Map and count is current as of 10/14/08. Presentation by Sophelia, Crystal, Rhea, and Sam.
- Obama / Biden -286
- McCain / Palin – 155
- Toss Up – 97
Each week between September 15 and November 4 (the election) Senior Current Issues will provide you an update on the progress of the 2008 Presidential Election. Each week at this site you will find a photo (USA Electoral Map in room #112) of the updated polling comparisons between Barack Obama and John McCain. Each week a different group of seniors will offer you a three to five minute podcast of where this election currently stands and the trends they see on the horizon. Student groups will provide a news article that they think will help you to better understand the dynamics of this election. All students are encouraged to listen to the podcast and read the article.
SCI students will offer a “what do you think” question that goes with the news article. All Senior Current Issues students must do the ensuing 20 point blog. All other students may choose to answer the question as an extra credit blog assignment (5 pts max.)
All electoral votes come from estimates located on Real Clear Politics.com Remember polls are only estimates of how people may vote. Until Nov 4 nobody really knows the outcome of this election.
Podcast – click podcast. Go to Real Clear Politics while you listen. Podcast coincides with photo of map in room 112, located at the top of this post. Special Note the podcast does not work in Firefox browser.
News Article – CNN Politics.com – “Most Believe McCain’s attacks on Obama unfair, poll finds”
Question – Read the article. How are John McCain’s attacks on Barack Obama going to affect him as a politician on election day?
Postings for the question must be made by 7:00 PM Friday of the week in question.
Check the category “08 ELECTION – The News” for more news about the candidates and the Election.
Podcast: (95% / A) Students Very good podcast. Good reviews by Econ classes. Good reviews by teachers. Nice info – good input of the Powell endorsement and the reasoning for blue states turning blue – and toss up states staying toss up. Also, good input on the Virginia situation as a possible blue state. Interesting. Nicely done guys.
Article / Question: (92% / A-) The issue of negative campaigning is something that needs to be addressed in this campaign. The article does a pretty good job of dealing with that. Question is pretty good as well. Again nice job.
Presentation: (95% / A) Very inclusive presentation. All involved. Clear – interesting – nice job. You guys have done an all around good job. Well done
Overall Grade: (94% / A) – This is the way I’d like to see the assignment play out. Reviews from other classes and from teachers – was positive. This is a very inclusive with ALL members – the podcast is nicely done – with reasons for the changes in the states. That’s good. The pace and sound of the podcast is good. And presentation was clear. I think we all learned a lot! Nice job guys!
Wow! Thank you students of Mr. Wood’s class for the interest you have shown in the upcoming election. I’ve listened to the podcasts, looked at the Real Clear Politics map and read the most recent article. I believe the negative attacks are not going to work in this election. There are still people that will be swayed by negativism, but the majority of voters this time around are looking for solutions, not blame. It’s exciting to see your involvement in the election of our next leader. May the candidate with the most positive solutions prevail.
Thanks Karyn! See you next week on “The Vote.”
First and foremost, it states in the article that there are many different illustrations with numbers. 6 in 10 feel McCain is giving off a damaging vibe. Before that, it was an estimated 42%; McCain being negative. The article also stated, “McCain can’t afford the positive ads Obama can…It’s not likely McCain can raise his own positives with only a couple of weeks left, but he can hope to raise Obama’s negatives,” and this is from Evan Tracey , a CNN consultant on ad spending. I believe that John McCain’s ad’s will inevitably destroy him in these last few weeks. I find it almost irresponsible for him to make blatant statements about how Barack Obama is “friends” with William Ayers. I find it blatant because it makes no sense for McCain to attack Obama when what Ayers did was before Barack could even understand what was going on around the age of six. I feel that John McCain will present himself weakly, with using these solidly negative commercials. People want to hear what that candidate will offer them, not what the other candidate won’t or can’t give. Like the quote above, McCain can’t afford positive ads unfortunately and Obama can, and since these commercials is what many people rely on for their information, than that’s what they’ll see. Obama will present himself in a good image and McCain bashing Obama, which then I feel that makes McCain look bad. It could be considered a good tactic or bad. We’ll see come election day if what both candidates have done paid off.
21 of 20 A+ / Nice quotes. Nice insights. The NEW charity!
Both Obama and McCain are running negative ads, but only one of them is running positive ones. Like I said before in a previous post, a presidential candidate needs to be able to balance out the positives and the negatives in order to win. Only Obama is doing this correctly. The article says that McCain is running out of money, making him unable to run both types of ads. In my opinion, that is a sure sign of defeat.
The biggest sign that Obama is going to win here is that more people believe that McCain is the one that is running an unfair campaign. McCain supporters most likely see Obama as the one being unfairly negative. The article says that 60% of voters believe that McCain is worse, compared to 39% for Obama. Yet, both candidates are running about the same amount of negative ads. The fact that more people are siding with Obama, means that those people are supporting him and are going to vote for him, and a therefore biased towards him. That is why they see McCain in a bad light, although he is doing little different form Obama. In that way, it means that if more people believe that Obama is playing fair, it means more people are voting for him, and McCain in a tough spot!
I hate negative ads, no matter who is doing them. I hate the “I’m a PC and I’m a Mac” commercials, the Quiznos vs. Subway, the cell phone carrier fights, and the presidential mudslinging. Did no one ever tell them that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all?
10 PTS EXTRA – don’t you agree though, that negativity in a nice way (aka Mac PC adds) work rather well. Once again gets to the point in an effective way.
First, I enjoy hearing how much knowledge that these seniors have about the election and issues that are driving this election. It makes me proud to be an Oakridge teacher and proud of the great students and teachers in this district.
As I looked at the current election map I noticed a few things. Some of the toss up states are traditionally conservative states or have voted Republican recently. These states are Florida, North Carolina, Ohio (Voted Bush twice), Indiana, and North Dakota. Missouri and Nevada are wild cards. If McCain can get these states to lean his way it will be a very close election. If these states go Obama’s way it will be a landslide.
The thing I hope is that the winner gets 50% of the popular vote so there won’t be the controversy of the 2000 election, because I don’t think our nation has not healed from that election yet.
On the questions of attacks. I think the biggest advantage is the money gap. Obama is able to run positive ads also. It’s odd to not here Democrats complaining about Republicans money advantages. I think that when it comes down to election day some voters who are not educated on the issues important to them will be swayed by these ads.
Again, great job seniors! I look forward to next week’s podcast. Whoever is elected, has a big job to do.
Pretty interesting insights there Mr. Latsch. Thanks for posting. See you next week on “The VOTE”
The information and how you presented it makes me
think that you are the news anchors for a major TV station. Your reporting is straight forward and doesn’t
doesn’t pull any punches. I think that negative attacks only hurt McCain. He needs to tell the people what he will do when elected. We are so lucky to live in the United States because we are not told who will be our leaders. We get to VOTE for them. May the best suited candidate’s hand be raised in January, 2009.
Mrs. Mac, Thanks so much for posting. Hope that you can drop by next week and join us again on “The VOTE.”
Very impressive information ladies. It is interesting to see how many states have change from voting republican to democrate. You do a nice job of stating the facts and not letting your own biased come into your podcast. I don’t know that I could be as fair. Keep working. It is nice to stay informed.
Thanks for the post Beck! We’re up again next week on “the VOTE”
John McCain’s attacks on Barrack Obama are going to affect him as a politician on Election Day by making him look irresponsible. Although both of the candidates are running negative ads, McCain can’t seem to let certain things go. All of his ads seem to be about the same negative things that they are always about. McCain also likes to bash Obama about things that happened before Obama could even understand what was going on. For example, when they talk about Obama being “friends” with Ayers. The article even states that Americans are against McCain’s negative ads. A survey from CNN says that nearly every six out of ten Americans believe that McCain has attacked Obama unfairly. This was a significant difference than in September when 42 percent thought that McCain was running negative campaign ads.
I think that it is a pathetic excuse to say that Obama can afford to run positive and negative ads because McCain could run both ads also, he just has to pick and choose which ones are best and which ones would benefit him in the long run. I personally think that he has made the wrong decision by only running negative ads.
EXTRA 10 PTS – Really good job in regards to Ayers and affordability and stats from the article.
*EXTRA CREDIT*
Really great article, in fact I couldn’t have said it better myself. Last Wed. before the debate I said “McCain could win this if he sticks to talking about his policies and the issues. But if he starts throwing mud at Obama then it’s all over for him.” I was right about him losing the debate because of mud slinging but this isn’t over. McCain can come back within the next 2 weeks before the election if he really lays off the negativity and starts explaining his plans to better our nation. I’m really happy to see that people aren’t getting sucked into these stupid 30 second ads. No one wants to see politicians throw fits and point fingers, so McCain better step up his game if he wants to turn his campaign around in the next 14 days.
GO OBAMA!!!
Great Job Sophie, Crystal, Rhea, and Sam.
5 PTS EXTRA Nice of you to notice the gals. They did well. Your opinions are always interesting Kassi – more points if you dig into the article
By the way…Thank you so much Oakridge Teachers for commenting!!! It really means a lot that our voices are being heard and that you’re paying as close attention to this election as we are! THANK YOU!!!!
**EXTRA CREDIT**
I think that John McCain’s negative ads and attacks on Barack Obama are possibly going to cost him the election. Most American voters are not looking for the candidate that is pointing a finger at the other, most people are looking for the person that is going to solve the problems. McCain cannot be blamed 100% for running negative ads because Obama does too, the only difference is that Obama also runs positive ads which make up for the negative ones. Obama can also run positive ads because he is spending more and has more money in his campaign than McCain.
So I truly think that McCain is hurting his chances severely by running negative ads, especially if the majority of voters think that he is running a negative campaign.
6 PTS EXTRA good insight Autumn. Maybe a little more article input.
I think McCain’s negative attacks on Obama might affect him, but I don’t think it will affect voters one hundred percent. People are more concerned with what each candidate wants to do when he is in office. I also think that both candidates are attacking each other. I think they need to point out what each other is running for in order to get more votes. What I mean is McCain needs to point out what Obama is running for if McCain disagrees with him. Both candidates are attacking each other and I think they need to in order to win. Most people are voting for the best leader or the candidate with the most experience. I do think that the attacks might harm McCain a little because he doesn’t have time to be positive about himself, so he has to be negative towards Obama. A lot of people might think he is very irresponsible and immature because of this. I think this election is going to be very close and I can’t wait until Election Day.
7 / 2 = 3 PTS EXTRA CREDIT – He actually doesn’t have the money to be positive and run negatives as well. I think they do work as well. I am cutting your extra credit in half, because we are eight weeks into the year and people are still not labeling the Extra Credit or the Repost correctly. Next time please label
Negative campaigning at this time in our countries crisis could cause serious damage to John McCain’s chance for presidency. Right now our country is searching hard for solutions to serious problems not “stone throwing” at the opponent. I feel the candidate with the most positive solutions to the immediate problems our country has, like health care, stock markets, keeping us out of depression, out of war, and our country thriving will be the person that wins the election. We are lucky to live in a free country where we can pick and choose our battles.
6 / 2 = 3 PTS EXTRA – good opinion – dig into the article a bit deeper for more points. I am cutting your extra credit in half, because we are eight weeks into the year and people are still not labeling the Extra Credit or the Repost correctly. Next time please label
I feel even though Obama and McCain are both running negative ads. But the fact that Obama is running almost equally both negative and positive ads. That this shows that he is the best choice as president as he shows flaws in McCain and yet he shows positivity in himself.
I feel that if McCain would run as many positive ads as he runs negative like Obama. McCain would have a better shot at winning this election. By only showing negative ads on somebody and never saying anything even good about yourself I feel it makes me not want to vote for this person because all this person does is point fingers and would never take the blame even if its his own fault.
I feel that a lot of people will vote for Obama due to all of McCain’s negativity. Due to all of the negativity I feel that this will break McCain’s campaign and will give Obama the win.
13 of 20 – D / Eddie this is pretty repetitive – I think when you answer a blog try to use the article itself to justify your position.
Not much because people should now know whats the real truth between these two people. With Mccain’s speeches of saying whats bad or not then his attacks on Obama is not much effective. But in this artacle it show mccain attacking Obama a lot and I think Obama is doing the right this to help out the world..
4 / 2 = 2 PTS EXTRA CREDIT – David – you must spell check! Try to use the article to support your answer…still good job that you posted. I am cutting your extra credit in half, because we are eight weeks into the year and people are still not labeling the Extra Credit or the Repost correctly. Next time please label
Great job, girls! I liked the explanations you gave on why each state has changed its support since the last update. I don’t know how often you’re checking the poll numbers at RealClear, but as of today (10/23), every national poll has Mr. Obama up by as little as 5 points, and as much as 12. I think that gap speaks more to the weakness of polls in general, rather than any real advantage either candidate might actually have. That’s why it is still important for you to continue working on the campaigns, whichever candidate you support.
Thank your Mr. Greenjeans for your post. We appreciate it! See you next week with “The VOTE”. As for your cynicism for the polls – you should try to be more positive about life – like mr wood.
Hey…listened and read everything!! Awesome job OHS! With the negative direction of his campaign I think McCain is in danger of losing any respect the voters may have had. However, all you have to do is listen to Hannity and Colmes to be reminded there is a Republican view out there.
The cooperative venture with the Tigers was great. The most notable impression to me was the lack of prejudice on the part of young people. You are the HOPE of the future!! Good job.
Thank you Mrs. Schroeder for all of your support! See you next week on The Vote.
To me negative campaigning is a big turn off because not only does it get annoying when you repeatedly hear about how one candidate was a friend with a terrorist since he was six, but also it’s like the candidate that is running these negative ads can’t win by laying out his plan to America. In the article it stated that “McCain can’t afford the positive ads Obama can…” so why would McCain run negative ads instead of just positive ads? If I wasn’t informed on the issues and went by these commercials I would be scared that McCain is just like Bush because I wouldn’t know how he feels about important issues. I think that the negative ads will not help his campaign at all, but that’s not really the only thing that will hurt it. If McCain actually reached out to average Americans than maybe he would have had enough funding to run both positive and negative ads, like Obama.
On a side note, I’m glad to see that many Americans have changed their mind when it comes to believing in Obama and his ability to deal with important issues, which in my opinion is because he let everyone know what his plans were for those important issues through the thirty second commercials. Obama’s campaign knows that to some people those commercials are what sway their votes so they took advantage of that fact and expressed his views. McCain’s campaign did a horrible job of that. People are sick of the way the country is being run and they want to know that there is change. The republicans should have thought about the fact that this election is important and that some people are actually taking the time to learn the issues.
It’s always easier to point the finger at someone, which is the route McCain took. His commercials had a negative impact on his campaign and it’s too late for him to turn it around.
19 of 20 – A / That’s a really good point when you note – if you are short of money – then run your plans instead of the negative. Nice job.
John McCain attacks on Barack Obama is going to affect him as a politician on election day by us citizens who believe what bull crap McCain says about Obama and that might not be true. So people who believe McCain might vote for him and not Obama. McCain tries to attack Obama so he can be president and McCain wants the people to believe him and make Obama feel like a ideit. If I was a voter I would not vote for McCain because his attacks on Obama don’t work for me because their stupid.
4 / 2 = 2 PTS EXTRA CREDIT – Jenny do a final spell check! And you need to post it as an EXTRA CREDIT assignment. I appreciate all of your efforts – but these two things – you must start doing on the posts. I am cutting your extra credit in half, because we are eight weeks into the year and people are still not labeling the Extra Credit or the Repost correctly. Next time please label.
I think that it is very clear for us in Michigan, who we should vote for in the presidential election. It is so clear that both candidates have put their energy in states with tighter races.
It is also clear that McCain is on the defensive. It is clear in the article and it was clear in the last debate where McCain spent about 30 seconds of each 2 minute question talking about his points and the remaining time attacking Obama.
We do not need a president who thinks he is smart enough to point out peoples faults (McCain).
We need a president who shows that he is proactive (the first habit in Covey’s 7 habits of highly effective people) and can focus on and solve problems the problems that he sees (Obama).
Thank you Mr. Lohman for your post – It is so nice to know that you are alive and well! Please join us next week on The VOTE!
I think that McCain’s attacks on Obama are going to affect him big time as a politician on Election Day. I believe that by McCain attacking Obama makes him look like he’s a very immature person who can’t hold his own. Obviously his negativity is going to affect him somewhat because already in recent polls (according to article) nearly 6 in 10 American’s believe that he is running a negative campaign against Obama, and 47% to 44% say that Obama would be the better leader. I can’t really say that come Election Day that is going to stay the same because it won’t, but I really believe that it isn’t going to change that much. By being so negative all the time it makes him look like a jerk. People don’t like jerks, or at least I don’t and I know that I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I think that he needs to spend more time discussing his sides on the issues rather than pounding away at Obama. To me that’s not a good leader. People aren’t going to vote for someone who can’t even talk about one issue without bashing Obama’s views on that particular issue.
17 of 20 – B+ / good quote of the article. I think you’re correct that he needs to get on to more of the issues and that does impact peoples’ opinions of his leadership capabilities.
I think that Barack Obama will pull away from the pulls because people are going to start voting for Obama because of the fact that Colleen Powel is pulling for Obama. I think that now you will see a giant sea of blue come in and take over the United States. (For you literal people not a real sea I mean the color of the states). Now it is really up to the toss up states we really don’t know what is going to happen. All of the negative ads are going to start damaging Obama’s and McCain’s political career. You can’t just say that McCain is the only one that is one the attack because Obama has had plenty of negative commercials himself. There is only two more weeks left we are going to see the worst out of both candidates.
(-5 spelling) 12 of 20 D / Good point on the impact that the negative campaigning is going to have. I would like to see you dig in a bit into the article however.
John McCain’s attacks will affect him not only now while running because it makes him seem like a negative person, but also afterwards. Who will want to be around a man who will try so hard to make one look so bad. Yes senator Obama has made statements and commercials that have pointed out negatives in McCain, but I do not believe he has gone to the extent McCain’s campaign has. We cannot expect people to be nice, but with McCain’s extensive life span he should have learned how far is too far. I think he has crossed the line. Weather he wins or looses his harsh commercials and public scrutiny will effect him at the work place on the streets, and through out his community.
(-5 spelling I’ll take 2 1/2 two times) 13 of 20 D+ / but you have some great points here. I think this will effect McCain down the road. And he is a US Senator.
I think John McCain’s tactics are extremely ridiculous, and I think since he is so far behind Obama that he knows that he can not catch back up. This is not helping McCain and at all it’s actually making him look worse. What Obama is doing by making positive and negative commercial ads is helping him. He is protecting himself from attacks, and is also trying to soften his image so he doesn’t look like a complete basher like John. Since McCain is trying to make Obama fight back with negative ads he really can’t change his tactic with only a few weeks left. It just shows how much McCain has fallen behind Obama. John really doesn’t have control over the situation anymore, and I think he senses that too and the only way that Obama is going to lose poll votes is if he ruins his own image. This is what McCain is trying to do by provoking Obama. I highly doubt it will actually work! So I think McCain will actually keep losing people because of how childish he is acting. Also places that have been usually Republican are turning towards Obama and I think McCain is angry about the outcome. So I think by McCain being negative it will have a negative out look on his votes.
17 of 20 B+ / Pretty good job. Interesting point on the attempt at provoking Obama.
In the long run, I think that John McCain’s attacks against Barack Obama are going to hurt him. They’re already affecting how he’s doing in the polls right now. He has been falling behind for the last few weeks, and you can see the anger in his decrepit old face every time you see him. McCain needs to spend much less time trying to attack Obama and focus more on stating how he would handle the housing crisis, how he plans to raise the value of the dollar, and how he’s going to make higher education easier for people to afford. In the debates, he tried to attack Senator Obama as much as he could, and Obama spend more time defending himself than actually answering the question. At first, I thought this would make people think that Obama lost the debate, because he didn’t always answer the questions, but it turns out that people dislike the attacks more than anything. In the article, Evan Tracey said that he didn’t think McCain could afford to put out more positive ads with only a few weeks left in the election, but he can continue to put out negative ads in the hope that people will believe them. I think it’s too late for McCain to try to fix what he’s started, and I think he’s going to pay for it in the polls on November 4th.
19 of 20 – A / Decrepit old face? Do you think we could try to be a little less negative in the blog. As for the post – you make some good points in regards to the issues. And good job at bringing opinion from the article into the post. Not bad pooper scooper.
I believe the ads will not pay off for John McCain. The ads are not even civil with each of the candidates. I believe that like the article says people will see the ads and disapprove of the way he is running his campaign thus losing him more votes.
10 of 20 F / Duh. At least you posted.
This article is all about polls. It seems that polls are playing a huge significant roll on determining the “more fit” presidential nominee for the 2008 election. However, I do not think that John McCain’s attacks on Obama will harm him with the presidential election. Many knowledgeable people that truly support Obama should already know where he stands as a leader for our nation.
In the article it says how McCain only has enough money to pay for attack ads on Obama but not enough for both attack ads and supporting ads. Obama does have enough for both, which helps on his part because he is gaining more credit.
With attack ads it does have some turning points for the aspect of easy reminders to the voters that the presidential nominee is not doing his part in one certain area.
When it comes to Obama people already know he is a strong leader, tough debater and very knowledgeable and smart. 47 percent say Obama is indeed a strong leader versus 44 percent to McCain. Obama has a great deal of plans to handle issues and people are aware of that.
In conclusion I do not think Obama really has to worry about the attack ads harming his election process. If he does have to worry then I am wrong about America and I have pity to those of you that have to get information fed to you by media. Shame on them!
15 of 20 C+ / What about the impact that the attacks will have on McCain?
Negative campaigning does nothing at all. Pointing fingers at one another saying all that he said she said crap isn’t going to help us Americans find out anything or is it going to help our country solve the problems that we are facing today. I know that both of the politicians are putting out negative campaigns but, I do believe that McCain does a better job at bashing against Obama than he does running for president. Going to the article which states that six in ten Americans believe McCain has unfairly gone negative in his bid for the white house. This percentage has gone up since September and I think that it’s starting to make people realize if he is really presidential material. I think that more people are noticing this and it’s going to take an impact on the polls on Election Day. From my standpoint I think the negative ads have shown that McCain is more worried about showing everything that is wrong with Obama instead of his own viewpoints on what is going on in America today. McCain should stay with the points instead of bashing Obama. I don’t think this is going to help the republicans out in this race at all and more people are starting to see that. Instead of negative campaigning I think that the money they used to make a negative ad should have been used instead on a positive ad stating what they would do instead of the other candidate.
18 of 20 – A / Not bad Kaylee. Good quote from the article. Forceful point. It’d be nice to see you in class once in awhile.
McCain and Obama both are being negative in there campaigns but Obama has been very positive as well keeping his strategy in balance. McCain has been way to negative and it seems like it is the only strategy he has. I really never seen him express his issues very clearly. McCain is always way to busy bullying on Obama and the plans he has for his issues that he never explains his plans for the issues the United States citizens.
McCain is losing many voters everyday because they are really not sure on what his plans are for the important issues our country faces. United States citizens do not want to vote for a candidate if they don’t fully understand the plans the candidate has for our countries issues unless they are not very intelligent. I know I would not vote for someone if I was not a 100% sure I knew what there plans were for our country. McCain is just digging himself a hole with his negative strategy. In the article it explained that six in ten Americans believe McCain has unfairly gone negative in his campaign. That is a significant difference from September when only forty-two percent of Americans believed McCain has gone negative in his campaign. That just goes to show all the voters he is losing by his negative tactics.
18 of 20 – A-/ Pretty good job Kyle. Good use of the article and the numbers in the article.
First of all, I believe negative campaigning has rules. There is only certain ways that you can attack a political candidate without making yourself look silly. Barack Obama attacks McCain, but he is nice about it. McCain’s attacks on Obama are just cruel. For one, if I was voting, the attacks that each candidates are delivering for one and other would play a vital role in the persuasion of my vote. But then again, Obama has an advantage because of his financial status. The article says that Obama can afford to have both negative and positive commercials, where as McCain has to choose between the two and apparently likes to take the negative approach. But beside all of that, 6 out of every 10 people think that McCain is having a negative impact on his own campaign. So if you would Mr. John McCain, could you please do us all a favor and talk about your stance on issues, and your plans to go about changing these issues. Because if I would have known that being a presidential candidate meant picking fun of the other to make their life a living hell then the majority of people I know could run right now. Maybe they have a better approach of beating out Barack Obama because McCain certainly cannot do it. The attacks are getting old Mr. McCain. Stop pointing your finger at every one and man up and talk about the issues. You have a lot of good ideas, but people just don’t know about them because your too busy bashing Obama. Time is running out. Good luck.
15 of 20 C+ / This is more of a rambling attack ad than a blog postiing. You have some good points, but they lose a little in the translation when you become too partisan – like you are accusing mr mccain of.
John McCain, much to the dismay of many Americans, has taken a decisively negative turn in his campaign strategy. We have heard many things about Barack, from him somehow being guilty by association with a former domestic terrorist, to him somehow being plain un-American (an oxymoron for someone running for president, I think). However, despite McCain’s efforts to portray Obama as foreign or dangerous, many voters feel that it is McCain who is dangerous and that he may be too angry and too divisive for the presidency.
First, some history…
McCain has run for the presidency a total of three times, once against Bush Jr., 2000, in the primaries (where he lost because Bush criticized his family and his past), once in 2004, against the incumbent Bush Jr. (where he once again lost because of negative attacks from Bush), and once again in 2008.
McCain’s negative attacks can be attributed to the fact that, for the third time, he may lose the race; a demoralizing fact for anyone. In desperation, McCain has turned to the same people who attacked him four years and eight years ago. The outcome, consequently, has been the same kind of smear campaign that he swore he’d never use.
From a sympathetic perspective, one can almost feel sorry for Senator John McCain. But, as the article so artfully says, “The clear perception that the Arizona senator has run a more negative campaign than Obama may hurt the Republican presidential nominee’s chances of a comeback as the end of the race draws near.” What this translates into is that McCain, who is struggling to keep up with Obama’s financial advantage, is stuck in a vicious circle where he can’t afford to air positive ad’s and is forced to air negative ad’s, translating into a lower approval rating for him.
Recent polls show that a majority of American’s feel Obama is a better leader too–compared to the opposite early last September.
Combine McCain’s negative attacks with his poor showing in the debates and you have Obama appearing to be the best candidate, the best leader, and the best direction for America; a victory of the lesser evil contest for Obama.
In the end, I feel that, win or lose; McCain is going to have to cope with the fact that he has deeply divided his potential constituency. He has created a sense of hatred towards Liberalism, a major part of our political environment, and has deeply offended women (with his choice of Sarah Palin), the LGBT movement, environmentalists, and other Republicans. Not only is McCain going to have to deal with our financial crisis, the war in Iraq, the boarder, Roe V. Wade, and up to four Supreme Court picks; he is also going to have deal with his own divisive campaign and the negative sentiments of most of America.
22 of 20 A+ / Bravo Senator Swanson. Thank you for the history lesson.
When 6 in 10 people say your being negative (as stated in the article) then you know you are doing something wrong. I think that people may relate it with how he is going to “compromise” with our foreign alliances and enemies especially the tense times right now in the Middle East we need a positive president that is ready for optimistic change. It will also be harder for a comeback as were getting towards the end of this election, because we want a constructive leader with a good outlook of the world. This shows McCain’s childish behavior even more because Obama seems to be above the political games, yes he had his few shares of attacks at McCain but McCain just keeps coming out with more and more even with a small budget in his hands. I think that this brings McCain’s true colors to the table and shows how he might work with future problems and future co-workers! Also making attacks at Obama is not a proactive way in winning this race, and right now with this financial crisis we need a proactive leader to take charge and pull us out of this black hole.
(-5 spelling) 11 of 20 -F / you have some interesting thoughts here. I’m a bit confused on the Middle East thing – but I will agree that proactivity will work much better than negativity.
How are John McCain’s attacks on Barack Obama going to affect him as a politician on Election Day?
This campaigning alone has over used its dollars this year. It’s a shame that McCain has to use those dollars in negativity. Negative campaigning is a major turn off to me. How can an individual vote for someone who is constantly calling their opponent a liar, also to say that Obama has been supporting terrorism since the age of six….wow is that low or what? Sorry McCain but there is no chance of turning this around, it’s too far into the race to even try to justify the reasoning for the hostility. If I were a voter I would look at this as evidence, because if McCain is going to be this dirty now, there’s no telling what is in store for our future. I guess it just doesn’t make since to me.
“McCain can’t afford the positive ads Obama can,” Tracey said. “It’s not likely McCain can raise his own positives with only a couple weeks left, but he can hope to raise Obama’s negatives.”
If McCain’s campaigning funds don’t compare to Obama’s, then my question is why would he even waste his time campaigning negatively. In the end this is going to hurt him, not only on Election Day, but possible as a future politician. People are now seeing that Obama is the “down to earth,” hardworking guy he says he is. Obama has proven him self to be a positive role model, and has positively justified his reasoning for his attacks. Looks like Election Day will be a sad day for McCain and a joyful day for the rest of us.
19 of 20 A / Really nice job on the presentation Sophie.
**EXTRA CREDIT**
I think that John McCain isn’t going to see the results on Election Day that he may want to see. The bashing that he has done on Obama, I don’t believe has helped him at all. If anything it has hurt him. When they say six out of ten Americans think that he is not playing fairly in this election that is when it is the time for him to think about stopping.
In the article Tracey said “It’s not likely McCain can raise his own positives with only a couple weeks left, but he can hope to raise Obama’s negatives.” I agree with that statement because now that he has put out so much negative campaigning he really doesn’t have time to recover from the destruction he has already made for himself. I think that this issue will affect McCain on election day by making him have less votes that what he would have had if he did a clean campaign.
10 PTS EXTRA – nice job.
When I think about the answer to this question I think about a lady in my communications class. We were sitting around discussing the presidential candidates and discussing how they communicated not only orally but with their body language. The lady’s name is Betty and I remeber her saying that she was so dissapointed with McCain because of how he repeatedly attacked Obama, and how that is not only a reflection upon his politics but to what kind of person he is. I couldn’t agree with Betty more, temperment and the way a person conducts themselves is so significant especially for a politician. And because of that fact, it is going to affect McCain negatively that he has run a negative campaign and has had an overt majority of his campaign ads have been negative.
spelling 0/20 – F
I don’t think that McCains attacks are going affect Obama’s campain at all if even a little. I believe that although McCains ads are extremely negative, that American people are capable of seeing that they are one sided and just a desperate plea at the end of the race.
Voters who have all ready decided who to vote for will take no notice of these ads. Undecided votes will most likely take them into consideration, but I believe that they will take into consideration that these are not always accurate.
The way to win the presidential race is not to constantly point fingers at the other candidate but to try and make himself look good. McCain doesn’t have much time to try and catch up. He should be using this time to make himself look like the better candidate. If he keeps bring Obama into his ads I believe that it is unlikely for him to catch up.
16 of 20 – B
McCain is being too negative because he’s desperate. For the most part any person facing defeat will immediately reject the idea resorting to tactics that may seem cheap or dirty. People will do anything to survive they don’t want to lose, face the death of their aspirations and endeavors. McCain is no different than any other person; he’s been backed into a corner and is trying to fight his way out. It will obviously hurt him in up to the election because people want to see someone cool, calm, and collected under pressure and McCain hasn’t quite maintained that attitude, while Obama has. As for after the election I think it will be business as usual for him people have a short memory. And as old as he is he’ll probably retire soon anyways, this has been stressful and his old self needs some rest. Eventually he’ll realize he has been dealt the short end of the stick and will see that he is done. At that point he’ll either go out fighting or accept it and let it go. I’m sick of talking about this same old stuff. Politics are mean.
19 of 20 – A / You’re right they are mean.
THIS POST IS OFFICIALLY CLOSED.
EXTRA CREDIT
McCain’s negetive attacks will make him look extremely bad in the eyes of millions of people after the election is over. The fact that he has attacked Obama throughout the election has severely hurt his chances of winning the race. He should have spent more time making himself look good instead of making Obama look bad because eventually your gonna make yourself look bad. In my own personal opinion I think McCain should just give up and drop out.
That grade has made my weekend….truly it has. Thanks so much Mr. Wood….it is definitely a new charity!
I think that people who base their vote on a person’s skin color or people who they are friends with, need to realize what they are voting for. People could be voting for McCain because Obama is black or might be affiliated with the Black Radical Movement. But we shouldn’t think of Obama as one of them unless he has the same thoughts and viewpoints. So if you are voting for another candidate because of their skin color or their friends, get a life or update your information on the candidates.
How are John McCain’s attacks on Barack Obama going to affect him as a politician on election day?
McCain is wasting his time and everyone elses too. Voters are obviously seeing it. He should know when to stop. Not only are the attacks made on Obama arrogant but very obviously they aren’t getting him anywhere. We have known the real Obama from day one, the real McCain has yet to show up. McCain is going to be pretty upset on election day. Honor- the choices that you make, end of story. McCain will wish he had paid more attention to the pubic response more often on election day.