Week Two, Election Post

At the state level, I feel like public health would probably on of the important issues, but I don’t know too much about it. The most important issue to me for the 2008 election at a national level is economy. Over the last couple of weeks, the stock market has been doing very poorly. Yesterday, September 28, 2008, the Dow Industrials dropped 778 points because of Congress rejecting the $700 billion bailout bill, the biggest drop in a single day (ever). That is $1.2 trillion loss for Wall Street, and Republican John McCain is already taking some heat for it. Senator Barack Obama is taking advantage of this slowing economy to boost his presidential campaign, promising immediate “absolutely necessary” tax cuts to help out his beloved middle-class. McCain also vaguely promises relief for Americans, but the economic crisis is not doing much good for his campaign.

Looking at Friday’s debate at Oxford, Mississippi, no true winner could be picked out from the two candidates. The topic was supposed to be foreign policy, but the candidates kept coming back to the economy at least for the beginning half of the debate. The usual attacks such as Obama not having enough experience or McCain connected to President Bush were hurled at the opponents. McCain, who avoided making eye contact, criticized Obama for not supporting the surge to Iraq and Obama, who often referred to McCain as “John”, said that McCain was wrong about the war from the beginning. Even after all this insulting, both candidates did okay. The media, of course, did its dissection and analysis of the debate. Some face analyst said that Obama would truly smile from the heart while McCain gave a sly, evil grin. I’m sure there’s bias woven into the media, but it always does a good job bringing issues like the economy to discussion and debate.

Vice Presidential nominees, Republican Sarah Palin and Democratic Joe Biden, are scheduled to debate on October 2nd (this Thursday). Palin hasn’t been doing very well in recent interviews and so preparation is advisable. Biden will probably have to be cautious about what he will say to Palin because he can be accused of being sexist if he’s too hard on her. Biden will surely be aggressive though on the issue of the economy, once again, the Republican soft spot. But we’ll have to see what really goes down!

Current Event #1: Falling Economy and $85 Billion Dollar Bailout

Last week, Wall Street dropped huge, three-digit numbers, triggering the collapse of companies nationwide including the nation’s largest insurance company, the American International Group (AIG). The Bush administration decided to take control of AIG with a $85 billion loan, hoping to stabilize Wall Street. Republican presidential candidate, John McCain, reacted by saying that it was time to end “’reckless conduct, corruption unbridled greed’ on Wall Street,” according to an article from the Washington Post (“McCain Embraces Regulation After Many Years of Opposition”). In the past years, McCain and other Republicans have supported deregulation of big businesses claiming that it would promote economic growth. He supported bills such as the Leach-Bliley Act of the late 1990’s that would remove walls that were created during the Depression for banking, investment, and insurance companies. As of last week, McCain has changed his position to regulation (opening up their books and accounts) of these businesses, making sure anything like this would ever happen again. Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate, attacked McCain by stating that McCain had no idea what was wrong with the economy and wouldn’t know how to fix it. Both candidates proposed vague solutions along the lines of enhancing the tumbling economy and protecting the people of America.

Republican John McCain announced on Wednesday, September 24th that he would be suspending his presidential campaign temporarily to work on the Wall Street bailout bill (he would meet with President Bush on Thursday, September 25). In addition to this, McCain also asked to postpone the debate that is scheduled to occur tomorrow with Democrat Barack Obama. Obama basically said that a president should be able to deal with the economy AND campaign at the same time. McCain, a “patriot” as some refer to him, feels that the country should come first.
Democrats are definitely going to have an advantage by bringing up the failures of the Bush administration and McCain’s new decision plus his campaign suspension. Many of the undecided voters are also probably going to look at McCain’s and Obama’s responses and proposals where economy may be the main concern. Americans need protection from the economic crisis. Wall Street’s plummeting even today. The global economy is feeling the affect of the economic crisis and America’s really going to have to step it up, whether it means more regulation of the big businesses or some sort of stimulus plan.

Week 1, Election Post

This is long, sorry. :\

My political viewpoints, I believe, don’t lean toward a certain political party. I’m split even: I’m for equal representation, free trade, and universal healthcare, but I oppose abortion & gay marriage. I favor national and military spending and off-shore drilling, but then I feel like environment and global warming are huge concerns. Illegal immigration is another issue that should be dealt with, but immigration should not be discouraged. The war in Iraq, I’m also against, but America should at least fix things up now that its there so no other country can say that America went into Iraq and just made things worse. Therefore, I wouldn’t label myself a Democrat or a Republican. I have respect for both parties and their views. My family, however, is a democratic middle class family, though. So I suppose I could be labeled as a Democrat and a supporter of Obama. The main reason would be because of the fact that he’s willing to represent the common people and because of the tax relief he promises for the middle-class, which I think would really help many Americans over the nation.

When looking at the viewpoints of both candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, surprisingly there are a couple similarities apart from the difference, which definitely shows that those issues are being pressured to be changed or handled.

Energy:
Both candidates plan to lower greenhouse gas emotions (Obama 80% by 2050). Both would like clean alternative sources of energy where Obama will like 10% of all energy by 2012 to by renewable energy. However, McCain will expand domestic oil exploration (off-shore drilling) whereas Obama would like to save more oil. McCain wants cars to have cleaner fuel and greater fuel efficiency to the hybrid cars Obama wants to get out in America.

Iraq:
John McCain would like to keep troops in Iraq but using a counterinsurgency strategy. Barack Obama plans a “responsible removal” of troops, but still have troops to counter-terrorism (no permanent bases though). Both would like to stabilize the Iraqi government so that it can continue to expand and progress.

Gay Marriage:
McCain endorses efforts to ban gay marriage. Obama says no to gay marriages, but okay to civil unions.

Economy:
Obama and McCain are willing to support small businesses and provide relief for families through tax cuts and fairer taxes. Obama would like to create more fair trade, and McCain will lower barriers to trade. McCain favors government reform and workplace flexibility, while Obama would like to create and save jobs (by spending $50 billion). Barack Obama also will establish universal mortage credit to help with the bank and housing conflict.

Iran:
In the both foreign policies, the presidential nominees are going to pressurize Iran to change it’s behavior. Obama provides a choice: leave the nuclear program and terrorism or face economic consequences and political isolation. McCain supports troops in Iran in order to strengthen the military morale of the region.

Early this week, Hurricane Ike ravaged the Texas Gulf Coast, leaving thousands homeless and heading for Red Cross shelters. I remember having to evacuate for Hurricane Rita back in 2005, and evacuation is not as easy as it sounds. Gas was no where to be found (Houston, Texas is facing a similar state once again because of Hurricane Ike) and, instead of a half an hour or so, it took three to four hours just to get off of one highway to get to another because of traffic . Hurricane Rita ended up turning away from the Houston region at the last minute, which is probably another reason why some people decided not to evacuate. Realizing how much damage was done, McCain and Obama put away their rivalries to recognize and pray for the victims of Ike. Sarah Palin, McCain’s VP choice, talked about giving money back to the people by offering tax relief. While visiting Texas, Obama reached out to the victims by reassuring them that relief was on the way and encouraging people all over the nation to help raise funds for efforts.

The treacherous, scorching war for the presidency between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama persists as the two and their VP’s clash against each other with cruel slander and controversies.

Till next week!

this is not very important...

...but this is my first blog ever!
how exciting!
well, not really.