Press Conference

I see a map of all the states and which candidate is winning in that state, red if McCain is winning and blue if Obama is winning there and gray if its an undecided state. I noticed that Obama is winning is most of the major states like California and New York, while McCain is winning in less major states. I also see a pie graph with what people think the most important issues are. The economy, the war in Iraq and health care are the most important to most people.

I think that Brain Moore would not be satisfied because he is not that well known in the election. They do not mention him in anything. Why aren’t the socialist known that well? Before I did this project I did not even know who he was. I would feel bad if he spent a lot of money on his campaign.

I think that Brain Moore would think that the results for the election would be okay because Obama and Brain Moore have somewhat of the same stance on their issues.

Debate 2

The most interesting part about this debate was when we had the candidates ask the other candidates to clarify their statements. I thought that Cynthia McKinney and Bob Barr were asked to clarify many things. Such as their plan for Afghanistan, should we send troops or not. It seemed a lot more competitive to me because the candidates seemed to point fingers a lot more, and address a lot of the negative qualities of the issues of others.

We need to concentrate on fair trade not free trade.”
-Nader
I agree with this because free trade is not that great because the government will impose higher taxes and quotas to import goods from other countries.
Fair trade lets makers of goods import and sell their products with higher profits.
Fair trade is good because that gives the maker the opportunity to import their product around the world, and sell it for a higher profit. Other wise the maker would have to sell it in its country if origin where the profit wouldn’t be as great.

“We believe that immigrants are people too like Brain Moore said, but as for Mr. McCain he wants to put stricter laws.”
-Obama
I agree with Obama and Brain Moore that immigrants are people, they are just like you and I trying to find better for themselves and their families. I don’t think that putting stricter laws will make that much of a difference people are pretty determined. I don’t see why immigration is such a problem we go into their land why can’t they do the same.
For example what Mrs. McKinney said “To open the border, how can we say we are a great country when we are keeping and kicking people out.”
It is discriminating. Their must be a reason why they are leaving poverty, war etc. Like Nader said “We need to get down to the root of the problem why they are fleeing the country.” There has to be a reason. I don’t think that it is fair. Just think about it, who are the ones are doing jobs such as picking fruit, land scaping, house keepers, and cooks. Then people get mad because immigrants are taking their jobs but none of them want to do those jobs because of poor pay or just flat out don’t want to do them.

“Bush sent us into a war that his father started. We are wasting so much money on it.”
-Obama
I did not know that, but now that I do know he started the Desert Storm War to catch Sadam Husain. The dessert storm War started when Iraq invaded Kuwait a rich oil country. President Bush senior ordered our U.S. troops to help Kuwait fight Iraq. I guess the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. If we are spending too much money on it why haven’t we done anything about it? Why haven’t we taken the troops out or impeach the president if he was being too stupid and using it for his benefit.

Debate!

I think that the best moment of the debate would have to be the issue on gay marriage. Talking about this issue it seemed like McCain was being put down most of the time because he is against it. Each candidate voiced their opinion very well about the topic. When it was time for asking questions to the candidates McCain got asked a question that surprised me and that I was interested in. “You talk about having strong family values for a homosexual family would you consider them having weak family values.” I thought that McCain was being put on the spot there for a while.

Quote
“The most important thing is our children. Focus on teaching our children.”
Nader
This quote was covering the topic about education. I do think that the most important thing is children and teaching them to become successful. When we grow old those children are going to be the ones to take care of us. It is scary but it is the truth. That is why we need to come up with more funds for education.

Quote
“Let’s keep the definition of marriage in the dictionary.”
Obama
I like this quote because you shouldn’t stop someone from being together because they are the same sex. I don’t think that you can help the way you feel about some. For example a reading we read in class “What makes people gay.” I think another candidate referred to this in the debate, well what is it nurture or nature. Are you biologically born gay or, was it how you were raised, the environment you grew up in. Would people treat you different if you were born gay?
Why should it matter to another person who you want to be with? I think that Obama summed it up pretty well in this quote.

Press Conference Release

Schools fault because the school is not keeping track of the kids that are going to school. Schools get money for kids attending school and since kids are not going they are not getting any money coming from the government. Schools aren’t good schools so maybe their parents don’t want to send them there. Health issues because some parents can’t afford health care because kids sick and can’t afford to get treated.

Get better teachers, award teachers with merit pay for working in low income areas. By increasing funding for schools that need them more.

Focus more on academics other than internet, video games and television. Provide universal health care for everyone.

Our candidate is better because our health care plan is better than others, health is a main problem. Brain Moore has had experience he has worked for the HMO(Health Maintenance Organization) for 20 years as an Executive Director, Project Administrator, and Consultant. Consultant. Brian has been involved in Community development, reconstruction, and infrastructure rehabilitation projects (water, housing, electricity and sewage) in countries like Panama, Peru, and Ecuador. For more than five years Brian Moore designed a program for public health care in Latin America.

Campaign fundraising simulation

For this activity we had two candidates each candidate had a party, the Nation Party and the American Party. Other students were small businesses or organizations. Each candidate had to listen and negotiate between each of the groups. Each group either had money, votes or money. The candidates had to choose which laws and they wanted to pass. If the groups agreed with the candidates terms they either gave them money or votes.

What I learned from this is that you can’t just have votes you also need money for your campaign and to buy votes. I learned that when you are the candidate the pressure is on you to choose what you think is best what you think will get you elected and what you think is good for everyone. Of course not everyone is going to agree with you but you try to see what is more appealing to the most amounts of people. From my experience with this activity it was hard because people were shouting at you from every direction telling you that if you pass these laws all give you this amount of votes, or this amount of money. Sometimes if they didn’t like what you told them or if you told them that you would think about it they would move on to the next person.

This system impacts our government because it’s how we chose our president. When they campaign they show us what they care about and what they have to offer us. These businesses and small groups help them out with money and votes in order to do that especially money because with that money they can put ads out to the public and buy votes.
A con about this system is that the smaller groups that don’t have much to offer don’t get themselves heard, as for the ones that have more to offer. I think that all the candidates what is to become the next president just to make changes of their own because we don’t know if what they say is going to be the truth they can go back on their word for all we know.
A pro about this is that we do get to know what our candidate is supporting by their campaigning, advertisement etc.

Presidential Debate

I don’t think that there was a winner because niether Obama nor McCain answered the question, niether one seemed passionate or anger toward the economic crisis.

Both candidates outlined their agenda if they were to be voted president, such as health care, economy and war. Obama talks about Americans being in the worst financial crisis since the great depression. He mentions that we should have a rescue package and that tax payers should be getting their money back and treated as investors. Obama also talks about the middle class also having a rescue package, which would mean cutting taxes and helping home owners, keep their homes. He talks about fixing health care and the energy system that is putting a burden on families.
McCain talks about energy independence, that we should stop sending about 700billion dollars to countries that don’t even like as very much. That we have to stop spending money because we are in a 10trillion dollar debt and about 500billion of that we own to China. McCain also talks about not raising taxes on anyone that they should stay low. He wants to have a package that brings peace in the world.

What surprised me most about the debate was how the candidates kept pointing fingers at each other. That the candidates were not arguing back and forth it was pretty much contained. You could tell that they wanted to correct what the other was saying or follow up but they were close on time.