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.