Finishing the Research Page -- Friday, September 19

Today we continued to work on the research page. For Monday, please make sure that you have finished this page. Refer to yesterday's blog entry bullets regarding the specific items that should be addressed in this page.

Looking for Trouble? Uh.... No, Just Looking for a Problem - Thursday, September, 18

Today you took time to research the background to your problem or question that will form the basis of your historical study concerning the presidential election. Regardless of which question you are considering, please ensure that in the research section of your study you are addressing the following issues:

• define bias clearly and as fully as possible -- put it in the context of media bias in presidential elections
• in as many ways as you can, identify measurable ways in which bias can be identified

Doing a comprehensive job on the above items will help to build a solid foundation from which you can generate a good model for your study.

Going Ballistic with Testing, Researching Background to Your Study, and a Summary of the Candidates - Wednesday, September 17

Today we discussed some details regarding the Wednesday, September 24 test. I mentioned to you that it would take the form of a long answer test. These test questions would attempt to make use of some of the issues we have dealt with heretofore in a broad context, allowing you to make use of specific historical material the you have been exposed to advance a particular position or argument.

We will discuss this more on Thursday, but for now I thought I would include a few examples of the type of questions you could see on the test.

1.Would you say that the article about historical bias at the Alamo site was written with a conservative or liberal bias? Justify your position.

2.Use three historical events that we have covered so far as evidence of what constitutes the essence of the American character. Specifically explain why you picked the examples you did.

3.Does the American system of elections and terms of service benefit the nation? Explain with specific examples.

Hopefully, this will help you to understand what the test will be like. What you know is important, but how you are able to use and apply what you know is most critical. Feel free to ask any questions that you might have about the test on Thursday.

Otherwise, we will be using the class as an opportunity for you to read and learn more about the background to the problem or question that you are going to be building a study around. I will be looking to help you fine tune your model, but for right now the focus is on learning about your research problem.

Now that we have heard all the presentations regarding the candidates, I thought I would provide a brief overview for your convenience.

Democratic Presidential Nominee Barack Obama

Political Background:

• Illinois Senator since 2004
• also served in the state senate
• worked as a community organizer and civil rights lawyer

Positives:

• exceptional and charismatic public speaker
• has positioned himself as different from other politicians and "business as usual"
• survived a tough primary fight with the formidable and favored Hillary Clinton
• is seen as being in tune with the economic woes which the US is presently experiencing

Negatives:

• can be viewed as arrogant and presumptuous (trip to Europe, speech at Mile High)
• lacks any executive or foreign policy experience
• brief senate career largely undistinguished

Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Joe Biden

Political Background:

• Delaware Senator for 35 years
• Chair of Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• Past Chair of Senate Judiciary Committee

Positives:

• balances Obama's lack of foreign policy experience
• has several documented legislative achievements, particularly on crime legislation

Negatives:

• also lacks executive experience
• was force to withdraw from presidential race in 1988 due to allegedly plagiarizing a speech
• can be seen as a "politics as usual" candidate

Republican Presidential Nominee John McCain

Political Background:

• member of House of Representatives for Arizona 83-87
• Arizona Senator since 1987

Positives:

• has a history of being a political maverick (seen as not being ruled by party ideology)
• his military record and sacrifice gives Americans confidence that he is qualified to make the tough decisions as president
• in a wartime atmosphere, his political and military background give him an edge over Obama

Negatives:

• can be viewed as a "loose cannon" rather than independent minded
• may be considered "too old" or "out of touch"
• traditional Republican voters are not excited about him and may choose not to vote

Republican Vice Presidential Nominee Sara Palin

Political Background:

• Governor of Alaska (2006)
• past mayor and councillor of Wasilla, Alaska

Positives:

• reinforces McCain's reputation as a change agent and maverick, as she herself has faced down the establishment of her own party
• the only candidate with executive experience
• a fiery public speaker who is seen as largely responsible for energizing the McCain campaign
• brings traditional Republicans back into the fold because she is seen as championing many of their causes

Negatives:

• may be seen as a hypocrite for advocating socially conservative ideals while she pursues a time consuming and powerful career with five children at home and other family issues
• can be viewed as too strident -- Do Americans want a "pit bull with lipstick" a heartbeat away from the Oval Office?
• while she has executive experience, it is limited and otherwise she may be considered too young and unprepared

Testing for Bias and Just Plain Ol' Testing - Tuesday, September 16

Research Study:

You are about to undertake a study of media bias during the presidential election campaign. Your task will be to answer one of the following questions:

Is there a bias evident in the coverage of the presidential election?
(longitudinal)

Does media bias influence people's perceptions with respect to the presidential election?

Which media outlet offers the fairest, most balanced coverage of the presidential election?

You are to develop your study using the scientific method.

Your experimental model must include the following components:

• research
• hypothesis
• variables
• procedure
• results
• observation
• conclusions

Before class on Wednesday, consider which question you are interested in and think about the issues you need to learn about to study that question.

Starting next class, I will work with you to help you through the process of developing your model.

Another matter that we have to address is the need for us to have our first test. The test will be include all blog content up to Friday, September 19. The date of the test will be Wednesday, September 24.

How Long Does it Take to Pick a President Anyways? Monday, September 15

Today we listened to the presentation covering how the parties select their presidential nominees. The following is a summary of the material discussed:

• The race for president is time consuming and costly. Candidates generally plan for years prior to the actual election date, which comes on a regular 4 year cycle.
• A full 2 years prior to the election, exploratory committees are formed to test the candidate's popularity, assemble a campaign team, and raise the money to build the campaign war chest.
• The parties choose their candidates by holding elections called primaries and caucuses across the country. The first ones are the Iowa Causus and the New Hampshire primary, which take place in January of the election year, long before the November election.
• A primary is a secret ballot election. A caucus is a meeting where people publicly declare their support of a candidate by appearing at a meeting location and standing in a particular part of the room which denotes support of the candidate of their choice.
• In early February, Super Tuesday takes place. This is the most important date in the primary calendar, as multiple states hold their primary on this day. In 2008, 24 states were included on Super Tuesday representing 52% of Democratic party delegates and 41% of Republican delegates.
• As the primaries continue towards the national conventions usually held in late August or early September, the delegate counts add up for each candidate with the hope that one candidate has enough delegates to win the nomination outright. This is then confirmed at the convention where the ticket is completed by formally nominating both the presidential candidate and the vice-presidential candidate. Speeches are made in front of a national audience with the hope that they will be viewed favorably in the country and get a "bump" in the polls, energizing their base of loyal supporters to hit the campaign trail from September up to the election in November.
• The Democratic and Republican parties use different methods for determining how many delegates are awarded to, or "pledged" to vote for the various candidates at their national conventions.
• Democrats use a proportional method. Each candidate is awarded a number of delegates in proportion to their support in the state caucuses or the number of primary votes they won. For example, consider a state with 20 delegates at a democratic convention with three candidates. If candidate "A" received 70% of all caucus and primary votes, candidate "B" 20% and candidate "C" 10%, candidate "A" would get 14 delegates, candidate "B" would get 4 delegates and candidate "C" would get 2 delegates.
• In the Republican Party, each state chooses either the proportional method or a "winner-take-all" method of awarding delegates. Under the winner-take-all method, the candidate getting the most votes from a state's caucus or primary, gets all of that state's delegates at the national convention.
• The primaries are good "practice" for the party "teams" where they get to test their ability to organize, get out their voters, put out their campaign message, and react to the attacks of other candidates. Strong primary races can help a candidate who wins prepare themselves for the rough and tumble of a national campaign in the fall. However, overly bitter contests between two competitive candidates can fracture the party and lead to disunity and a failed election run.

We briefly looked at John McCain as a candidate and will continue with the other candidates next class.

As well, we looked at the electoral college system and how it works.

Read the following link for a review of the electoral college system.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/thepoliticalsystem/a/electcollege.htm