Romney vs FOX

A major part of our presidential process in this modern age is through the media. Tons of people, even classmates of mine, blame the media for influencing us in certain ways- making the president look insufficient or overzealous at times. However, that is their job. The media is suppose to inform and influence us. Everyone knows that certain television networks take certain sides on politics, and some people think that they shouldn’t do that.

My specific advice to those who think that the news is too opinionated: if you really feel that way about the news and media centers, I certainly hope that you watch C-Span. I can’t tell you how many people are FOX haters, but watch MSNBC, and those who watch FOX but despise MSNBC. I call you fools for anyone who makes such a criticism and doesn’t regulate it when they don’t criticize it.

When it comes down to it, the media influences the way we think and feel about anything they broadcast- especially Presidents. Television provides us a direct link to the President. Let’s face it, I’ve never received a Christmas Card from the White House, or even a personal letter in the mailbox explaining why the economy is the way it is from the President’s office. We need the television to get a sense of a presidential candidate’s personality, political views, and campaign promises. We depend on it.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney was rarely seen on television prior to a recent interview by Bret Baier with FOX News this last week. Unlike Cain who couldn’t keep his face off the news, Romney has been relatively quiet off the set of the Primary debates in the fall. This interview almost felt like a ‘behind the scenes’ or ‘backstage’ interview.

The interview has become popular now not because of Romney, but because of the situation that came about during the interview. The interview was very different than what you’d expect from a ‘conservative media affiliate’ interviewing someone they would potentially endorse if Romney wins the Primary. Romney talked back to Baier about “getting his facts right” throughout the interview as Baier questioned Romney persistently on his inconsistency on his policies. Specifically, Romney stumbled over what to do with the 11 million illegal immigrants.

Baier went as far as to reveal after the broadcast was released that Romney approached him after the interview was conducted, saying that he didn’t like Baier’s interview.

I, in some ways, sympathize with Romney . For one, Baier spent a lot of time asking Romney some very insensitive and, frankly, offensive questions. Baier went as far as to ask Romney if he thinks Gingrich would beat Obama out of the White House. …too soon…. That’s like asking a semi-finalist Boxer if his opponent would be able to take down the Heavy Weight Champion of the world. And to Romney’s credit, though he stumbled, he kept a path of communication on issues that he could answer.

I found the whole situation very confusing since it is so late in the game for initial interviews to be conducted it feels like. Romney’s clearly setting an image of himself as the only “economist” in the Primary race, but at the expense of his other policies and weak points being broken down and attacked by the media.

"Cain, Cain, Go Away. Come Again Another Daaayyyy"

After all the accusation, after all the drama, after all the petty little complaints and finger pointing, we are finally able to witness Mr. Cain step down from his GOP campaign for Presidency. Cain has been all the talk recently as he has been accused of sexual misconduct and harassment, and criticized on his economic and immigration plans, and now we are treated to a little bit of silence from his team and the media.

Herman Cain’s attention originated from his own vernacular. I personally thing the funniest thing he said was in an interview in the early fall, saying that he was looking to avoid any “sneak-a-taxes” on the American tax payer, which was then tied all into his 9-9-9 plan. His 9-9-9 plan was the forefront of his campaign pledge and stance. He continually defended the plan, and received a lot of criticism and inquiry from people as he continued to support his plan. The attention was lost on his main plan when he struggled to be as specific with any other issue during the debates in the late fall and early winter.

What is left now are two things- The remember and humor gags of Cain’s campaign is the first. But more importantly, HIS VOTERS are now up for grabs by the other GOP candidates. New Hampshire is coming up in a few months, meaning that the time to gain supporters is NOW. The other Republican candidates are fishing for Cain’s supporters in order to secure a fair chance, and they hope to do so by upsetting the Romney and Gingrich campaigns, who have over the last few weeks have influenced their way to the top of the polls of the Republican race for a Primary winner.

The underdogs, or…just dogs, of this campaign are Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul, and that other guy… I mean Rick Santorum, and hoping to snack Cain supporters despite their own low percentage rates in the race. The one way I can see this happening is because Cain was a supporter of small government, and hoping the Tea Party supporters would lean toward the Bachmann campaign for her notoriety in it.

What challenges me with the results of Cain’s abandonment of the Primary race is how much energy we focus on him…and for what? A friend of mine refrains from political race talk because he claim’s “it’s too early for anything to matter.” In some ways, yes I agree with him. There is no certain outcome for any of the candidates. After all, the three months of media attention that Cain has received is now irrelevant and will be forgotten about in 2 months. Yet, it is not too early in some ways, for his supporters now have a very difficult task to undertake: they must re-adjust their views to someone else. Refer back to a post I published I think it was last week: our beliefs and ideals make a hollow hold for someone to fit into- a candidate can’t fit the mold perfectly, so we must chose who fits it best. In the next week it will be interesting to see where they readjust and to whom.

(Bonus points for anyone who can write the next line to the Song that is featured in the title of this post!)

Bad Lip Sync

This is quite funny- just a little humor for your Thanksgiving week. If you mute Rick Perry speaking, and try to read his lips, supposidely, this is what it looks like he is saying. Enjoy!

Low Balling Our Priorities

I was walking out of my building with a friend of mine and we were discussing the recent events surrounding the Occupy Wall Street movement. I expressed my own personal views on the matter, and she in turn immediately asked if I was a conservative or a liberal.

Doesn’t that bother you too? What does my views on a movement have anything to do with my political identity.

I’ve decided that we now live in a world known as the “File Cabinet” World. Our society as freaked itself out so much to the point where we need to know where everything goes- we need to know what everything is, how it works, and where we ourselves fit into everything. People like a sense of identity with an opinion, and to know that there are other people who share that opinion. …Is it just me, or does that sound limiting?

With the Republican primaries well on their way, the American public looks on to see which candidates express the ideals and values that are shared with the voter themselves. This is such a controlled environment of forming opinions: we are seriously restricted by the 2 party system.

With the 2 party system, we tend to vote for the candidate that best fits our wardrobe based on our own values and beliefs. But even more so, we need to shrink our ideas to FIT our CANDIDATE. It’s a shame that sometimes we have to cut down our wants and needs to fit a candidate. Suppose a conservative voter also believes in pro-choice, in our present system, that person has to sacrifice their opinion on that matter, since majority of their other values are supported by one party. But by doing so, issues and opinions are never heard or represented in the White House or government. We then turn into a society of dropped matter and indifference. This is where our “my opinion doesn’t matter anyway” disease comes from, because society doesn’t believe in their candidate due to missing representation of ideas that actually hold some merit.

Another way to look at this is to say that we form our ideas based on what is available. If Mr. Jones wants to see a reform in education, but no candidate seems to pay attention to it and rather supports health care reform, how are is Mr. Jones going to fight for his voice to be heard on the importance of educational reform? Probably not too much, since his candidates don’t give his idea that much validity, and that in turn diminishes the importance of the subject until a candidate can actually represent it for Mr. Jones. But until then, Mr. Jones will patiently wait, and settle for someone with any small interest in his belief.

We have a large society in the country, and it is made up of ideas and values of every single American. It’s a shame that we have to limit our priorities simply based on what candidates are available to us. Personally, I’d love to vote for Adam West as president, but until then I will wait patiently for my opinions to be fairly represented in a presidential election.

Pie Charts

When in doubt, just show the Amercan people a good old fashioned pie chart. It's scarey to think that this valid way to show information would be barbaric today if done in this way. Imagine Rick Perry explaining a pie chart! Anyway, here's the clip.

Obama- Student Votes= Trouble

The members of the Obama campaign are trying to square down on their supporters from the 2008 campaign win that sent Obama to the White House. With a majority percentage of his supporters being Hispanic and African American, the second big part of his supporters came from young people- college and post college students. As many people in society are aware, the University student can be one of the most opinionated, and supportive person a politician, idea, or movement can have.

There was a recent article I discovered in the New York Times which interviewed students from several different American Colleges, and asked them if they still would vote for Obama in the upcoming election. The conclusion I drew from it is that Obama has lost some of his most powerful supporters.

I think back to when I was a freshmen in college and the election was taking place, and how the “Obama Boom” took over the entire college. It was almost as if you HAD to vote for Obama simply because you were in college. However, 4 years later, the generation of University students that originally voted for him are now in a very different place in their lives. In four years, 2008 student voters find themselves not in a classroom- but in the job field, not in a dorm room- but in a home, not in a school system- but THE system.

One of the students interviewed in the  NY Times discussed how she was an active volunteer for the Obama campaign, doing all sorts of jobs to help in any way she can. Now, students like her are skeptical on whether or not they got what they voted for. Now comes a time in their life where these things matter- where good health care matters- where having a job matters. And it is not just a commentary or opinion matter anymore. After graduating college, graduates can’t enjoy the comfort of forming opinions and taking stances on things that they don’t have to live through themselves.

Students need jobs. America needs jobs. Does Obama expect to keep a majority of his student supporters when now they are actually part of his unemployed pool of potential voters?

“Yet even Mr. Obama’s supporters say it seems unlikely that the president- given the difficulties of these past three years and mood of the electorate of all ages- will ever be able to replicate the youthful energy that became such a defining hallmark of his campaign.” Says the article written by Adam Nagourney.

I’m not sure how much this has hit my own University yet, but I do know that my own thoughts are squirreling around. How much longer do we need to wait in order for change to actually happen?  

Romney Economic Goal

 Remember this guy??!! The Rent is Too Damn High Party in the New York 2010 debate? Check it out

So as The Rent is Too Damn High party leader Jimmy McMillian says, there are very realistic problems with our economy. Yes, problems that expand out of just the struggles to pay the rent. Though his argument is very funny, aren’t there some real issues that he is skimming on? He mentions people getting laid off, families not being able to afford the basic necessities of life. What it comes down to is the creation of jobs and the rebuilding of the American economy.

Mitt Romney has been out of the spot light for a little bit now, but none the less, has still some potent ideas for boosting the jobs and economy. Romney, a business man in his own right, has proposed a jobs plan on his website that introduces plans for this “Day One” plan. “Day One” is a promise of 5 acts he plans on taking on his first day in office.

One of which is to reduce the income tax to 25%, entitled the American Competitiveness Act, and having a free trade agreement with Colombia, Panama and South Korea through the Open Markets Act. There are several other things listed that he intends to do on his first day in office including an order to eventually end Obamacare and empowering American Businesses and workers by reversing Obama’s orders favoritism of organized labor, even as far as government construction projects.

The overall goal of Romney’s Day One plan of action is listed on his website as: “The goal: restore America to the path of robust economic growth necessary to create jobs.” In general, Romney is looking for a way to get the government out of the way of the economy.

What I have trouble with is that Romney is an economist, not a politician. And many believe there are two ways to see Romney’s approach to getting into office. It’s a little nerve racking to see a businessman sitting in the seat meant for a huge political figure. After all, we’re trying to re work a country, not a business. However, the biggest concern on the American public’s mind is the economy. If this is the case, doesn’t it seem appealing to have someone who understands money and the economy in that position of power in order to create the buffer between big government and business? After all, it is not an uncommon thing to mix match the political seat with a someone of none political background per say. In the after effects of the Korean War, the American people elected Five Star General Eisenhower into office.

Perhaps we still don’t know what we want, but we need to prioritize what is important to us right now. Is it really healthcare? What hurts more right now, the other issues, or the economy. Romney still remains quiet on this front, but who knows how long that will last.  Romney may not be an "expert in karate" like Jimmy, but he knows rent is still too damn high.