Respond to who posted to you - Due 1/5

Look at what was posted by 12/16. Respond to the posts that directly refer to your post. Defend your original post or explain why they were able to persuade you. Be sure to be specific in your response.

Response post - Due 12/16

Respond to someone's post on their thoughts about Obama's choices for key positions. Be sure to respond to someone who hasn't been responded to. You can respond to their argument, critique their sources, and/or respond to what they didn't cover. Please cite your information.

Post Due 12/09

Instead of having you respond to someone from post 6 we're going to do something different. You'll answer this post, respond to someone's post, and then you'll respond to a post that someone wrote to you. We'll keep doing one a week so it's not an increase of posts just a change in our format. Thanks for being flexible.

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Barack Obama has been announcing his picks for his top posts for his administration. What do his picks mean for his administration? What action/direction do you predict his team will take? What do his picks demonstrate about his commitments to his campaign promises? Do you agree or disagree with his choices? Are there key people or constituencies that you feel have been overlooked? Be sure to discuss at least one of his picks more in depthly. As usual cite your sources and do some research!

Post #6

On election day voters didn't just decide who their leaders would be; they also decided what types of rights they wanted citizens to have and what type of role they wanted their government to play.

In Colorado and Nebraska voters decided whether their state would or would not use affirmative action in hiring, contracting and college admissions. Nebraska passed a ban on affirmative action and it failed in Colorado. However, in both states the electorate was fairly divided on the issue.

For background on this electoral question read the AP's story "Colorado voters reject affirmative action ban" and the New York Times's story "Vote Results Are Mixed on a Ban on Preference" from November 7th. (These articles shouldn't stop you though from doing your own research though.)

In your blog post please address the following questions:
1. What do these election results on affirmative action mean? How does the American electorate feel on affirmative action?
2. Does the U.S. need affirmative action in order to diversify its colleges and workplaces? Can or will we achieve diversity without having affirmative action? If we don't use affirmative action what would work better?

Your post will be greatly strengthened with research and data to back up your claims.

Response to post 5 - due 11/21

Please pick someone to respond to from Post 5. Some suggestions I have are:
1. respond to someone who did not write about the same question you did,
2. respond to someone with whom you disagree with or partially disagree with.

Too many of you last quarter wrote responses to each other that were vague and didn't offer any direct engagement with the other person's post or argument. I think it might be easier for you to have direct response to someone else's post if you disagreed with them. So please try that and see if that makes it easier for you to interact with each other's arguments.

I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Please post on 11/21 by 2nd period that day or your post will be late.

Post 5 - Term 2

Answer one of the questions below on the 2008 elections results. Be sure to use news articles to back up your opinions.

-What does an Obama victory mean for the US? Why do you think he won?
-What suggestions do you have for the McCain campaign? What could his campaign have done better?
-What does it mean that MN voted for Obama and Coleman (who knows now), Paulsen, and Bachman (who are all Republicans)?
-What advice do you have for Republican representatives and senators in a Democratic Congress?
-What advice do you have for Obama (who is inheriting a financial crisis and 2 wars)? What do you think he should focus on in his first 6 months and for the 1st year?
-What is the significance of gaining our first African American president while in the same election 4 states added barriers to gay rights to their state constitutions?

Last post for the term!

Respond to a new person and explain why you agree or disagree with their assessment of the issues that have been discussed or not discussed in this election. Please do not respond to anyone that you have already responded to this term.

Remember on Friday you'll get to discuss this election in person and soon we'll get to know the result (ie. who will win!)

Post #4

Which issue do you feel did not receive enough attention (either from candidates or the media) during the campaign? Which issue do you feel received too much attention from the media &/or candidates?

You can answer one or both of the questions.

New Polling Data

The Gallup Report put together very comprehensive data on how voters feel about the election. I think you'd find this article interesting. It very much connects with our chapter on public opinion.

Recent Gallup Report

Suggestions for your final post before the election?

Post 4 will be your last post before the election. I have some ideas as to what you could write about. However, I also wanted to give you a chance to weigh in. Post here any suggestions you have for me. Please post them by October 17. I want to post your next question over the weekend. Thanks.

PS. This is optional. This is NOT an assignment. :)

Response to post 3 - due 10/14

Get your post in before you have a relaxing (hopefully) 5 day break. Pick someone to respond to. Try to pick someone you HAVE NOT already responded to in the past. Thanks.

Post #3 - Due Oct 7th

Vice presidential candidates are chosen to add to the ticket or balance it. Since this summer both Obama and McCain have chosen vice-presidential candidates. Assess to what degree either VP candidate or both do to add to the ticket? What factor, if any, will Palin and Biden have in the election? Do you agree or disagree with their choices and why?

Be sure to site your sources. There are lots of quality articles out there on this topic. You can refer to the VP debate from 10/2 if you watched it.

Reponse to post #2

I enjoyed watching the ads and reading what you thought of them! I hope you'll look at the ads that each other watched. I look forward to reading your response posts. Please post them here so that we can separate them out. Please try to respond to a person that you didn't respond to last time so you can interact with a new student! When you refer to information you have read or to commercials you watched please cite your work. Thanks.

Post #2

McCain and Obama are neck and neck in the polls. Their campaigns have less than two months left to persuade potential voters. This is the point in the campaign where money is key. Whoever has the most money can make and air the most TV commercials. However, this is not just the situation for the presidential campaigns. Interest groups and the parties also want their chosen candidate to win and use money and commercials to try to tip the scales in their favor.

Campaign finance laws have created a loophole where 527 groups can make independent expenditure ads. If you’re interested in seeing some examples of their ads you can check out National Public Radio’s coverage. They have links to some of their ads:
* Independent Political Groups Return With 527 Ads

* Liberal 527 Groups Target McCain With Ads

Find out how the candidates are doing fundraising. Watch some of the campaign advertisements. You can watch the candidates’ ads &/or the 527 ads. To find the candidates’ ads go to their websites &/or search on google for McCain/Obama ads. There are plenty on YouTube. And then answer the following questions:

What role do you think advertisements have in political campaigns?
What types of political advertisements do you find persuasive and why?
Are there ads that are being run that you think are unethical and if so why?
Do you think that the parties’ and the 527 ads are helping or hurting the ability for the American people to make an informed decision in November?

Be sure to cite where your information is from in your post. I look forward to reading what you’ll write.

My thoughts on post 1

Overall I think y'all did a great job on the first post. You used research (some of you found your own) to make intelligent arguments about the election which was our number one objective.

The main theme I saw was that many of you were informed writers but didn't credit where your information was from. Please refer to where that information is from so that your classmates and I can tell what is influencing your perspective. For examples of people's writing who did a great job of doing this (there were many) I would like to highlight a couple writers - ASampson, Katie B, and Lauren the wise.

Other themes I saw to a lesser extent included discussing the election but not addressing both questions, and not enough proofreading. Please address those issues if I wrote you a note about them in your next post.

Thanks and I look forward to reading your responses to each other. M. Aby

Response to post 1 - Due Wed, Sept 17th

Great job getting your first post up and starting our online discussion. Now read through your classmates' responses. Pick one classmate to respond to. Explain why you agree or disagree with their assessment of McCain or Obama's campaign. When you refer to information you have read please cite your work.

Please post your response here so we can keep the original posts and the response posts separate and more manageable.

Take care and good luck! M. Aby

Post 1- 2008

Examine the poll reports on the candidates in the articles I gave you. You can also check out pollingreport.com.

What sectors in society are Obama & McCain doing well & poorly with? What suggestions do you have to the campaigns for how they could increase their popularity this fall for the general election? (You can discuss one or both for this section.) Be sure to site where your information is from & to back up your projections & advice.

Good luck and enjoy the blog!

Last post - Due January 9th

The very anticipated official beginning of the presidential campaign is upon us. January 3rd Iowans will caucus for their presidential hopefulls and January 8th New Hampshirites will vote for their choices in their primary.

What will be the impact of the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary? How will they help or hurt the candidates running for president? Will other states (like Florida, North Carolina, and Super Tuesday) play a greater role?

It will be hard but also fun to predict the impact of these two important - yet early - events. Places that might be particularly helpful to you are the Des Moines Register and the Boston Globe. They have very indepth reporting and analysis on these early events which you might find helpful in your research.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
ttp://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/

Thank you for your insightful posts this semester. You are the first group of students I have ever done this type of project with and I really enjoyed it. Thanks for being such great guinea pigs!