Campbell Brown claims Obama broke his promise

She believes that Barack Obama broke his promise on his campaign finance.

She said he pledged not to use public funding, but he did use it anyways.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html#cnnSTCText

By Jordan Greaney

The democratic party seams every year to have hope for the younger generation. Obamas campaign this past year has had a large focus on the young voter. Obama is and has positioned himself to be a candidate of the new. He may not know what it was like to fight in Vietnam but he appears to have a greater understanding than his opponent when it comes to technology and other issues that America will face as we go in to the future. However I think that a fundamental flaw that the campaign has made is that it is dependent on young people or even younger minded to be so excited by him as a candidate that they would get out to help, and make a difference in the campaign. There are many volunteers that have helped out but the issue is that youth do not want to help where it is actually needed they want to help out where it looks good. I had received received many calls stressing the importance of voter registration, on the RIT campus specifically. The Obama campaign estimated that there were over 1, 500 possible votes in Ohio and PA that could be cast from the RIT campus. When looking at a swing state 1,000 votes is a large deal especially on a college campus because votes tend to be favorably democratic. However student volunteers today are not looking at making a difference but having a good time while doing it. Voters were not registered by students on the campus but by outside volunteers. I believe when looking at the included graph voter turnout being so low in the younger generation may in some effect be because thease students, and young professionals as heard many times before think that nothing will make a difference, and because they never try because it does not help them they never get a first hand view of politics and government and a further understanding of the campaigns they see on TV and thus an understanding of the importance of their singular vote to those running that they remain disillusioned from politics.

So what about all these polls?

So many polls. So many different numbers. Often, polls seem to favor the Democratic candidate, yet as seen in 1982 with liberal mayor Tom Bradley of LA, the polls are often wrong and those who believe them are fooled.

Why does this happen, one may ask?

The answer is simple. Democrats are more likely to respond to polls than are Republicans. At the most fundamental level, Republicans want privacy. They do not want the government in their lives. They do not want their neighbors intruding in their lives, either.

I am a Republican. When a pollster calls my home, for example, I will not answer any questions. I do not know them and even if I did, my vote is my vote. It is a secret vote. It is between me and my conscience. It is registered only once in the voting booth. Nowhere else.

Republicans shun polls more than Democrats do. This leads to an under-reporting of Republican votes and an over-reporting of margins for the Democratic candidates.

Palin visits Troy, Ohio

Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin held a rally Thursday, October 23rd, in Troy, Ohio. She filled the 4200-seat Hobart Arena with an estimated 6200 people.

In attendance was Jennifer Jones, a substitute school teacher in Troy. She said Mrs. Palin is "an inspiration" to young women like herself.

Democrats just can't figure it out...

Democrats can't understand why Obama is not doing better in the polls. Susan Estrich, at RealClearPolitics, says:

"So how can Newsweek have the race at a dead heat? How come, even in the polls where Obama is leading, his lead is in single digits? Is it that people still don't know enough about him? No candidate in my lifetime has ever gotten better press coverage, more adoration from the media. Being attacked by Jesse Jackson is a gift of major proportions. Maybe it just hasn't showed up yet in the numbers. Maybe race is a bigger factor than people want to admit. Maybe people just need to be convinced on the experience front. But whatever it is, Democrats should take note. It should be a Democratic year, but that is no guarantee that it will be one."

For her, press coverage and media adoration are important. However, it is his policies that are what are driving many people away. She, like so many Democrats, do not see that. She can only think of racism as a reason not to vote for him. As Shakespeare said, "The lady doth protesteth too much."

The truth is, wealth re-distribution and huge new government expenditures to the tune of $800 billion will cause tax increases no matter what Obama says and people know that. Therefore, they do not trust him. So it is his liberal, big-spending desire to increase the number of people dependent on the government that is the issue for most people. We shall see on election day what the people choose. But to call anyone who votes against Obama a racist is simply failing to see the true reasons.

Obama Electoral College Estimations

This is interesting because CNN believes that Obama will be the projected winner with the Electoral College.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/calculator/

How much do voter's have a right to know?

In the case of medical history, 3 out of 4 candidates (Obama, McCain, Biden) have released here histories. Palin has not yet done so, seeing as she is a newbie to public attention this has gone with out notice so far. Does the public have a right to know her medical history?

I would have to say yes the public has the right to know and in this case even more then any other. She is one set away from being the president and it should be public information if she has any serous ilnesses. On the other hand I want to say that most of a person's medical history should not be part of the decision making process.

This really another side effect of the modern presidency. We feel as if the president is such an important part of our governing that we must know all about the persons running. We truly are looking for a superhero not a president.

-Stefanie DeSantis

The Real Bradley Effect is Not About Race

I was reading the Real World blog about the Bradley Effect. It contains an article by Sal Russo, a man who worked on the Deukmejian campaign, the candidate who beat Democrat Tom Bradley for the governorship of California in 1982.

Russo states that the real Bradley effect is not about race. It is about a candidate who is too far left leaning to be elected. Bradley was up in the polls, but slipping a little day by day as the election neared. The public polls stopped several days early, thinking Bradley had won the election. The media missed the fact that Deukmejian was closing the gap and thus they were surprised when he won. This election closely paralleled the Senate race betweeen Republican Pete Wilson and Deomcrat Jerry Brown going on in the same state. The media predicted Brown would win. However, Brown was seen by voters as too erratic to be trusted and thus Wilson won.

In both cases the voters chose a Republican over a very liberal (almost socialist) Democrat. Therefore, the simplest conclusion is it was the policies of that candidate and not the race of the candidate that made the difference.

Maybe things will get tighter

Resently on pollster a change has been made. McCain is still down but the numbers are closer. McCain 157 and Obama 286. There are 95 votes up for grab. most of the startes that are up for grab are just barly one or the other. Ohio does happen to be one of these state. The were blue for a little while but now they are back to undecided. Obama is up at 48 and McCain is 47.3. THey are neck in neck.

Through out all the other polls McCain is down between 8 and 10 points. This is a fair lead for Obama.

Kerri Clayton

The Presidential Debate: The final debate.

I feel that Obama had won the debate. Why? He made more sense when he laid out his plans on how to save the country while McCain was staring at Obama like a hungry dog, snarling haha.

Seriously, though. I felt that Obama didn't need to attack McCain just because McCain does it. Obama could have rose above McCain's level and focused more on his plan to save the country. But he didn't. He does lose few points on that alone, but I liked how Obama detailed his plans for everything.

If anyone's interested, they can read the full transcript of the final debate linked below:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/15/debate.transcript/index.html

16 days left to go

With the poles so one sided these days, I wonder if much can poliably change. Even McCain himself has begun to call himself the under dog of this election. Who would ever think that a senator of 22 years would be an underdog to senator of just a few years. It is an amazing situation that some never thought would happen. It has been a long road at that too. With such a short time left to the election many are looking back on how we got here.

With a long primary season, two large conventions, the over blow drama of choosing a vice president, and the after mass of these choices, a long general election season with 3 presidential debates, and one vice presidential, I start to wonder was it all worth it? Was all that actually important to the American people? Or is it just habit to keep having these kinds of elections?

I tend to think a lot of it is unnecessary. From the start of this rat raise two years ago I pretty much knew who I would be support. I am not saying that everyone should be as determined as I, but who really needs two years of intense conversation to make up there mind? How many people really are "undecided" 16 days before the election. May those who are still undecided are more apathetic that anything else.

Either way I don't see the election process changing any time soon. We Americans have grown attached to it, and we don't want to let go of even one chance to watch candidates duke it out on prime time TV.

Stefanie DeSantis

Ohio Polls

Everything in Ohio seems to be at a stand still. Obama in 49.0 and McCain 46.5. Over all there are 313 for Obama and 155 for McCain. According to GWU it is 49 to 45 with Obama up. All the polls seem to be at a stand still. The debate was only a few days ago, so hopefully is some excitement after that.

Kerri Clayton

Ohio must check new voter Registration

This is an amazing story:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hrw7GYLN4qc4DPNrrALrPgO_pRPAD93QLOP00

"Her shameful actions to disenfranchise Republican absentee voters, block the transparency of early voting and refuse the proper verification of newly registered voters have rightfully damaged her credibility as a nonpartisan election administrator," he said.

It is awful too see that in Ohio we already have early voting, but during this there is a lot of voter fraud. On Tuesday the Federal Government has now made Ohio set up by today a system to verify the new voters. Brunner has been pursing a partisan objective for some time. That will all be stopped now. Unfortunately this just goes to show the weaknesses in our system.

This made me think of the other states. Are they having some of the same problems, and it showed how easy it is to get away with that. Hopefully this does not destroy Ohio's voters. They all still need to come out and vote for themselves.

Kerri Clayton

And here comes Debate number three

After two presidential debates, and one vice presidential debates, I think we are all a bit tired. Add that in with an apparent strong lead by Obama, we might have a very apathetic audience. Is there even much of a reason for most people to tune in?

Well Wednesday's debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., is set to focus entirely on the economy and domestic policy. This is of top concern for most of middle class America. In previous debates each candidate has seemed to side step the most important issues of the economy. I am not sure this debate will be much different.

I want to hope that those who are still truly undecided will turn on the TV for this last chance to see both canidates together. As I said though, will this debate even provide the clarity that these undecided's seek?

This being the last debate, it seems like McCain's last chance to switch things up big before the election. So Obama simply just has to come out with no big wounds and he will be on a clear path to victory.

-Stefanie DeSantis

Obama announces new plan to rescue the economy for the long term future

There's not too many new stories about Obama. I'm not going to touch any religious-based stories about Obama. So, I'll post a story about Obama and the Economic Crisis of 2008.

Obama set forth five ideas on how he can save the Economy. Link below for the full article:

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/13/news/economy/obama_new_proposals/index.htm

- Jordan Greaney

My take on the second debate

I thought Obama won the debate because he detailed his tax plan very well. That convinced me well.

He also reminded us all why we must return to Afghanistan to finish the job and bring in bin laden. I thought that was important because with him alive, all these who were killed wouldn't be in vain and the Freedom Tower would have been more meaningful if bin laden had been killed.

All McCain did was to evade both arguments thus making obama the predetermined winner of the debate.

WOW

After last nights debate I thought that the polls would stay steady, or possibly see a swing towards McCain. Neither candidate said anything to strong, or challenging. I did see Obama go on defense for a few minutes though. The polls have changed drastically. Obama 320 and McCain 163. There are 11 states that are just barely Obama. Ohio is one of those states it is 49.3 Obama and 44.7 McCain. It appears at this point that Obama will, but there are still a few weeks left to go.

Kerri Clayton

A swing

There appears to be a swing again toward Obama. He is up to 260 and McCain is down to 163, and there are 115 swing votes. I was dissappointed that there has not be a big swing one way or another. It appears that the debates did not do much for the votes.

In Ohio McCain is down to 46.1 while Obama went up to 48.0. It's a small lead, but that is the first i have seen it there in a little while.

Kerri Clayton

Pre debate predictions

Sara Palin V. Joe Biden looks to be an interesting match up. Palin with her limited experience seems to be making a similar argument to the top of the ticket of Democrat canidate. I heard her say such things like "I am new change and Biden has been around a while." Does this arguement not seem very similar to Obama's? How will this work out when Palin has never even held a position in national goverment?

I cant help but worry about the classic issues of Gender coming back to haunt us all. If Biden goes to hard on her then everyone will look down on him because well she is a woman. Nobody wants to see her slaughtered because after all she is a pretty woman. I think that Biden's only option is to try and chalenge her just enough but not to much. Palin on the other hand will be going for blood. She cant really loose by letting it all loose. Attacking Biden for his record because she has none to be attacked on.

The last point I wish to make is that there is never really a set result that comes out of these debates. Nobody can really know who won untill election day. The people who really matter are those undecided individuals who may look at this debate and make up there mind about Palin and Biden. And for those results we must wait till November 4th.

-Stefanie DeSantis

The polls are starting to change

The overall polls have changed too much but there does seem to be a swing more toward Obama. The national poll is 174 McCain and 250 Obama. There are still 114 swing votes left. I wonder if this has much to do aboutthe debates, but it didn't change that much so I don't think it was a big differance. Ohio's polls are still the same 47.2 McCain and 46.6 Obama. It seems more and more like this is going to be a close race. I thought for sure after this last week that the polls would have a drastic change, and they have not.

Kerri Clayton