Bonnie Pirlot-3rd Period
Chuck Todd & Sheldon Gawiser:
From How Barack Obama Won
Vocabulary Terms:
1. Electoral College- (in the US) a body of people representing the states
of the US, who formally cast votes for the election of the president and
vice president.
a. Technically, according to the definition, the people of the United
States do not directly elect the President. Instead, they represent a
group of people who will, in the future, vote for the party member of
their choice.
2. Impeach- call into question the integrity or validity of (a practice).
a. The article highlights the impeachment process of the 1998
impeachment of President Clinton, meaning that there was a
chance that he would be taken out of office.
3. A Primary- a preliminary election to appoint delegates to a party
conference or to select the candidates for a position.
a. In a preliminary election, party members from each party are
selected to represent their party and a position/stance. Whoever
wins the primary continues on to try to win the presidency,
ultimately.
Summary & Analysis:
Chuck Todd’s & Sheldon Gawiser’s excerpt from How Barack Obama
Won emphasized the reasons why current president Obama won the election in
2008. “...but one of the central factors he won was that he always made the case
for why he was the candidate of change, the candidate who was change from
Bush”. The authors stressed to the readers that each nominee while in the race,
Republican and Democrat, Clinton and McCain, each continued to compare
themselves to Obama and what made themselves different. Instead of focusing
on issues that America was currently dealing with, they found it most beneficial to
compare. Obviously the Obama delegate operation ran circles around Hilary
Clinton, although she won New Jersey. The authors also focus on the idea that
the media played a large role in predicting the outcome of the election and often
swayed Americans’ views on who should win the presidency.
Evaluation
It is almost depressing to watch current elections. Although the debates
bring up valuable points, this article suggests that members of each party,
Republican and Democratic, focus more on slander, than actual issues. In the
2008 election, Obama focused more on the idea that he was a change from
Bush. However, what change exactly? Instead of stating reasons to make the
government better and help society, the nominees focused on hating their
opponents to gain votes. McCain, along with Clinton, hammered Obama about
his lack of experience. Unfortunately, this is how elections have been run for the
past hundreds of years. Instead of focusing on key issues like poverty and
starvation, debates, ads, and campaigns focus on the opponents’ weaknesses.
Unfortunately, Americans thrive through technology. And through
technology comes the media. During elections, most Americans do not even
complete their own research on the candidate of their choice, but instead, tune
into shows like “Saturday Night Live” and parody shows in order to select what
member/nominee they want to vote for. Where has the passion gone from
Americans to where they cannot function without someone else’s opinions?
Naïve Americans complain about Obama because he’s forcing the United States
into debt and not completing the tasks that he promised. But unfortunately, the
majority of people that voted for him most likely did not do research or fully
understand Obama’s outlook on issues.
The American government brags to be a democracy…sort of a
democracy…not a democracy. Now, the electoral college guarantees fairness
among the states and represents the numbers and populations of each state.
The idea of the electoral college is clearly stated in the Constitution, however,
during the situation in 2000, with Bush and Al Gore, although Bush got the most
electoral votes, Al Gore got the most popular votes. Although most Americans
voted for Democrat Al Gore, clearly, the election was taken to Congress and
Bush was named President in year 2000. This is a rare case, but it does not
seem very democratic. Most Americans don’t actually vote in elections besides
the Presidential election, so it’s as if their choice literally meant nothing.
YouTube Link Evaluation
The YouTube link describes the idea of how the electoral college was
created. It was created due to the debate between the people who wanted the
government to choose the president, and the people who wanted the people of
the United States to vote for the President. It describes in detail the process of
which a president is elected and how they make their way to office. The link also
describes the different primaries that each state engages in. The states choose
whether or not they want an open or closed primary, which is definitely a
democratic concept that is implemented throughout the United States.