Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Community Blog
Three extremely important issues in the current 2008 elections are the economy, the military and the issue of race and gender. For the first time in US history, a black man and a white woman are fore runners in the presidential and vice presidential race. The economic plans of Barrak Obama and John McCain must be considered when voting, just as military background and military plans should be as well. Interestingly enough, even though McCain has more military experience, “U.S. soldiers have donated more presidential campaign money to Democrat Barack Obama than to Republican John McCain” states USA Today. USA Today also reveals that “troops serving abroad have given nearly six times as much money to Obama's presidential campaign as they have to McCain's.” (Comment Section)
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The New York Times has been reporting since last week that the United States economy is front-and-center in the 2008 elections. Both Republican and Democratic parties have supported the recent halt of the presidential debates. John McCain is “directing [his] campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the Commission on Presidential Debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis. Additionally, Barack Obama thinks, “this is exactly the time when the American people need to hear from the person who, in approximately 40 days, will be responsible for dealing with this mess.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26bush.html?hp
Actually only Senator McCain and the Republicans believe that the debate should be postponed, not halted. The Democrats want the debate to go off as planned. Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, who is leading House Democrats in negotiating the bailout deal, even hinted that Senator McCain is afraid: “It’s the longest Hail Mary pass in the history of either football or Marys.” (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/us/politics/25mccain.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)
The two candidates, however, are working together to address the economic crisis. They met today with President Bush to try and hammer out an economic plan. No agreement was reached, though Senator Obama believes one will be reached soon, but that there is more work to be done. There “has to be a sense of urgency on the part of everybody. … We've got to move rapidly.” (See above article)
CNN online quotes Obama saying, “I am not opposed to all wars; I am opposed to dumb wars.” Somebody who uses the word “dumb” to describe a serious international battle that has lasted longer than WWII does not echo the ideal. What’s keeping Obama from resolving a “dumb” war in a dumb manner? However, why a majority of the soldiers are giving money to Obama, outdoing McCain with a ratio of 6:1, can be explained. Ret. Kernel William Hill, a devout democrat and veteran says, “Active Duty Forces, those who have been to Iraq and Afghanistan many times, have seen all the fruitlessness of this war, and because they are fighting and seeing no results, they say, ‘we are the ones who least want to go to war because we have to fight it.’ The problem with McCain is that he’s speaking through both sides of his mouth, he says great things about the militants, but he has a long history of voting against healthcare, providing training, and equipping soldiers with proper equipment...”
If the soldiers fighting the war no longer believe in it, then I see no reason for them to fight. Moving to the issue of race and gender, I think we just address the inherent bias we face in this particular election. In many parts of the country, racism runs rampant and sexism is still an issue as well. The question is which “ism” will win out? Either way, there is going to be either a black man or a white woman in the White House. The Washington Post notes that Palin said “Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest glass ceiling in America…the women of America aren’t finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.” But is it really the hardest glass ceiling or is racism harder?
Focusing on the economy…today’s New York Times stated, “The talks broke up in angry recriminations” and “were followed by dueling press conferences.” What it sounds like to me is that there has been some kind of agreement reached, but it seems as though the political issues regarding the McCain and Obama Campaigns interrupted the talks. Obama said, “When you inject presidential politics into delicate negotiations, it’s not necessarily as helpful as it needs to be.”
Personally, it’s pretty disappointing that the two candidates for our presidency can’t work together as just plain Americans. I wonder what would happen if there was an actual crisis.
“But is it really the hardest glass ceiling or is racism harder?”
Personally, I don’t think that one glass ceiling is harder than the other. I think they’re equally obtrusive and will be equally hard to overcome. It’s unfortunate, but “we live in a culture that has historically been deeply racist and sexist. There have been huge changes since the civil rights and feminist movements, but there are residuals” (Estelle Freedman, professor of U.S. history at Stanford University). These residuals include Governor Palin's image being plastered on suggestive action figures, risqué T-shirts and pornography on the Internet as well as a life-size cardboard effigy of Obama that was found suspended from a tree branch at a small Christian university in Oregon. As Professor Freedman put it, “It would be unrealistic to say that any of us has no racist or sexist impulses. I would hope the question of this campaign would be how do we address it?”
(http://www.examiner.com/a-1604633~Charges_of_sexism__racism_fly_in_presidential_race.html)
As a side note, something I found interesting is that another "ism", ageism, may play a large factor in this election as well. According to a Harris poll conducted last month, more people (36%) say that it would be a bad thing if someone over 70 were elected president than it would if an African-American (11%) or a woman (12%) were elected.
(http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/ageism-may-bigger-barrier-presidential/story.aspx?guid={EF579E9A-CC43-46F0-BF92-E2A97144D905}&dist=hppr)
Concerning the economy, president John McCain suspended his campaign Friday, with Barack Obama with motive to contribute to the crisis. While many democrats, including Joe Biden, according to CNN, believe that McCain’s decision was made in a desperate attempt to find “a distraction,” I cannot help but believe that senator McCain only desires the best for this country. Was he not such an accomplished debater, who can easily answer the resilient questions, we might have means to believe he is finding an excuse to duck out of the debate. However, the economic crises is such a big deal in America that McCain knows there is potentially something he can do to subsist America from falling into an economic and social black hole. CNN reports his plan is to “push what [McCain] sees as ‘fundamental improvements’ to the legislation” in Washington.
The presidential debate was on Friday evening, but I unfortunately missed it. Did anyone else catch it? I did tune in near the end where they evaluated the candidates debating skills, and it sounds to me that they were both very professional about them. I especially believe that professionalism is the way to go for both McCain and Obama—I’m also glad that neither of them got hung up on the state of the economy, because that would’ve taken the debates into overtime.
Additionally, the deadline to register is coming up in most states. I’m registered Republican, but I’m not entire sure I want to be…I was thinking about going Independent. Unfortunately, I haven’t done my homework in regards to the Independent Party, so I suppose I’ll stay Republican for now.
I didn't get to watch all of the debate, but I did watch some of it with my family. It's interesting that you say you're "glad they didn't get hung up on the state of the economy" because prior to the debate I had actually heard that much of the focus would be on the economy after what had transpired in the days leading up to it.
I spoke with Catharine Whyte, Financial Manager of Poma (a petroleum distributing company) and former CFO of Coke. We talked about both the country’s current financial crisis as well as how she felt about what the candidates were doing about it. She told me that after watching the debates, she was discouraged by both candidates and their plan for the economy: “When Jim Lehrer asked the candidates their position on the bailout, neither one answered directly. McCain and Obama danced around the question instead of answering it directly. The fact is that neither of them know the answer because there isn’t enough information on which to make a decision.”
In a time where the economy is so bad and, as Ms. Whyte said, the “perception of the value of the dollar is deteriorating,” I think it’s frightening that not even the people who should know what to do to fix the problem don’t know!
In regards to ageism, it is difficult for me to see McCain as a valid presidential candidate because he is so much older than me. I believe this country needs a change and I don't know whether he is young enough to bring us into the future. Biola sophomore Leanne Springer said “Regarding his age, it would be hard to vote for him. I think there should be an age limit to how old you should be to run for president.” I did not catch the debates but “Barack Obama leads John McCain, 50% to 42% among registered voters in the latest Gallup Poll Daily tracking update for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday”, according to AOL News. I have always been impressed by Obama’s speeches and I definitely think America is responding to that.
No matter who is elected, there will some type of discrimination. Whether it be Obama's race, Palin's sex, or McCain's age. Times are completely and utterly different than they’ve always been, as it is obvious this election is swaying from the norm. I believe this is a change that America will be ready for very soon, but has not braced itself for quite yet. Until now I was not very concerned with the idea that Senator McCain has a disadvantage because of his advanced years. It’s only crossed my mind in jokes and satires. Usually, the response to the mentioned age dilemma is, “as long as he chooses an experienced VP, we’re in good shape.” I personally don’t expect McCain to die in the next four years, but his candidate for Vice President is a WOMAN. Now I’m not discriminating. Palin has done an OK job at presenting herself in a manner that is bold and adept, that is, until she began answering questions. But that’s a different subject. I personally believe that although McCain comes from a different era, with different stances on how society should be, because he is older, he has experienced so much more than Obama, and more than the middle-aged and young society as a whole. He knows what’s going on because he’s been through it. No matter who is elected, what we will experience in regards to those in the White House, will be a change that children have dreamt of for centuries. “What will it be like to have a colored man as president?” “If a woman can do it, I can do it!” We must learn to lean away from the social discrimination that is prevalent in the United States. Because no matter who is in charge, that person is still as American and United as any other citizen. And if voted into presidency, they are obviously thought of by the majority as experienced enough as well.
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