Where should Damocrats go? (Reflection on John Zogby's lecture)

John Zogby delivered a lecture at Chaple this evening. His speech was about how American elections have developed, what problems our two parties are facing, and what our people's expectations are.

Zogby pointed out that the 2008 Election was transformational because President Obama put together a coalition government; however, President Obama is facing challenges during this Mid Term Election because Americans are losing faith and enthusiasm. Zogby suggested a remedy that Democrats should create fear in order to bring their center back.

I think President Obama is now doing what Zogby suggested and he is aware the problems suggested by Zogby. According to yesterday's NPR report, Obama was in Wisconsin to strive for support for Democratic Party. Obama used the similar strategy he used while running for the president to increase people's enthusiasm. After admitting that people are apathetic and disappointed, Obama did try to create fear by saying that :"Wisconsin, we can't let that happen. We can't let this country to fall backwards because the rest of us didn't care enough to fight". President Obama's sentences could be interpreted as: Democrats care much about the well-being of this country, and supporting Democrats is preventing our country moving backwards. He is creating a fear that we even might not be able to keep up with the status quo if we do not vote for Democrats.

Pelosi's Negatives hit all time low; as unpopular as BP

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's negative ratings have hit an all-time high in the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. A full 50 percent of those surveyed have a somewhat or very negative impression of Pelosi, while just 22 percent have a somewhat or very positive impression of her.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Pelosis-negatives-hit-all-time-high-as-unpopular-as-BP-103977024.html#ixzz112etU0LA

Is the political power of social media exaggerated?

Interesting piece by Malcolm Gladwell. Relevant to our discussion about interest groups.

Putting Your Party Aside

John Zogby at Hamilton

John Zogby will be speaking tonight at the Chapel at 7PM. He is an internationally respected pollster and will be speaking about a broad range of political topics including his mid-term election predictions. This could be a great way to get an expert's perspective for our election prediction assignment.

The Ghost of Full Employment

Campaign plagiarism?

Armageddon?

Conservative pundit on NRO sees the 2010 election as the decisive battle in a fifty year war between liberalism and conservatism. Do you agree?

Tea Partiers continue to pick up support

It is very interesting that the Tea Party's right-wing messages are being embraced throughout the country. This article was particularly interesting because I was surprised to learn that the Tea Party is gaining popularity even in states that are usually thought of as liberal leaning, such as Massachusetts.. this shows the recent trend to the political right in this country..

Obliterating a Generation

Obama Seeks to Reconnect with Voters

Blaming the Voters

House Passes 9/11 Health Care Bill

The House approved a new health care bill about providing medical treatment to sick workers who clean up the world trade center after 9/11 (CNN).

As many workers answered in surveys and interviews, they indeed need health care. Therefore, the House made a huge step forward in terms of protecting human right of these workers after long impassioned debates. Among these debates, Republican and Democrats hold opposite opinions, which are highly compatible to their traditional ideologies. Republicans are worried that this bill might increase the federal deficit and increase tax, while Democrats found it very necessary to create a common good for these sick workers. Learning their different views, I came up with several questions for Republicans: What is the purpose of solving the current deficit? Aren't creating better welfare programs and improving people's living standard part of its purpose? Does the "golden rule" lowering the tax always create the best result?

In addition to different views of the Republicans and Democrats, we should think about how we can best implement this bill. As reported by New York Times, a first responder died of a common symptom of most first responders, but "the medical examiner concluded that his death is not directly related to the 9/11 attack". We want to make sure that people are not using this new health care bill to request a compensation for a sickness unrelated to 9/11, just as many non-disabled people are using disabled parking spaces.

Meager Cash Reserves Dog Several Congressional Incumbents

Republican's Deficit Cuts Lack Specifics

Dramatic increases in federal spending have caused the national debt to spiral out of control and unleashed a populist backlash against elected officials in Washington. This past week Republicans presented their "Pledge to America" which outlined key positions and specific steps the Republican Party promised to take if they resume control of Congress after the 2010 midterm elections. The pledge promised to reduce federal spending but Republicans have been vague as to what specific cuts should occur. The bulk of the deficit problem comes from three popular programs, Medicare, Social Security, and the military. These three problems are the only programs that the Republican pledge promises to exempt from federal spending cuts. If Republicans want to make a significant dent in reducing federal spending they should target programs that are the most costly. The military-intelligence infrastructure has become inefficient, enormous, and very costly. A true fiscal conservative would look at the nation's enormous military budget first if they wanted to find programs that easily could be cut. Reforms to Medicare and Social Security could also save the government billions of dollars in the long run if properly done. Instead, the Republican pledge is vague about what spending cuts to enact and lacks the specificity that is required to truly control the enormous deficit.

Beer, Candy And Pot Among Issues Before Voters

All that about money.

Fiscal environment is the most important issue for this year's mid-term election. Interestingly, many of our conventional hot topics, such as gay marriage and abortion, are no longer as important. What more important are candies, marijuana, beer allowance, and tax cut. Apparently, people put increasing revenue as top priority in this election.Could this be a bad sign for the Democratic Party?

Obama: Democratic voter apathy 'inexcusable'

Admonishing his own party, President Barack Obama says it would be "inexcusable" and "irresponsible" for unenthusiastic Democratic voters to sit out the midterm elections, warning that the consequences could be a squandered agenda for years.

For Jobs, Justice and Education

Obama Returns to Campaign Mode with Altered Team

In response to his diminishing popularity, President Obama is rethinking his campaigning strategy for reelection. This team will focus both on saving Obama's public image and maintaining a Democratic majority in Congress through get-out-the-vote initiatives.

A Democrat, in Campaign Ad, Embraces Bush

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OVesNzO8qk&feature=player_embedded