Back Barack

John McCain solemnly took the stage to officially announce his concession. Throughout his speech McCain wanted to make sure that his supporters did not take the loss personally. That they had not failed but rather he had. McCain also wanted to emphasize that although the Republicans would not be in the White House for the next four years that Obama and himself were not complete polar opposites; that they had more in common than they were different. That they were both Americans and could restore the United States back to its glory “I've always believed that America offers opportunities to all who have the industry and will to seize it. Senator Obama believes that, too. But we both recognize that, though we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation's reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound.” McCain showed great class and poise when he vowed that he would back Obama in his administration to make America better. It was a nice respite from the harsh attacks and negative publicity.

It makes you wonder if only McCain had showed the same amount of class during the campaign what the outcome may have been. The fate for McCain was sealed when Indiana, Pennsylvania and Ohio went Democratic. Some supporters would not recognize defeat until the concession call was made. Republican supporters have four years to ponder this election and wonder what may have been but at the same time they should recognize the magnitude and historical significance of the first African American president. Martin Luther King Jr. would be proud ; his dream has been recognized.

Political Consultants

Each candidate in the campaign has their own political consultants. They need to have one because they often don't have time to do everything themselves, due to being very busy with dealing with the issues and everything else. Each political consultant has their own jobs as writers, speech coaches, direct mail specialists, and specialists in television commercial production and placement.

The consultants jobs as writers are to basically to handle all of the advertising chores of the campaign. This allows the candidate not to have to worry about what commercials go where and how it should be played out during the campaign. Speech coaches are simply there to help with public speaking and debating, if needed. Some candidates come in to a campaign needing a lot of work on their "speaking" abilities. People who work with the direct mail are simply there to make sure it gets out to the right people, it says the right type of things to help the candidate, and also to make sure everything is going smoothly on the outside.

Everyone has a really important role in the campaigning process, and the candidate is really lucky to have these people with them to help them. OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!!!

Advertising

With the campaign coming to an end, everyone is wondering who infact will be the next president of the United States, Obama or McCain. Recently a lot of talk has been on the advertising used by the candidates in the last week of the election. During a lot of the campaign, I feel like Obama has used the cruise strategy, to his benefit I believe. The cruise strategy is simply for candidates who are in the lead throughout most of the election, and are obviously striving to maintain the lead. During this strategy the camaign makes a "flat buy" which simply ensures purchasing a constant number of commercials each day during the stages of the campaign, especially the last week or so. Obama has used this strategy because he is still getting commercial time and his name is still out there. OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT!!!

Settling down

This has been an exhausting year. Ever since about March I have found myself in a constant spiral of argument, malicious attacks, misinformation, and repetitiveness. I believe the term is "shit-storm". As far as this election goes, I am officially done. Well, so is America in about 24 hours. This final post will be a round-up of some of the less-covered venues that I find great interest in.

For years, Nickelodeon has broadcasted Nick News with Linda Ellerbee. Well, she's still kicking, and the results for the Kids Pick the President special are in. After 2 million votes, Barack Obama wins with 51%, and McCain loses with 49%. That was an incredibly close race, for sure. Almost too close. In a Nick News special on the candidates, kids asked important questions regarding key issues; these questions were answered by the candidates so many times that by now, it's merely second nature. The last question asked blindsided both of them: "What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?" Obama answered first by saying his daughters like to be cute for Halloween. This goes against his beliefs that Halloween should be scary. He then admitted that his favorite costume was a pirate. McCain answered swiftly by saying his favorite costume was also as a pirate. He would like to still take out his sword and dagger in the Senate at times. How incredibly adorable is that?

For both candidates to agree to do this is admirable. The production was simple. They probably only spent a half-hour in a room with a camera and an interviewer. It's all a part of the "big show" strategy. The pageantry of it all may allude to the candidates' need to appeal to voters' children, but maybe it's because they simply want to do it. But this is important to a lot of kids (apparently at least 2 million). A lot of the time, kids only focus on character when picking a president and not the issues. As the videos posted on their site will indicate, many kids do care about the issues and have a lot to say. Although they are not eligible voters, they will be next election. Also, they come from a household whose views may be the same as their views. Could this be a reflection of the national result?

Blitz

John McCain is insane. Seven states before the day is done. He starts out in Florida, moves up to Tennessee, Pennsylvania, hits Indiana, jumps out west to Nevada, New Mexico, and lands home in Arizona late tonight. Meanwhile, Obama also starts in Florida, but merely heads to North and South Carolina before going home to Chicago.

This obviously follows along the fast finish media strategy for a campaign. These rallies in key swing states signify McCain's "never give up" attitude, inherited from Bush and other Republicans. Each candidate will run their campaigns to the voting polls, and it is evident through these sudden rallies.

Although each media strategy seems clear-cut, the candidates seem to have utilized all of them. They both started out very strong, kept that strength for over a year, and are ending strong. It can be labeled as any of the strategies, from spurt to cruise control. However, given the atmosphere of the media at this point, it can seem that the campaigns are adhering to a fast finish race. It started with Obama's 30-minute ad and is ending with McCain's cross-country rally.

CNN reported about two hours ago their interpretation of the candidate's ad strategies. They highlighted two television ads, one from each candidate. Both were attack ads. Obama's tied McCain in with the Bush administration. This is an Obama-endorsed ad, broadcasted nationally. The McCain ad was endorsed by the Pennsylvania GOP, not McCain. Therefore, it was highlighting Obama's association with his former pastor, Rev. Wright; McCain stated he would never talk about this again, but by having an ad sponsored by the Penn. GOP, it's fair game.

These fast finish strategies are shaping up to be reflections of the entire year, wrapped into one concentrated package.

Candidates Make Their Cases In Final Days Leading Up To Election

In these final days leading up to the election, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are making their respective cases on why each of them should be the 44th president of the United States. To the victor goes an office facing "global economic instability" and "an array of foreign policy challenges." Each of the candidates took time to sit down with USA Today and discuss an array of topics. John McCain, while in Defiance, Ohio, showed defiance to the polls that show him trailing Senator Obama, denied a supposed "tension" between him and Sarah Palin, and pressed his case further on why he would be the better president. McCain discussed how, he felt the recent rise in popularity of Joe the Plumber, and his infamous interaction with Senator Obama, would help convince voters of "the perils of backing Obama." As the interview progressed in regards to Joe, Senator McCain said, "What Joe the Plumber did was he showed America exactly what Sen. Obama's plans mean to America, which would be sending our economy into a deeper recession and harm our economy," McCain said. "So when people saw Joe the Plumber ask the question, and the answer that Sen. Obama gave him." McCain snapped his finger. "The light went on."
Meanwhile in Virginia Beach, Senator Obama stressed how his diverse background would be a plus if he were elected President. Saying he was looking forward to leading the country at a "difficult and challenging time," Senator Obama noted how his biracial background and years spent as a child overseas would help him be a more successful president than Senator McCain. When further asked to name some of his assets, Barack sited his upbringing, growing up black with an absent father, white mother and grandparents. Barack continued on to say, "I come from a diverse background and so I think I understand a lot of different cultures." This diverse background Senator Obama says will allow him to meet "the challenges and threats of the 21st century.....more effectively than John McCain."
Tuesday is shaping up to be an interesting day. With so many polls showing Senator Obama in the lead, one would hope that people do not become complacent and assume that the winner is already decided. In one of the most important elections in our history, let us hope that people take all the information that they have heard and learned over these past months, and apply it by voting for the candidate that they feel would lead our country in the right direction.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-10-30-2-interviews_N.htm

The Internet's Niche

It is no question that the Internet is a bigger form of mass media, almost in its own realm. Using text, sound, video, interactivity, customization, pushing of information by message creators, and pulling of information by consumers all make the Internet an ideal marketplace for political campaigning. Trent and Friedenberg predicted that in the 2008 presidential campaign ads would be tested online before broadcasted on television. This is indeed true. As the authors have also mentioned, due to the decision by the Federal Election Commission, any content created for a campaign used for web ads, websites, or e-mail is not subject to campaign finance regulations. This does not include paid ads for other websites. The freedom of message creation and cheap feedback can dynamically change a campaign from its very core.

One gross underestimation by the authors is their comparison of the 2004 election with this one. Four years have passed, and more people are online. Not only that, but a great increase in voting-age citizens has also occurred. More people rely on the Internet for information; more people check their e-mail multiple times a day; more people subscribe to RSS feeds for a daily dose of customized literature. By the next election, I feel it is safe to say that the Internet will be the primary focus of a campaign using mass media.

Already Obama has raised record amounts of money from his website. Credible news sources use each candidate's website for information to write articles. As I've mentioned before: the book is already outdated, and it was published this year.

Obama's Website

Through this whole experience with this class and doing blogs, I have actually come to find that I have learned a lot. Even people around me that I speak with almost on a daily basis have given their imput on how much I have come from before I started with this class. Just from this class I am now able to have an opinion on the election, and it really feels good. My blog for this week is about the websites of the candidates. I have visited both candidates websites, and honestly but have honestly only really been able to focus on one...and that is Obamas. The functions of a candidates website are to affect visitor opinions, a means of fundraising, and a means of developing a body of candidate volunteers. When I first go onto Obama's website, the first thing that catches my eye, is saying "5 Things you can do to Volunteer." This right of the bat is performing one of the functions of a candidate's website. I also like how it goes nice and neat, and really is informative for visitors. I think that the Obama website can affect visitor opinions because when you visit the site, everything is laid out and easy to get to and read. I actually think that it shows a little bit about how Obama would run the country. He will lay it out on the table, and not hide anything. I think as time goes on the use of the internet will increase even more in the time of elections. People will be developing even crazier things and ways people can add this into their actual campaign.

Higher Purpose

After weeks and months of down and dirty campaigning, Barack Obama is returning back to his "new politics." He's delivering his "Closing Argument Speech on the Change We Need." He talks of ending politics that divide a nation, and starting a new politic that brings out the best in people. He claims that the past 8 years a higher purpose has been missing from our country and he promises that change.
One of the reasons I chose this article was because of one thing Obama said, The question in this election is not “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” We know the answer to that. The real question is, “Will this country be better off four years from now?”

This is true. We shouldn't be examining the election from a retrospective viewpoint. We should all ask ourselves this question before the vote. So what do you think? Will this country be better off four years from now with Obama or McCain?

"More Important Endorsement than Oprah's"

On Sunday, Colin Powell endorsed Obama for president. In case you don’t know, Powell is a retired general and Republican ex-secretary-of-state under President Bush. Some analysts call this a serious blow to McCain’s campaign. While announcing his endorsement, Powell gave a “devastating” critique of McCain. He mainly talked about McCain’s failed response to the economic crisis, McCain’s negative campaigning, and criticized his selection of Palin as his running mate. He said that McCain’s choice made him question McCain’s judgment because he doesn’t believe “she’s ready to be president of the United States.” He stated that he believes that Obama has the “intellectual vigor” to be president, and that he thinks we need a president who will generate change. Some analysts say this is really harmful to McCain because they believe Powell appealed to many independent voters. However, McCain does not seem to be worried, stating that he is “very pleased to have the endorsement of four former secretaries of state…”


http://www.kansascity.com/449/story/854330.html

New Poll: Obama, McCain Neck in Neck For Rural Vote:

After trailing by as many as 10 points in a recent swing state rural area poll, Barack Obama has narrowed this gap so that he is now neck and neck with Senator McCain. This is a major development as the votes of rural area people in these swing states is seen as a major vote in being able to win the White House. In the poll, Obama was supported by 46 percent of voters and McCain was supported by 45 percent of voters. The poll, commissioned by The Center for Rural Strategies in Whitesburg, Kentucky, seems to attribute this sudden change to America's declining economic situation. A month ago, this same poll showed that McCain led Obama by a 51 to 41 percent margin. However, when polled this time, voters seemed to think that Obama would do a better job of handling the economy, taxes, and what they called "The financial crisis in our country."
Again this is newsworthy as nearly 20 percent of Americans live in areas that are considered rural. In 2004, George W. Bush won these rural areas by a rather large margin, 19 percent. A possible reason for McCain's drop in the polls could be the rural voters recent cooling of their support for McCain's vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin. In September, 48 percent of those polled viewed her favorably, while only 33 percent viewed her unfavorably. In this most recent poll however, 40 percent view her as favorably, while 42 percent view her unfavorably. However, McCain still held a 10 point advantage, 53-43 percent on the issue of who would handle the war in Iraq better.
This poll to me seems to help show the major role that the current state of our economy will play in this election. It seems that most people think that Senator Obama would do a better job of handling the struggling economy and the financial crisis, so this bodes well for him. However, there are other key categories that people feel McCain would do a better job with. All of this added up makes for a very interesting last couple of weeks before election day.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081023/pl_nm/us_usa_politics_rural

Obama's Tax Cut Calculator

For the past few weeks and for the next two, there has been a back and forth debate over whose tax plan will benefit the most people, including you.  McCain has promised his tax cuts to corporations will benefit Americans more indirectly through job creation.  Obama promises to cut taxes for 95% of working families, and provide at least three times as much tax relief for middle class families as McCain.  

To help preview your savings from his plan, Obama has placed a tax calculator on his website homepage where you can see the potential savings you may receive.  So, I went ahead and placed my information into the preset categories.  With an annual income of $20,000, single filing status, retirement savings and college expenses,  I am expected $500 in tax savings plus I may be eligible for $4000 tax credit to pay for college expenses and 50% tax credit for up to $1000 for retirement savings.  This all sounds great, however, I am skeptical on this eligible clause.  

If you are unsure of how you'll benefit from the Obama tax cut, I encourage you to go to www.barackobama.com and click on the link.  

FBI Investigates ACORN

After hearing so much recently about the group ACORN, I was interested to find out just what this group actually was. ACORN, or The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is a community activist group that has come under some intense heat in recent weeks for potentially helping foster voter registration fraud around the nation.
The FBI has actually started an investigation, two senior law enforcement officials confirmed. The FBI is looking at results of several inquiries in various states, including a raid of one of ACORN's main offices in Las Vegas. Both officials however had to remain anonymous, as Justice Department regulations disallow officials to discuss ongoing investigations, especially so close to an election. ACORN spokespeople have re-buddled in saying that they have not been told of any ongoing investigation, nor do they think that they should be under investigation for anything.
This is obviously a major deal because of Obama's supposed ties to the group. He has on multiple occasions denied it, but there still seems to be some questions out there. The topic came up in the debate on Wednesday, and he attempted at least to set the record straight on his involvement with the group. As the McCain campaign continues to push the issue, it will be interesting to see what we find out about it here in the last couple weeks of the election.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101601533_3.html

Obama-Biden Tax Calculator

“What’s your Obama tax cut?” This is the first thing you see on Obama’s website, as of right now. If you click on it, it takes you to where you can put a little bit of information in and get a result of what your tax cut would look like under Obama’s plan and what you would get under McCain’s plan. It also shows some facts about Obama’s plan and a video runs putting down McCain’s plan. The video says McCain’s plan only benefits the wealthy, and compares McCain to Bush twice. I think it’s cute that when you put in an annual income of around $250,000 it says “You will probably not get a tax cut under the Obama-Biden plan.” If you put in anything lower than that it will give you actual amounts. For example, a family with a $50,000 - $75,000 annual income, two dependents, and college expenses would save $1,000 and “Plus, under Obama, you may be eligible for a $4,000 tax credit to pay for college expenses.” This is versus a “McCain tax savings” of $645. I looked at McCain’s website and could not find anything like Obama’s tax calculator on his. I think it would be interesting to see what his website would say when the same information was put in.

http://taxcut.barackobama.com/

Advertising!

Advertising during the election can either make or break a person's actual campaign. Normally political campaigns make use of seven different types of advertising media to use during the election times in order to help them. They involve display graphics, direct mail, telephone, print, radio, television, and the internet. Display advertising, also known as graphic advertising, is and can be seen everywhere. This includes billboards, bumper stickers, and yard signs, which in fact are seen everywhere. I wish I had a yard sign, and it would definately say Obama!!! One thing that display advertising really helps with is name recognition, and that really helps reinforce who that person is. Another form of advertising is the telephone contact services. This is used for persuading voters, getting out the vote on election day, and raising money. The phone service however, is normally used for raising money! Television is another huge way to advertise. A person can not turn on a t.v. without seeing some form of election thing with either Barack Obama or John McCain's face on it! Thats just the way it is. So you can see that advertising is something that happens every single day, every single second...pretty much!

The Pant Suits Are Back in Action!

Mr. Biden, Mrs. Biden!  Mr. Clinton, Mrs. Clinton!  All the democrats were out today in support of Barack Obama's campaign.  During their visit to Biden's hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, rallied voters to choose Obama in November.  Hillary Clinton explained how Biden understand their lives, and that out of all the people in Congress, he is one of the members who knows "the most about the economic, political and security challenges of America."

The ironic underlying story here is Clinton beat Obama in the Pennsylvania primary collecting 55% of the vote (Obama received 45%).  Now it was her job to persuade them to switch their votes to him.  Of course, she was willing to reiterate the economic crisis and Obama/Biden will lead us out of it. 

What is curious is how the game is being played in the last few weeks before the election.  The McCain campaign has bee throwing around the relationship Obama had with the founding member of the radical Weather Underground.  On the other side of the political spectrum, the Obama campaign is highlighting McCain's role in the Keating Five scandal, which is quite similar to the AIG today.  

Edutaining Infomercial

It is incredibly amazing how out of date the Trent & Friedenberg book already is, considering its publication date is 2008. This presidential election is a first on many fronts for communication strategies. The advent of the Internet as a primary source of advertising really skews the old ways of political ads. The book mentions in Chapter 10, Section entitled Television that television ads are the only ads that appeal to both sight and sound. We know that is incredibly true of Internet ads as well. In fact, several ads this year were made exclusively for the Internet. This allowed the candidates to take up more than just 30 seconds or 60 seconds, but sometimes up to 3 minutes. It can arguably be too long for an ad, but what is a 30 minute ad called? Is it still a "commercial", or something else?

Coming October 29th is a 30-minute ad of Senator Barak Obama during primetime television. He claims it will be "closing argument" of what we have heard so far in the debates. He bought the same 8 PM timeslot on both NBC and CBS. The commercial will air during Nightrider and The New Adventures of Old Christine on each network, respectively. No official price has been released for these ads; however, each ad has been estimated at $1.5 million, totalling $3 million for the Obama campaign. There is also negotiations with FOX, but the ad would air during the World Series, so the possibility is low. In just two ads, Obama has already far exceeded the estimates given by our book for regular 30 and 60-second spots during primetime television. The only other person to do this in history was Ross Perot in 1992.

Interestingly enough, McCain will be offered the same opportunity by each network, according to federal law. However, because Obama did whip up this plan early and picked the times first, McCain may be too late to have a solid effect. Obama, realizing how close this race may be and anticipating that each state carries equal worth in spending money for ads, decided to knock it all out at once with a big media ad. This, of course, was the book's second point at noting the difficulties of television advertising.

Mark your TV Guides.

"Obama, the Baby Killer"

Some people still believe this is true. For those of you who are belatedly learning about this like me, Obama voted against some bills in Illinois that were about the protection of babies that are aborted but are still alive. Some people do not seem to know that there was already a law in Illinois about the protection of these babies, and that Obama believed the new bills would have potentially violated Roe v. Wade.

Just today I saw brand new blogs and online notes about how people are trying to spread the word about Obama’s baby-killing tendencies. People believe this because of sites like BornAliveTruth.org that advertise Obama’s votes against those bills in Illinois, but hardly mention the fact that a similar law was already in place. I think this is a good example of how untruths can be spread by the diffusion of information, which is discussed in Trent & Friedenberg's "Political Campaign Communication," and we talked about it class.

For an actual in-depth coverage of this issue, please visit http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obama_and_infanticide.html

"Well it's no picnic for me either, buddy"

On Barack Obama’s website, there is a part named “BarackTV: The Movement.” I was interested to see what might be found out about the candidate while watching the clip. It begins with talking about how great America is, and how people in this country have stories that cannot be created in other countries. There are many small video clips of Obama speaking to crowds, photographs of Obama’s life, as well as a narrator leading the story on. Barack’s family is intertwined throughout the movie. Barack’s story is very inspirational. He had grandparents who were actively involved in the Great Depression, and World War Two. Barack only met his dad for one month. His mother and Barack would wake up at 4:30 in the morning and learn lessons. When he would complain, his mom would say “well this is no picnic for me either, buddy.” One of his most repeated phrases throughout the movie was “imagine yourself standing in other people’s shoes.”

The clip highlights Obama’s reason for wanting to be president. There were some other politicians interviewed, and they would say “Obama is passionate about the issues he fights for.” He does not just want to be the president to have the status, he wants to work for the American people to improve lives. He mentions that the world needs to be changed, and the only person who can start to change it is you. His core values mentioned include: hard-work, honesty, self-reliance, empathy, respect, kindness, and faith. “Americans can do anything when they put their minds to it.” Obama wants to work on behalf of the next generation, in order to make their lives better. He wants to work for “not just some people, but for all of us.”

The video aims to lead the audience to believe that Obama is the way to change. That he is the way to make America once again the greatest country in the world. With no negative aspects of the movie, the audience may begin to think that Obama is a new and different politician who will be a great leader.

The Results of Presidential Debate #2

The second presidential debate was full of little jabs between the candidates over some key issues, mainly the economy. A big topic going into the campaign was not only who would win, but also that McCain needed to win or to have a very strong showing to try and convince and sway some undecided or independent voters to his side. Since the first debate, the polls have shown Obama's lead rising, and some key swing states leaning toward Obama. Some of these states, including Florida, North Carolina, and Ohio have some major impact on the election, as they have a large amount of electoral votes. Even some usually given Republican states such as Indiana, had become toss-ups. Going into the debate, people expected McCain to take more of an offensive and challenger approach, trying to call out Obama on some issues, and perhaps even rattle the Illinois senator from his normal cool and calm demeanor. Meanwhile, as we kind of discussed in class, many people thought that Obama needed to keep his cool and calm demeanor, as it served him well in the first debate. Also, another key thing for Obama was to discuss the economy often, as it has proven to be one of his strong suits.
The town hall debate set up was interesting, and it is pretty much decided that both candidates did a relatively good job with no major screw ups or flops. But the question is still, Who won? Viewing a number of sources, it has become clear that most people share the same opinion; neither candidate won hands down. However, that statement in itself kind of helped decide who the winner was. The consensus seems to be that Obama won the debate, not because of necessarily what he did, but more so because McCain did not have that game changing moment that he and his campaign needed to change the direction that this race is going in. Politico.Com's Alexander Burns sums it up pretty well: "Obama didn't deliver a knockout punch tonight. But he denied his opponent the chance to re scramble the campaign, and that was enough. The day goes to him. "
The Associated Press, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post all seem to agree in their own ways. Mark Halperin, at at Time Magazine had this to say, "[Obama] played it typically cautious and safe, and thus avoided major blunders, knowing if he commits no errors for the next 30 days, he will be the next president of the United States. " In a CBS poll following the debate, 40 percent of voters said Obama won, while 26 percent said McCain won, and the other 34 percent said the debate was a relative tie. A CNN poll showed that 54 percent said Obama won, while only 30 percent gave it to McCain. However the same CNN poll also showed that 83 percent of those polled felt that McCain was more prepared for the job, so McCain can take some light in that. This final month of the campaign will prove very interesting. Will Obama be able to hold onto his apparent current lead? Or will McCain be able to find that defining and "game changing" moment he needs to turn the voters to his side? Only time will tell.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/ynews_el71