidential race with all the mudslinging that has been going on between the two candidates.

Does negative campaigning work?

I think that negative campaigning does work. In large part because if it did not work than candidates would not resort to it. I think it also works well because in out minds we tend to remember the negatives rather than positives. A great example being Hillary, most people only remember negative things about so in that regard negative campaigning worked quite well.

Jackson calls for Democrats to play nice

Jesse Jackson recently outlined why the democrats should get along. I think that he has some very valid points, if the Obama and Hillary continue bickering they could split the vote between the democrats and this could make a very close race between the democrats and republics despite the democrats popularity. I think that they need to start running a cleaner campaign so as not to split the vote in the democrat party.

Teamsters endorse Obama

The Teamsters endorsed Obama today. I think that this further strengthens Obama's position because of the power that this union hold in getting people out to vote and raising money for the candidate. I also think that this will further the tension between Obama and Hillary because she also lobbied for the teamster endorsement.

Impact of corporate media

I think that corporate media has a huge impact on culture and the way we think. Considering that we get most of our news from newspapers and T.V. the news is our primary source of information. However with this new approach to news, making profits, information is distorted. Instead of journalist going out there and trying to find the truth about the story most news organizations today simply regurgitate press releases and what other people said. I think that this in turn impacts us with bad information and warps our world view.

Reaction to Bennett Chp.5

I think that he described quite accurately what news has become today, that is "news we can use". News has become another form of product now. It is no longer about serving the public but instead about earning the most amount of profit. What is most troubling however is just how greedy these new news organizations.Whereas most industries make anywhere from 1-15% profit and consider that good the news organizations are not even satisfied with 20% profit.

Reaction to "Bad News" Ch.3

I thought that this was an interesting chapter in how the news got to be so concerned with profit. I think that he is right in that after the cold war ended the news organizations lost most of their interest in foreign affairs and started closing up offices worldwide. I also agree with him that if the news business stayed up to date with what was going on around the world we would be better informed public and may have made more educated deductions about what the president was saying about the WMDs in Iraq. However I do not think the news business will ever get back to where it was before, the profits are to great.

Is the ongoiing primary going to hurt the Democrats?

I think that it will in part because it will give McCain the edge. The republicans basically already have a clear candidate that will run however the democrats do not, and with Obama and Hillary's mudslinging it could in fact hurt the democrat party. Come election time I think that a lot of people will remember this mudslinging between them and in turn may not vote for either democrat candidate thus giving the republicans the edge.

Ron Paul will not back McCain

Ron Paul, a republican candidate for president recently said that he will not back McCain for president. Although Ron Paul is not really in the running, he has not won a single state, he still continues to go on even though if dropped out a backed a candidate it would mean 5 million more for that candidate. I think that the republic party should start backing its strongest candidate now and stop bickering. While the democrates have two very strong candidates, the republicans only have one, John McCain, and if they continue this bickering I think that they could further hurt their chances of getting into the white house.

Maryland

The Maryland primary is coming up and it is one of the key primaries that Obama has to win. Although Maryland is liberal it may vote for Hillary. This article talked about how this liberal state may not vote for Obama because he is black. I think that at this time most democrats do not care what race a candidate is but instead want a strong candidate that can do well. That being said however Maryland is still not a sure fire win for Obama but I think it is not because of his race but rather strong support for Hillary from women voters.

Obama raises 7 mil

Obama recently raised 7 million dollars in less than 24 hours. I think that Obama has the right idea for raising money, even though many young people will not go out and vote in the elections they still "vote" with their money. That is they can go on a website type in their card number, donate a little money and it doesn't interrupt their lives. Whereas the traditional way involves writing checks and sending them in envelopes.

Stimuls package going through

It looks as if the stimuls package is finally going through. Apparently the only major changed was adding seniors and disabled veterans to the tax rebate while excluding illegal immigrates. I think that this is what is wrong with Congress today, this issue over who gets the rebate or not could've been resolved before the bill went to the Senate but instead each side stands its ground hoping to garner media attention. To me what this looks like is two kids on a playground stubbornly bickering over who is right, they don't care about the economy as so much as their own egos.

National or State Primaries?

I think that there should be one national primary instead of state primaries. Mainly the reason I think so is that this well help not drag the process out for choosing a candidate, also I believe that it will help the candidates who have less money. With only one primary to consider money would not be as big a factor because they can pour all their money into this one primary. I think that this would give lesser known candidates a chance since everyone would be more or less equal in their spending for one primary.

Why don't people vote as much anymore?

I think that the reason most people do vote today is because politicians have become more impersonal. They do not seem like individuals but rather like products, by that I mean when you vote for a political it feels like you are voting for a product. In this respect they are a lot like products, they have advertisement toting their "features" (what they will do for you) and cons of their competitors. I think that this why most people do vote because politics has become not what is good for the people but but stats, image, and sound bites. In short when people see these advertisements toting which candidate to vote for there is no difference between since they are a product and people I think will only truly come out a vote for a politicians who does not try to sell himself to get elected but instead genuinely tries to do something.

Obama and Interest Groups

Obama denounce interest groups and says he will not directly take money from them, however it appears that he still does to a degree. I think that this is typical of politicians, saying one thing and then doing another. Although Obama does not take as much from interest groups as other candidates, the point is that he still does take money from interest groups. I don't think politicians should be able to denounce interest groups on one hand and then take their money with the other.

Stimulus package problems

Although the House approved the stimulus package by a majority vote the senate did not, instead the Senate wants to add more money to the stimulus package. I think that this is typical of government, there is so much bureaucracy and petty squabbling that almost nothing gets down when it needs to get done. This stimulus package is time sensitive, if it does not get passed soon I think the economy will take a big hit.

Preparing for Primary Showdown

With the Hillary Clinton stepping up attacks on Obama's record in recent days, Obama countered that they are distorting his records. I think that this infighting within the Democratic party could hurt it when the presidential elections are up. The Democrats may split their own parties vote between the two candidates and when one of them emerges as the presidential candidate the people who supported the other Democratic candidate in the primary may not vote for the presidential candidate. I think the two Democratic candidates need to run a more civil campaign and not attack each other so much if they want the Democrats to win the presidency.

Economic Recovery

The Republics and Democrats seem to be co-operating for the time being to help get a stimulus package through. However as it says in the article this is a short term fix. I think that the two parties should work together to enact a long term economic policy and not just a quick fix. I think that this will hurt the economy in the future because there is no long term economic recovery plan.