Jon Stewart...At it again

Jon Stewart Mocks Fox News' Election Night Meltdown: 'There Was An Avalanche on Bullsh*t Mountain'   

   

         This video is of Jon Stewart poking fun at Fox News at the reporters that were so certain Mitt Romney would win and how all the “evidence” could prove it. He focused on election night and the time period when Fox News’ stated that Obama was predicted to win Ohio and ultimately win the election concurrently when the reporters were discussing how Romney will triumph and Ohio has NOT been called. The reporter goes on and on about the demographics and how the people of Ohio will lean towards Romney.

         One highlight of the election night coverage was when the man was done with his elaborate reasoning for a Romney victory, he was then asked by another reporter, “Is this just math that you do as a republican to make yourself feel better or is this real?”

         Even though I found this video funny and entertaining I feel that it was biased and only showed coverage that supported the side of Fox News being uninformed and naïve. It did not disclose both sides or coverage that hurt their argument.  

SOURCE: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/jon-stewart-fox-news-election-meltdown-video_n_2092224.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular,political-humor

The election is over, the drama has ended for now, and it is a time to look back and laugh at the little things. My personal go-to for daily funnies is Buzzfeed, and when it came to post-election humor the site was chalked full of memes, gifs, videos, and photos. Here are some of the more popular examples:

Some "articles" showed the nation that even the newly re-elected President can't escape the hell that is awkward, candid, embarrassing pictures...http://www.buzzfeed.com/mattbellassai/the-44-greatest-barack-obama-facial-expressions-6z51. We've all been there and we all feel your pain, Mr. President. 

Others chose to show off the popular skill of video mashing the lyrics to an early 90s song. No matter how overdone these have become people really have perfected the art, especially using Obama. http://www.buzzfeed.com/copyranter/obama-sings-you-cant-touch-this

One especially fun one was the "8 Things We'll Miss About The 2012 Election." This write-up includes many of the forgotten faces and situations this election season birthed, and it throws in the ultimate sad song, Sarah Mclachlan's I Will Remember You. Rick Santorum's sweater vest obsession? Check! Joe Biden snuggling with a biker chick? Check! Like I said, its especially fun. http://www.buzzfeed.com/hunterschwarz/8-things-well-miss-about-the-2012-election-6zgv 

I chose these articles out of pure silliness, not to endorse one candidate over the other. That fight is over, and I hope that no matter who you voted for you can take a minute to just appreciate that there can be humor in the most unusual, normally dry places. 

Memories

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/political-potpourri/2012/nov/7/election-2012-video-highlights-including-romney-co/

The Washington Times collaborated a page with highlights of the 2012 election. I found this interesting because the videos are humorous while some are the real serious moments of the election such as when Ohio was called. A funny one on this page was many of the malfunctions of voting machines.

http://www.salon.com/2012/11/06/the_65_best_quotes_of_campaign_2012/

This site compiled the 65 most memorable quotes of the election including the infamous Big Bird statement and different zingers sent by each candidate.

I thought both sites took an interesting approach to the commemoration of this election year.
What were some of the most memorable parts of this election for you?
Will this be an election that sticks with you later in life?

Republican Evolution

http://whitepeoplemourningromney.tumblr.com/

You can hopefully guess just by the domain name what the site above is comprised of. As a democrat, I don’t want to just twist the knife so let me clarify that honestly, this site could be hilarious while being completely unrelated to Mitt or politics in general. Call me petty, but part of me just likes seeing how overly dramatic people can be, example, one facebook post that reads “Thanks a lot Christians, for not showing up. You disgust me,” there you have it folks, Obama is all the Christians fault. As we all know, the democrats complained through 8 years of G.W.B. (and boy did we complain) and now, republicans feel the same sting, one we will surely all know again regardless of party. There is much more melodramatic gold to be had on this site, some even gets chuckles out of my Republican friends. Yet amidst the pages and pages of cheap shots and low blows that may or may not have amused me for the better part of my anthropology class (I’m not proud) I found this:  

Meghan McCain echo’s the sentiments of many young republicans.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/16/meghan-mccain-on-why-the-republican-party-needs-to-wake-up.html

“Times are changing. The face of America is changing and we as Republicans stand at a crossroads. Are we going to accept the changing face of America and change with it? Or are we going to continue to become more isolated and irrelevant? It’s possible to maintain the core values of this party and evolve when it comes to social issues. Quite frankly, I don’t see any other path to success.”

As a more moderate democrat, I think Meghan has addressed a growing problem being, much like this years candidate, at times the Republican Party can seem out of touch with the demographics that are needed to win the election. She says, “We can’t keep going and trying to get white men. They’re dying off. It’s not a demographic anymore.” As one of many white men, I can say confidently that we’re still here, but I hear her point. The fact that none of her article talks about policy speaks to the legitimacy of her party’s ambitions, yet its tendency to, “cannibalize people that diverge from an arbitrary purity test,” cripples their ability to grab the votes of the socially moderate.

“And if we don’t move forward, adapt, and become relevant again, the Republican Party isn’t going to survive. It will just continue to alienate more moderate voters like myself. If I don’t see some changes in the next four years, I’m going to consider registering as an Independent in 2016.”  

-Neal Brower

The Whale Formerly known as ORCA.

Professor Leek had mentioned earlier in the semester that she had a prediction regarding media coverage following the election. She thought in the moments after the conclusion, there would be an unveiling of a scandal that happened in the last moments of the election that would have a significant impact on the outcome, or that would be covered up by one of the campaigns. I kept my eye out for such a happening and was excited when i was able to experience the phenomena for myself in Mitt Romney's failed Project ORCA. 

The system was set up as a mobile app that was to drive voters to the polls on the election day, ultimately giving Romney a significant head start against Obama, and was said to be Mitt Romney's secret plan of sorts for winning he election. The problem: it was a complete and utter failure. The system crashed at multiple points on election day and voters were getting extremely frustrated with lag time, system malfunctions, and inconsistencies."It was a perfect storm of technical issues and confusing training programs," according to Stephanie Marcus, a writer for The Huffington Post. All of the problems made ORCA unhelpful to the campaign and ultimately led the way for the first steps to a election failure. 

In the article i reviewed titled, "Mitt Romney's Project Orca Failure: Broken ORCA App Cost Him Thousands of Votes," Stephanie Marcus writes about how Mitt Romney's campaign made claims after the election that the project wasn't intended to be a complete saving grace for the former governor in the election; however in other articles it was speculated that the project was supposed to be Romney's plan for campaign success. With so much at stake placed on a new system, you would think that the campaign team would have better tested the app, as such a system could have potentially been incredibly helpful for voters, especially young voters who are fluent in the app world.

I find issues not necessarily with the article, but with the campaign statements after the election. If the app wasn't intended to have a major impact on the outcome of the election (according to the article), then why use it at all? I think this app was intended for just that, and the Romney campaign put far too much in the hands of ORCA, which ultimately lead them down the path of failure. I don't think that it was the complete reason why they lost, but for young voters especially, something like this on the side of the Romney campaign could  have been incredibly helpful, since he wasn't the most popular guy with those voters. In my opinion, Romney really missed a step with this one. He could have really had something golden in his hands, and with all that money, he really had as many resources as he could have ever wanted. If it were me i would have thoroughly tested the app, instead of relying on hope the day of the election, especially since Hope had clearly been on Obama's side in the past.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/10/mitt-romney-project-orca-broken-app-cost-thousands-votes_n_2109986.html

Election Jokes

I found a video clip of some of the top jokes about the election between November 5th and November 10th. I chose this video for my journal because I find it curiously interesting how the election gathers more humorous media than it does anything else. Everyone who is anyone on late night television feels they have to crack jokes about the presidential election and what happened. I find it funny that our country can take such a serious job and turn it into such a comedy show.

When Colbert was talking about Obama making the people buy into the lie I was chuckling at his reference to the one night stand. I think it is a good thing that we can take out our humor to every event in the USA. If we do not have humor then America would be pretty boring.

I usually despise Conan O'Brian but his joke about Obama making Mitt Romney his bitch didn't only make me laugh but it also made me think about how Mitt Romney must feel hearing all of these political jokes. I wonder if he sits and home and laughs at their sarcastic attacks or if he sits at home in silence because he knows for the next week or three people will be mocking him on every late night television show. I almost feel bad for him, but then again he is rich!!!

When Jimmy Kimmel discuss's Obama using his second half term to be more black I had to laugh at that one. There is this weird stereotype in the US that black people act a certain way and if they don't act that way then they are white. I find this to be a little degrading to the black community because there really is no difference between the two races except for the color of our skin. But when people make jokes about it I can't help but laugh and think, does Obama have a "black side" he is waiting to pull out?

The funniest of all the clips was the one about the legalization of marijuana simply because of all the news reporters and how awkward they were when discussing it. They all treated it like something that has not been around for awhile. This is actually a topic I have a stance on that I feel pretty passionate about. I do not see why marijuana is frowned upon so much by our government. There are a few reasons, it is completely natural and does not have anything in it that can cause any sort of random death, the side effects of marijuana are something to laugh at if anything, munchies? delayed reaction time? these are all things to laugh at when you look at the side effects of cigarettes, lung cancer! So when people talk about marijuana on television like all the potheads are going to come out of the woodwork i have to laugh because I am in college now and I see how the use of marijuana is all around the typical college student and these people act like it had to be legalized.

All in all these clips made me laugh, and i felt like sharing the wealth with all of you. Check these out and let me know what you think about the jokes/issues.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/the-best-political-jokes-of-election-week_n_2116172.html

Let's have some Obama laffs.

So, the election is over.

It's kind of anti-climactic, in a all-the-hype-and-hoopla-was-kinda-fun way. In some ways, it was fun to see these two candidates banter back and forth throughout these last couple weeks, playing this hypothetical game of chess and chicken — waiting for the first person to misstep.

That's pretty good. Completely brings together all of the stereotypes and classifications people put on Obama during the entire election process then has him getting the last laugh. It's a simple piece, but it's got the point that every "eff you republicans!" liberal is thinking.

Of course, this gets a little more extreme when you dive into the world of memes:

That one is just my favorite. Not sure why, maybe it's the fact that the rapper Two Chainz is just awful and Obama sporting the chains and mean-muggin' look just gets me. Either way, that's today's political humor. Sure, people still love watching SNL (I think, do people?) for the political stuff, but really, these  online jokes are what gets around the most. These political memes are funny because they appeal to a younger audience. Sure, middle-aged folks use the internet, but there's no way these same people are searching BuzzFeed or Reddit for meems of Obama pasted onto a rapper's body. It's funny because it's a young person's kind of joke, and these people were a huge part of this election.

I say "these" people, but that's us. If you supported Obama throughout this time, seeing stuff like this is just a double-dose of satisfaction — your guy won and you get to see a funny picture. It's that kind of connection that really helps to get young people excited and involved in this process.

Maybe that's what makes political humor funny after all — being on the winning side of things.

Time for a Republican Party Makeover?

An article from NPR titled 5 Foul-Ups In The Romney Campaign came out a few days after the election and I thought it was very interesting/informative.  The articles points were:

1) At first, Romney didn't lead the Republican Party, it led him.

2) For too long, Romney let the Democrats define him.

3) For a while, the Romney campaign lost focus.

4) The campaign had too many unscripted occasions.

5) Instead of ending with a bang, Romney's campaign faded away.

The article went into greater detail with each point and gave examples.  It made me wonder how the election would have gone had a different individual been chosen for the Republican presidential candidate.  But is Romney really the only one to blame or was it the entire Romney campaign and/or Republican Party?  This reminded me of all the talk I've been hearing of how the Republican Party needs to revitalize itself.  What would a revamping of the Republican Party look like?

Romney on a Balcony

Post election, the entire country is waiting the candidate’s reaction to the results. Will their party celebrate and cheer? Or stand in a corner and cry? At the end of this year’s election results, there was a big distinguishment between each of the party’s election aftermath. Obama’s party was singing and dancing at a huge celebration, while Romney’s party stood silent, and waiting solemnly for Romney to give his final election speech.

SNL: Romney on a Balcony

This skit featured on Saturday Night Live mocks the post election jitters that everyone was experiencing that night. Romney stands outside on his balcony, drinking his stress away from a big carton of milk. His wife, Ann, walks out and encourages him to come back to the party. They interpretation of Ann as this stepford wife is hilarious in a sense that it’s partially true. She and Mitt have this wealthy couple relationship that the public can see. After Ann leaves, one of Mitt’s sons comes out and expresses how upset he is. The same gag repeats when another son comes out, and he is played by the same actor. The joke here is that Mitt’s family is all pretty much the same, in terms of character and personality. The skit continues and several more people come out to comfort Mitt. It ends with Mitt and Ann having a touching moment as the embrace each other on the balcony

This form of political entertainment is funny today, but will it be as hilarious 20 years from now? Mostly likely not. Though the parody of Romney’s character and his family might be comedic, the punchlines will not be relevant. A specific example is when Mitt’s son says the line “Come in inside, Donald Trump is doing this thing where he is being a racist.” This punch line is very funny in today’s world since the audience can connect to the events of the past with Trump and the election. However, in 20 years from now, audiences watching this sketch may have to search for the underlying meaning of that joke. Sketches from past elections that I watch today I can only partially understand the humor in them, simply because political entertainment is time sensitive.

Though this video will mostly be relevant post election, it still gives humor to Romney’s situation. Laughing at the downfalls of life, and in this case the election, can help ease the pain. And for Romney supporters, they will need all the humor they can get.   

Election Analysis: Minority Rule?

For this final blog post, I'm going to discuss a portion of Weekend Update from this week's Saturday Night Live, in which "President Obama" lends some thoughts on why he was reelected on Tuesday. 

Here is the link to the video on Hulu:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/423752#i2,p0,d2

One memorable line comes when cast member Jay Pharoah, playing the president with a pretty remarkable replication of speak patterns and mannerisms, quips: "The number of older white men in this country is shrinking.  Meanwhile, a Hispanic gay woman is born every 8 seconds.... And, there's another one.  Welcome to America, baby Juanita!  One more vote for me!"  This joke smartly toys with one idea we've been hearing a lot about in the days following the election, which is "Obama's coalition" of voters that helped him achieve reelection (mainly younger Americans and minorities).  The sketch's line about a "Hispanic gay woman" (3 strikes on the minority scale!) pokes fun at the fact that America's white racial majority is shrinking year by year.  It also coincides with a lot of discussions about the Republican turnout at the polls last Tuesday, and what the party may be looking to do in order to keep up with the times come 2016.  As America's gender and sexual minority populations become more and more visible in the political sphere, and its racial minority populations become less and less of a minority, many are saying the Republicans need to change their strategy in order to appeal to these key voter bases.  This bit of the "Obama visit" from Weekend Update captures that argument adeptly. 

The sketch continues on with jokes about the fiscal cliff, Obama preparing to "play dirty" by eliminating the military, and several Republican congressmen's continuous discussion of rape: a portion that goes on way too long, to the point of getting rather over-the-top.  However, I think this sketch demonstrates SNL's continued practice of assessing the political scene of the country, and addressing it with humor in a way that viewers will find relatable.  This is something they have done since the show's inception, and something that, clearly, they will continue to do, even as our talks about the election wind down and the country moves forward.

Overall Impression "These 'Gifts'?"

I was thinking all this political talk died. When all of a sudden "Romney Dings Obama for 'Gifts' to Minority Voters." I'm not really sure what to think about this. For me, it seems like Mitt Romney won't get a break for anything he says.  Almost in everything he has spoken in has some sort of quote, whether it’s “binders of women” or “bigbird” now we hear about these “Gifts.”

What I would say is that, I believe media is looking for anyway to bring a story in. Because as far as I know, now that it’s over it’s been a while since anyone got a rest from it. Some sides, bitter. This is just silly, and another excuse for the media. I just think, since Obama knew he would have another chance of 4 years, perhaps he did already think about those campaigners planned in the ‘swing-states.’

But, the minority vote has been slowly decreasing on the republican side. I don’t think it’s very smart for this to have been said, since it will only possibly damage future voters.

As for me, this course has just been very informative, and after constantly trying to check up on all the media, there is just too much to sift through, and it can be mentally tiring. That when coverage like this appears almost a week after, it causes me to not want to read it.

Gifts to Minorities 

Last Thoughts on the Election...

On November 7th, a day after the election, Stephen Colbert made quite a statement on his show "The Colbert Report". The political/comedy/news show started with Colbert looking beaten, wearing a robe and eating a bag of white cheddar popcorn. "What are you people doing here?" he questions, "shouldn't you be out celebrating!?!" Exasperated, Colbert goes on to yell about how none of his viewers listen. "I been bringing you the truth, hot and hard now for seven years, and how do you repay me? Four more years of hope and change!" Celebration is far from his act, but Colbert brings the angry up a notch to make it more dramatic. Flailing his arms around and throwing popcorn everywhere he finally remarks to the audience and viewers, "do you think I do this for you're amusement? I do this for America" he barks.

Clearly. And Americans enjoy the political news the a comedian flair. Honestly, anyone who has a hint of right wing in their political affliation, and maybe some left-winged themselves will find Colbert's report on politics. But in this episode, Colbert lets it be known what he thinks about the results of this year's election, and ends up giving in to the liberal side, and starts drinking a beer and watching TV to drown his sorrows. Unlucky for him, he has a contract obligations which legally binds him into making a show, and therefore he is back to The Colbert Report once more. Throughout all of this the audience is laughing, and incredibly enthralled at the dramatic and comical way Colbert makes his last political statement for 2012's election.

To watch the clip, go to here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/08/colbert-obama-reelection-bill-oreilly-video_n_2092714.html?utm_hp_ref=political-humor

To watch the whole episode, go here:
http://www.hulu.com/watch/422886#i0,p10,d0

Get Your Health Care...Whether You Like it or Not

Now that the President is reelected, his main accomplishment of his last four years, Obamacare, is here to stay. Although this isn’t one of the major concerns of the American public, it is actually a part of the jobs and economic debate. I have found two videos from the last week about the health care law one from the day after the election and one that came yesterday. (Both are from FOX news but as we should know from the health care bill, what the interviewees are saying is true according to the health care law).

The first video is an interview with a doctor in New York as he talks about how the new law will hurt his profession and possibly have an impact on those who are studying to be in the health profession.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1955038203001/what-obamas-re-election-means-for-your-health-care

The second video is an interview with a local franchise owner of a Papa John’s. She had plans to build a new building, however she is having to layoff four people in order to get under the 50 employee limit so that she can avoid the taxes that would be imposed if she has more than 50 employees.

 http://video.foxnews.com/v/1962761641001/obamacare-coming-costs?intcmp=related

I thought that both of these individuals were interesting to listen to only because it is affecting them directly. As of today, states had to come up with a state exchange plan or leave it up to the government to take care of. This issue is a large one. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/11/13/obama-reelected-states-face-quick-deadlines-on-president-health-care-law/

After I heard what the lady said about not being able to open another business, it personally makes me worried about how many other companies will have layoffs as well as not hiring anymore employees in order to avoid this 50 person ceiling.

I also think looking at issues like this and asking the people it will be directly affecting including doctors and employers is important because 1) people should know whether or not they’ll get health care from their employer as well as 2) if their employer will or will not make cuts in order to keep from paying extra per employee for the health care and 3) we should know from doctors what they think about the law and how it will affect their practices.

Nate Silver on Jon Stewart

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-november-7-2012/nate-silver

As quoted by Jon Stewart, “Nate Silver, Lord and god of the algorithm.” His predictions, aside from the North Dakota Senate race were all proved correct. The big question at this point is what does this mean for 4 years from now. Well for one current polling practices really need to change and adapt to practices closer to those of Silver’s. The data can’t come straight from past elections or even from the one just 4 years before, because as it has been shown, the demographics of the nation are changing and it is having a direct impact on the outcome of elections. This is what I, as well as many others, believe was the main problem which caused the major disconnects in the polling data. Also it will be interesting to see how large of an effect Nate Silver’s polling data in particular will affect the political techniques of both parties  in the next election.

It is amazing, overall to see what math can really do and it will be even more interesting to see how much more accurate the polls can get in the future. 

Hide the Milk

The clip that I choose to write on was a sketch done on Saturday Night Live. This showed Mitt Romney at his house after the election was over. I thought that it was quite funny playing on how Romney has such a squeaky clean image that when he’s drinking milk it is as bad as if he is drinking alcohol. I thought that this was funny because for most men drinking alcohol is not even a bad thing and to compare it to milk is something hilarious.

This clip also played on the fact that Mitt has so many children that all look alike he cannot even tell him apart. In this clip it was showing the frustration of Romney loosing the election but trying to place blame for not winning Ohio on Paul Ryan. Making fun of other republicans is something else done in this clip. I liked the parts where Anne as shown. In the public they do have a very strong relationship and I liked that SNL did not take that somewhere mean spirited.

Over all I thought this was a good clip because it was not mean but it just played up some of the stereotypes that mitt Romney has. 

http://www.hulu.com/watch/423753#i1,p0,d1

Food for Thought

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            It’s 9:30pm on election night and I have just signed onto the Facebook for the first time today.  The first thing I see is a photograph of a chalkboard sidewalk sign for a restaurant advertising their specials for today.  The first item was an Obama Burger served with fries or a salad for $8.00, not a bad deal, but Michelle wouldn’t let you get fries anyways so salad is the only choice.  The next item was a Romney Burger served with No Rights for Women for $20.00, that’s a hefty price to pay to take back nearly 100 years of civil rights.  I continued scrolling down my news feed and all I can see is a bunch of political jargon, some being quite enthusiastic and seemingly wrote a short novel about how important it is to exercise your right to vote and ended it with a quick jab of, “4 more years!” 

            There seems to be an overwhelming amount of positive Obama posts followed by apathetic and disdained statuses mocking the whole system.  Most of these apathetic posts were vulgar and misdirected but one stood out to me, it was a quote by Leonardo da Vinci and it read, “As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.”  Maybe our eyes are bigger than our stomachs but this is just some more food for thought.

            As I continued down the feed I only found two posts supporting Romney, which leads me to believe that Obama voters are more vocal about their choice and will have a higher turnout rate at the polls, ultimately giving Obama the win.  This enthusiasm from the young voters makes me believe that the more liberal proposals are going to pass like the proposal 2, decriminalization of marijuana, and gay rights are going to get a Yes.  But this is only qualitative Facebook assumption that focuses on the narrow demographic of my friends.  To get broader demographics and more concise information on electoral predictions I signed off the Facebook and looked up the FiveThiryEight blog. 

            The founder of the blog, statistical analyst Nate Silver, is highly regarded as being the most accurate forecaster for election results.  His blog has predicted a 90.9% chance of an Obama victory with 313 electoral votes and 50.8% of the popular vote.  Although the popular vote may be tight, big blue states like California will give Obama the upper hand in electoral votes.  After evaluating the qualitative on the Facebook and qualitative data on FiveThirtyEight, I believe that Obama will win another four years in office.

It’s late in the evening now and I have decided not to post this blog until tomorrow morning (Nov. 7) because the result are in but I don’t want to look at them until the morning... 

           

            Four more years it is.  Raking in 303 electoral votes and a little over 50% of the popular vote, Nate Silver has just been crowned the champion of all nerds!  His prediction was near perfect with only a 10-vote difference in the electoral votes.  Young voter turnout (18-29 years old) accounted for 19% of all voters with 60% of them supporting Obama according to the Huffington Post.  Marijuana has been decriminalized in Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Detroit and the entire state of Colorado and Washington.  Gay marriage rights have also passed in Maine and Maryland.  Seems like I am a prophet, tomorrow will be the day after today and you will eat your cake.

Rock the Vote

The job market and economy, both topics that are constantly on the minds of college students and constantly been discussed throughout the election. Since the presidential outcome is going to affect the job market and economy, you’d think every college student would be more than willing to vote, right? However there are problems that occur. Many students want to vote but can’t because they have an out of state drivers license. I discussed voting in this election with some of my peers and a unified problem came to surface, that students might not have time on Election Day to vote due to class and work schedules. Many are cautious with their time and are afraid they will be standing in a line for two hours to vote. It’s discouraging to see students want to vote but however can’t when it comes down to it.

This year college students are more politically active with “69% said they were likely to vote”(Gross, 2012). Even though over half the faculty members of four-year colleges or universities said it was important for them to encourage their students to “…become agents of social change” it is shown that college doesn’t effect student political participation (Gross, 2012). 

So what will it take for students to be inspired and go to the polls on Election Day?

The 2008 presidential election turnout from young people set an all time record high, surpassing 2004 youth turnout numbers by 2.2 million (Falcone, 2008). When comparing the youth turnout in 2008 and the 2012 pre-election polling this year, the data shows their interest is dramatically lower in the 2012 election (Seib, 2012).

The article, “Five Things to Watch on Election Night” discusses how Romney supporters are confident that Obama will not be able to maintain the same amount of support the youth showed Obama in 2008 (Seib, 2012). Romney has been trying to appeal to young voters and get their votes using social media. The Romney campaign’s social media account comments are not personable, awkward, and negative inevitably hurting his chance of connecting with college students. He wounded his relationship with students even more when he stated, “Students should get as much education as they can afford” (Escobar, 2012) which didn’t sit well with many college students.

Therefore I feel that on Election Day if a student is able to make it to the polls they are more likely to vote for Obama than Romney for president.

SOURCE:

https://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2012/10/31/does-college-make-you-vote/

http://newamericamedia.org/2012/11/voter-turnout-expected-to-rise-among-students.php

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204755404578100930339011090.html

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/05/youth-turnout-up-by-2-million-from-2004/

"Your Voice Your Vote 2012"- Patience Required

As election day moves along and people wait to cast their votes (some for over an hour!), the country sits in anticipation. Who will win? I, for one, have no idea. This race is definitely a nail-biter, neck-to-neck and every other cliche in the book. Keeping with the pace of the entire election, this day has so far been resulting in such close numbers, even a tie in one New Hampshire village, that it is bound to be a very long night ahead.

Visiting websites, watching the news coverage, and passing the long lines at voting centers I've felt my excitement building all day; I must admit I never thought I would say that about politics. I'm sure there are websites all over where you can check how the race is going nationally and state-by-state but I've been using ABC News,http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Elections/fullpage?id=17012629. While Romney is still making appearances and campaigning, Obama will be in his home state of Illinois doing television interviews and playing a little basketball; very different strategies during the "costliest and  one of the closest"elections in US history. Do those strategies reflect on the confidence of the candidates? Or is it just another sign as to how different these two men have proven to be? I'm going with both.

No matter what the Presidential outcome at least we can all experience a win when the obnoxious political commercials, status updates, tweets and blogs come to a close. That's a very refreshing light at the end of the tunnel.

Election Day Extravaganza!

It’s finally Election Day! People are going mad on campus/Facebook/Twitter letting everyone know that they have voted and we should all do the same!

I honestly have no idea what the outcome of the presidential race will be. I’m no political expert, but it seems that this could go either way. But I believe that by tonight, we will have a new President of the United States.

I think Romney wins tonight just because most see the lack of “change” Obama promised as a failed term. It’s time for someone else to give it a try. Win a President runs for re-election, we “critique” them based on their past four years in office. By the numbers, they weren't all that great for President Obama. From an article on examiner.com - “U.S. has a +$16.2 trillion deficit and Obama has about a $6 trillion deficit and increasing an average of $3.85 billion debt per day. President Obama promise to cut annual federal budget deficits in half by the end of his term. The unemployment is above 8 % for 44 months, despite the nearly $6 trillion dollar in new Obama's debt.”

Those numbers alone are enough to change the minds of most voters. Although President Obama and his supporters have denied and tried to reason with it, the fact is: they failed.

Governor Romney, on the other hand, does not have the past four years working against him. He can offer the people of the United States a fresh start. And I think that is why he will win tonight. 

The Persuasion of Predictions

Today as I continuously sift through all of the web's 2012 election information, I only find myself more and more undecided as to which presidential candidate is going to win.  One journalist/expert/friend says that Romney has the election without a doubt, but then another says that Obama is for sure going to get reelected.  I have no idea which candidate is actually going to win, but I do know that all of the social networks (journalists/experts/friends) are going to have a huge impact on how people vote.

I stumbled across the article, "What are your election predictions?" on CNN.com throughout which "experts" opinions of the presidential race tweets are discussed.  These so called experts are tweeting their predictions as to whether Romney or Obama will win and I think this is going to greatly affect voters' decisions.  Even though the tweeters aren't providing much evidence as to why one candidate is going to win rather than the other, viewers of these tweets might make their decisions solely based on these tweets.

Also, I think that these tweets might cause some individuals not to vote while giving others more motivation to vote.  For example, if someone planned to vote for Obama, but then sees an experts prediction that Obama is going to win easily then that individual might think "Well, then I guess my vote doesn't really matter" and choose not to vote at all.  In contrast, someone voting for Romney that sees this same prediction might become that much more motivated to get out and vote to be sure that Romney wins instead of Obama.

Twitter is not the only social media that will affect voters' decisions and experts' tweets are not the only ones that will be looked viewed.  Voters will look to friends, celebrities, journalists, peers, etc. and their posts to sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger in order to decide whether they should vote for Obama, Romney, or other presidential candidates.

The only advice I can give is to not believe everything you read, but to view information critically and vote based on how you feel, rather than on what others believe.

The 2008 Enthusiasm Has Gone Missing

The race that everyone cares about is obviously the national election. The campaign advisors for both parties remain upbeat about voter turnout in statements made to CBS.

"Obama senior campaign adviser David Axelrod said the early vote numbers give them assurance that the outcome is going to be good for President Obama. '"[W]e go in with a great advantage,'" 

"Romney campaign adviser Kevin Madden said Republican enthusiasm, which will lead to high voter turnout, on Election Day will trump Democrats' early vote advantage. '"Enthusiasm is really what's going to make the difference tonight,'"

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505263_162-57545584/obama-camp-touts-early-vote-romney-camp-touts-enthusiasm/

According to CNN Obama is leading in the polls with an estimated 237 electoral college votes and Romney with 206. This leaves 95 votes up for grabs across 8 toss up states.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2012/ecalculator#?battleground

None of this information is concrete and anything could potentially change by the end of the night. So here is my take. The 2008 election swept Obama into office because of the enthusiasm he got from young voters. 

The Pew research group wrote this days after the 2008 election, "Among voters ages 18-29, a 19-point gap now separates Democratic party affiliation (45%) and Republican affiliation (26%). In 2000, party affiliation was split nearly evenly among the young.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1031/young-voters-in-the-2008-election


I was 18 in the last election and I could feel the energy that the Obama campaign got from voters in my demographic. but this time around I don't sense that same level of excitement from younger voters. I think that the election will be close but Romney will win in the end. The Obama "Hope and Change" dream has passed and younger voters realize he is just like every other politician.

Impeding Democracy is No Way to Win the Vote

Let’s talk about the Presidential race and what is surely going to happen tonight. This is what gets people fired up so let’s delve in. I don’t doubt that we will be waiting at least through tomorrow to find out which candidate wins this election. Yes, it’s a bold claim to make at this point, but I love a good election so why not prolong it?

Election lawyers have been chomping at the bit for weeks now in anticipation of a recount. Why wouldn’t they be? I just got done voting and the polling place looked like a geriatric’s ward. Great system we have… why not put senior citizens, who have a tough time using their Jitterbugs, in charge of the state’s election process. Chances are likely that there is going to be good reason for lawyers to debate the legitimacy of results.

What’s worse, it isn’t just old people that are out to slow down the election for all of us. Groups like the NAACP have been hard at work promoting “equality” for minority voters. In Houston this group practically ran the polling places while advocating for Obama and hand picking people to move forward in the lines. Now look at the fact that the National Urban League’s annual report showed that equality of African Americans (you know the group that the NAACP advocates on behalf) has fallen 71.5% under the Obama administration. This seems to me an awful lot like race based voting, but I digress. Point is: this benevolent, equality promoting organization is standing in the way of democracy.

Other issues however have to be blamed on that bitch Sandy who ravaged the East coast last week. I feel horrible for the people who, among worrying about food and shelter, have to think about how to find a polling place and get there. I have to suggest that, although Sandy wasn’t registered to cast a vote, she’s a democrat and her first victim was Chris Christie.

So I think it’s going to take a while for final results to actually come in. Big deal. It has happened in other races and I’m certainly not implying that this is going to be a repeat of the 2000 election. Despite my ideology, I will boldly say that Obama is going to win this election. Yes, I hate to say this, and I hope there aren’t any undecided voters who still plan on going to the polls reading, but it’s true.

Up until about a week ago Rasmussen and the Pew Research Center, the two most accurate pollsters of the 2008 election had the candidates at a virtual tie. In the past week both have now shown results of Obama barely taking the lead today.

It’s not over yet but I must say this: To all of you who drank the Obama Kool-Aid, remember there is still nearly 50% of the country that believes we need real change and an end to ridiculous entitlements that are literally going to bankrupt the country. When taxes go up on small businesses that make $250,000, when hostile countries harbor our enemies and don’t take this country seriously and when unemployment still hovers around 8% four years from now we’ll see how close the election is. 

"You figure out how to get there, and you just do it."

       It's election day! Hooray! You know what that means? All of your friends and family will soon stop blowing up your Facebook and Twitter with harsh opinions, political campaigns and all other types of fun stuff that has been cramming up our news-feeds. Now, as somebody who was been following the election I can honestly say that I have no idea or even a slight guess of who is going to win. But that's what i'm not focusing on for this blog. My number one concern this election are the voters who have been affected by Hurricane Sandy. Where will they go? What is the process those people have to go through to vote? Will they even bother is they have a million other things to worry about?
       "Though the region hit by Hurricane Sandy is not expected to be in play in the presidential election, the combination of the storm and heavy morning turnout yielded long lines, confusion, frustration and anger. At several polling sites in New York City the vote scanning machines being used for the first time in a presidential election malfunctioned, forcing workers to resort to paper ballots and slowing the process even more"(TNYT). A man named Randy Harter voted in New Rochelle in Westchester County where he had an awful voting experience. Harter asked an election worker for help filling out his paper ballot and he was told, "Just fill it out." When he was done he inserted his ballot in to the first machine, it jammed. Second machine, jammed. He was eventually given an envelope which meant his vote would then be hand-counted. Harter said the entire voting experience took 45 minutes (TNYT). That is what I find so frustrating about reading these news articles. These people are going out of their way to vote and there are so many complications. At Public School 163, on the Upper West side of Manhattan, hundreds of voters packed into a gym. Voters has to wait in different lines to find out their district, get a ballot, fill it out, and actually get it scanned. The process was reporter to take an hour and there was no help for the disabled (TNYT).
       It is just really unfortunate that this had to happen but like we said in class, nobody prepares for what to do on election day if a hurricane strikes a week before. After reading numerous news articles about how the hurricane affects voters, I am now just interested to see some news coverage of some of those states tonight. 



http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/07/nyregion/long-lines-at-polling-places-as-displaced-residents-find-ways-to-vote.html?pagewanted=all

It's a race too close to call, yet the media calls it anyways

I took a psychology of media course a few years ago in which I learned about media bias, and I found it fascinating. I figured now, with such a close race, would be a better time than ever to look into some sources that have been accused of bias in the past. I made the prediction that media outlets that have been historically accused of being biased will predict the outcome of the election in favor of the party they typically support. Here’s what I found:

HuffingtonPost (liberal) published an article this morning saying that there was a 91.4% chance that Obama was going to win the election.

FoxNews political analyst Bill Kristol (conservative) predicts that a majority of independent voters will vote for Romney today, which will push him enough ahead of Obama to win the election. 

An article by USAToday (liberal) doesn’t explicitly predict that Obama will win, but it does claim that many trustworthy people are predicting the President will win. 

The Wall Street Journal published a column by Karl Rove (conservative) in which he predicted that Romney will win with at least 279 Electoral College votes. 

Yes, this is definitely a close race, but here’s my question: How in the world are we as citizens supposed to be able to know what to believe in this election when this is the kind of garbage being produced by the media?

It's Gonna Be A Long One...

This is the first election day that i have cared about and participated in. In large part this is because of this class. The knowledge i have gained allows me to feel comfortable going out and exercising my right to vote, where as before i did not feel right in doing so if i wasn't an informed, responsible voter. 

I think this race is going to be exceptionally close, and last a long, long time. I predict that it will be similar to the race between Bush and Gore, and can completely see something dramatic happening that will disrupt the vote count. I base this on the way the election has been going, the way it has been going in the recent weeks, and in large part because of Sandy. 

On the national level, i think Obama will win. I see a lot more radical behavior on that side of the election than from Romney's side, especially recently with his excellent performance post Sandy. People who support Romney support Romney, but in my experience lately, people who support Obama, hate everything NOT Obama and have been doing everything in their power to make that known. Ultimately, though, i could see this kind of behavior being either good or bad, as people, especially those who frequent social media, tend to be greatly displeased with the inclusion of politics on their news feeds. 

I also think Obama will win because of something we discussed in class: Image. I think Romney seems less genuine and i have been hearing lately about how a lot of my peers like some of Romney's views, but that something about him throws them off. I think this ties in with image, and how they picture an ideal president. 

Lastly, I think Obama will win because of the activity i have been seeing in political humor lately. On forums such as SNL, there has been a great amount of comedic sketches that not only mock Romney, but take hits at his political behavior and views. I think that, especially in this time where Obama is being seen acting as a great president by responding quickly and efficiently to the victims of Sandy, Romney can't afford to look less presidential. 

Ultimately, i think it's important for people to vote, but not all people. There is always that line that it doesn't matter who you vote for, as long as you vote, and i tend to disagree with that. I think that people should only vote if they have taken the time to inform themselves about the issues and have formed an opinion from that study. If you don't feel comfortable in your knowledge about the things on your ballot, simply don't vote. I don't see anything wrong with that at all, because just as it is your right to get out and submit your vote, it is your right to not vote as well, and that is up to you. 

Long Lines and One Giant Picture of the United States in Rockefeller Center. It's Election Day Alright.

I think this will be one of the longest election days we have seen in American history, especially for voters in Florida. It will also be one of the flashiest. NBC has created a huge outline of the United States at Rockefeller Center in New York City that will light up either blue or red for the candidate that has won the state. Replicas of the white house briefing room and oval office have been stationed nearby where visitors can have their pictures taken. Microsoft realized the potential for huge publicity and set up a caricature station where their new Fresh Paint app will be used to create a picture of visitors alongside Romney or Obama.

As flashy as NBC may make it, this election has been surrounded by controversy as its finale draws near. Early voting in Florida was a major problem and many experts see it as eerily reminiscent of the 2000 election. As of 3:00 p.m, Florida state governor Rick Scott refused to extend voting hours despite the wait extending to six hours. I think this will have a huge impact on the election because many people will be discouraged to vote if they have to wait in lines for so long. Voter turnout in Florida and other key states will be covered heavily by the media.

One of the main reasons people don’t vote in the first place is because they don’t have the time. Florida remains a swing state and every vote counts. It does not help that the normal period of 14 days to vote early was shortened to only 8 by the predominantly Republican state government. Scott refuses to see the problems despite hearing from Democrats, Independents, and even a Republican elections supervisor who all asked that he extend hours.

So as Rockefeller Center is being lit up in red and blue, Floridians, along with probably a lot of voters along the east coast, will be wondering what it would have felt to vote in this election at all.

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/04/florida-early-voting_n_2073119.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49520650/ns/about-press_releases/t/democracy-plaza-takes-over-new-york-city-election-day/

About Tuesday's Election

We are just 1 day away from the election, and its very surprising how quickly the election sneaked up on us. It seems that just a few days we were still in the primaries.

That being said I find election day exciting. I love all the news coverage throughout the day when the  final votes are being tallied and they start filling in the electoral map. What do I think will happen tomorrow on the election day? Well I think for the most part it wills start out going fairly smooth, but we will end up not finding out the final vote till late tuesday, or possibly even wednesday or thursday. I think there is going to be a bunch of problems with states effected by hurricane Sandy. While I'm not fully aware of the extent of the damage done to the states, I am aware that some places got hit quite hard. This certainly has to effect where people have to go to vote, and if people will even want to go out and vote. Even if Sandy didn't have the effect of what Katrina did, there is no way that within in a week we could get everything ready for the election. The Katrina clean-up effort took a tremendous amount of time and man hours, and for states to get ready for the election as if it never happend would be impossible.

So what I think will happen is that people will have somewhere to vote, but the problem I think is going to be voting places being able to communicate there vote and tally their votes correctly without over or undercounting. Communication will be difficult and organization will be fairly lose. I'm not sure exactly how it will play out, but I imagine that there would possibly be some attempts on voting fraud. Since the organization and security will not be as strict because of the affects of the hurricane, people will try to skew the votes in some way to benefit their candidate.

Hopefully we don't get something like the Flordia re-counts, but chances are with the situation we are in right now, there might be something like that.

Robby

What would an election be without a scandal?

     With all the theatrics and tension surrounding the Presidential race, an interesting one has unfolded over the past few months a little closer to home, in Grand Rapids, for the 76th House District seat. In May, State Representative Roy Schmidt, a Republican, decided he wanted to change parties. He had the help of State House Leader Jase Bolger, and between the two of them they devised a plan for Schmidt to switch teams, and to win, by planting a decoy Democrat to run against Schmidt, and allowing him an easy victory.
     By the time the August primaries rolled around, Schmidt had been found out, and everyone knew of his lies. There are even text messages that show just how far he was willing to go. This spurred action from others, like Bing Goei, who decided to run on the Republican ticket at the last second, only as a write-in candidate. He got 47 percent of the vote, narrowly losing to Schmidt. Winnie Brinks, a fierce door-to-door campaigner, successfully got her name on the ballot as the write-in Democratic candidate as well. The ballot is pretty crowded, however, with three other candidates.
     Some staunch supporters may continue to back Schmidt, regardless of his transgressions, but the outcome will be interesting. I think an overall theme has always been that you can't trust politicians, and Schmidt has not done anything to dispel that idea. I's not sure who will win this election, but if I had to guess, I'd say that it won't be Roy Schmidt.

Vote With Your Gut

I'm not a democrat or a republican. As such, I vote for the person I actually believe in. I think people should vote for the person they most closely align with regardless of party. It's safe to say that most people don't agree with everything the democrats or republicans stand for. This may seem redundant when talking to anyone taking this course but it's hard to understate the importance of researching every candidate and what they stand for, aside from what you see on TV.

If everyone voted for the person they actually believe in, I think we would see less gridlock in congress resulting from one party choosing to be belligerent. We could see less backlash on people like Chris Christy who may not agree with President Obama on many issues, but can at least see through party lines and say it when he has done a good job. In an article from USNews.com titled "Is Chris Christie a GOP Traitor for His Obama Hurricane Praise?", writer Theresa Welsh shows the discussion among the republican party of shunning Christie and the ulterior motives he must hold for recognizing and appreciating what Obama has done throughout the crisis. Further, Rush Limbaugh calls Christie a fool who doesn't know what he's talking about. In my opinion, Christie was doing his job. He was working to help his state and Obama was there working with him.

In the end, having more representatives who better represent the people, who come from more than two political parties, would only help. With more recognized and respected parties we would see less political game playing. With that in mind, I think it's important for voters to support the person who they really believe. Why would I vote for one person when I thought there was someone else running that could do a better job?