Current Event Week #4

Barack Obama and John McCain are in an all out war over Virginia’s 13 electoral votes. Traditionally, Virginia has voted republican, however this election is bringing about several surprises, one being Virginia’s status as a crucial Swing State. The state’s population has voted 46% for John McCain and 49 % for Barack Obama. McCain and Obama have strengths in different plans for running the country. McCain has an advantage over Obama in issues dealing with the War on Terror. Luckily for McCain, Virginia is supposedly home to approximately 800,000 war veterans and more than a dozen military bases. Typically, foreign affairs play a key role in winning Virginia, and this could work in McCain’s favor for obvious reasons. Likewise, Obama has a 10 point advantage over McCain in fixing up our economy. McCain and Obama need to try and sway the 19 percent of Virginia voters who aren’t secure with their position on who they would vote for. However, I believe Obama may have the advantage in this, as in the article it says that most Americans think that the economy is the biggest issue that needs to be handled before everything else. McCain needs to get his act together and come up with a secure plan on how to deal with the problems of the economy in order to win this state. If he fails to convince voters that he has a plan that will definitely work to fix the economy, Barack Obama will win Virginia for sure. However, if Barack Obama wins Virginia, he would be the first Democrat to win the state since 1964. I think the odds are in favor of McCain for winning the state as long as he squares away a good economic

Current Event Week #3

This article is about the two presidential campaigns advertisement battle against each other. This is only natural, because it is the final month of campaigning…and its usually the most intense. John McCain bashed Barack Obama over his past association with a 1960s radical leader, and Obama struck back by highlighting McCain’s connection to a corruption scandal surrounding the 1989 failure of a savings loan. Because of this recent wave off attacks by the McCain campaign, Obama claims that their campaign is getting desperate, and their tactics have fallen to a level of “character assassination.” Obama also took the heat from Sarah Palin, who also attacked him about his association with William Ayers, who she said was a domestic terrorist who targeted his own country. Ayers was the founder of Weather Underground, a radical Marxist militant group which targeted the pentagon, U.S Capitol and claimed responsibility for other bombings. Obama claims that Ayers is “a guy who lives in my neighborhood, whos a professor of English in Chicago who I know, but not a close associate or someone I regularly exchange ideas with.” Obama described Ayers’s actions in the 60’s as “detestable”.
I believe this banter between the two candidates is ridiculous. They should stop focusing on each other’s past affiliations, and focus on what is happening right now. The candidates really need to get back to the real issues which affect us the most, not some failed loan in the 80’s or a run in with a former domestic terrorist. Although the terrorist thing is kinda creepy…Obama should definitely not be chilling with that dude.

Current Event Week#2

In Cleveland Ohio this morning, Senator John McCain delivered a surprisingly forceful restatement of his economic proposals and hammered Barack Obama as a “tax-raising” liberal. McCain condemned the economic stimulus package proposed by what he calls the “dangerous threesome”- including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Leader Harry Reid, and Barack Obama. Supposedly, the “dangerous threesome” plans to spend 300 billion dollars on top of the one trillion dollar of rescue financing. McCain calls this addition of 300 billion a “spending spree”, and that’s pretty much what it is. How is one trillion dollars not enough already? That 300 billion could be used in better ways, like tax cuts for the middle class. And that is exactly what John McCain believes. I love this quote from McCain…”I know it is pleasant to listen to Senator Obama’s rhetoric, but look at the record. This is a fundamental difference between Senator Obama and me. We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy. The difference is that he thinks taxes have been to low and I think that spending has been too high.” I’ve noticed that Obama’s rhetoric does kind of suck me in…he is fun to listen to, but that could be a mask for something he is trying to hide. DUN DUN DUNNNN. It seems as if Senator Obama’s approach is to radically increase spending and then raise taxes to pay for them. Which sucks!

Current Event week #1

My current event is about Colin Powell’s recent announcement stating he is backing up the democratic candidate, Barrack Obama. He is the most prominent Republican to endorse Barrack Obama, crossing party lines to declare Obama a “transformational” figure. At first Powell supported McCain and considered him a friend, but McCain’s “unsure” response to the ongoing economic crisis and his selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president of the United States. Powell, along with millions of other Americans, are amazed by Obama’s ability to inspire, the inclusive nature of his campaign, his reaching out all across America, who he is and his rhetorical abilities, his style and his substance, which is why they want him to become president. Obama says he is “beyond honored and deeply humbled to have the support of a great soldier, a great statesman, and a great American.” McCain responded by saying he was pleased to have the endorsement of four other former Republican secretaries of state, and said he had a “respectful disagreement” with Powell over his assertion that Obama is ready to lead the country. Powell’s support for Obama comes as no surprise to many people. It is not that he is black and so is Obama, it’s that Obama is the better candidate.

Election Blog Week 4

According to the Gallup traditional poll and Gallup expanded poll, both polls show Barrack Obama has a significant lead over John McCain. the Traditional model estimates Obama with a 50%to 45% advantage and the expanded model has Obama leading by 52% to 43%. Click on this link it has cool charts and it talks about the data and analyzes it...http://www.gallup.com/poll/111445/Gallup-Daily-Obama-Continues-Lead-McCain.aspx
Currently, Obama has a 9 point lead over McCain, which is the best of his campaign (51% to 42%). When Obama and Hilary were competing for the democratic nomination, McCain and Obama were tied in the polls. Polling can have an impact on campaigns, for instance if a campaign is behind in the polls, they may take greater measures to make themselves look better, for instance the "character assasination" that has been going on between McCain and Obama...well mostly McCain. All of McCain's ads have something to do with something that Barack Obama said or did wrong...which is dumb! McCains gotta promote himself better. The negativity of his campaign is going to turn voters off. Hes gettin desperate. As far as the Virginia Senate race is concerned, it seems like Former governor Mark Warner has this one in the bag. All of those polls put him ahead of Gilmore at least by 15 points. Currently, Warner has a 58% lead over Gilmore's 33%. If you wanna look at polling data go to this website..its pretty cool.. cough cough cough. http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/senate/va/virginia_senate-537.html

Election Blog Week 3

The 2008 Virginia senate election will be an open contest this year since the uncumbent, John Warner, chose not to seek re-election. The major party candidates are Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore. Both are former governors of Virginia. Warner ran for the Democratic ticket unopposed, while Jim Gilmore competed for the Republican ticket against 11th district Congressman Tom Davis. Mark Warner had challenged John Warner in 1996 for his seat in the Senate, but was narrowly defeated. Mark later won election in 2001 as teh State's governor and left office with a good reputation and high popularity. On October 13, the Republican statepart's central committee voted47-37 to hold a statewide convention rather than a primary. Claiming it would save the candidates money, Jim Gilmore argued strongly for a convention. Also, a convention was thought to favor Gilmore because most of the delegates came from the party's activist base, which is far to the right. With this decision, Gilmore seriously considered entering the race. When Davis officially dropped out on October 25 2007, Gilmore confirmed his candidacy on November 19 2007.

Election blog week 2

I believe the two most important issues the candidates face are the failing economy, and the energy crisis. Our next president needs to change our energy culture by shaking our oil addiction. I believe that using nuclear energy, along with the newest technology such as low waste reactors, must become a national priority. Oil is like our achillies heel pretty much. Also, obviously, the economy must be fixed, or we could be in the midst of another Great Depression. Which would suck...
I believe both candidates performed well. Obama was charismatic and well spoken like always, and McCain was strong with his points as well. Both candidates agree that there needs to be something done with the economy, but something gave me a fuzzy feeling inside when Obama was talking about what he would do to help the economy. But I still like McCain.