Voters

Hello Everyone--
I hope everyone's doing well, and I cannot wait for the reunion! But, I wanted to blog just a bit on something that is troubling me. I went home to Roanoke this past weekend for a wedding and to see one of my good friend's first born child--the fact they they are my age is troubling, but not the reason I'm writing.
While sitting with my friend and holding his newborn, we started talking politics. That was a mistake. He asked me who I was voting for, and I said Hillary. He could not believe it-- he was stunned and was telling me how horrible she was. Then I proceeded to ask him who he was voting for and his response was (get ready for it...) HUCKABEE!! Oy, I reacted the same way he did when I admitted my support for Hillary. I asked him the reasons he had for voting for Huckabee and he said, "He seems calm, cool, and collected." I immediately ended the conversation because I could not handle where this was going. We have been friends for a long time, and this was an issue we had never talked about before. I don' think we'll do it again anytime soon to save our friendship!!
But the scary thing is, even at the wedding reception, several of my other classmates voiced their support for Huckabee. But, very few of them could answer (in an articulate manner) why they supported him other than very vague reasons (parents support him, church endorses him, Chuck Norris supports him).
As an issue voter with liberal tendencies, I find this very troubling. As a younger demographic, we always hear about the importance of voting. It is our civic duty, and one that should not be taken for granted when taking into account the many lives that fought, and the ones that were lost protecting that right. Now, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but hear me out. We know we are supposed to vote, but what if the people voting are not educated about what the person stands for, and are making choices based on character traits such as "calm, cool, and collected". Should they still vote? How can someone work to change their opinions or educate them when their minds are made up?
I do not have a good answer to any of these questions, but i found it very fascinating (and scary) that this was such a dominant theme in my hometown among my peers. Granted, the people that I was talking to have never left the town, and have minimal education after high school. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing-- but I know my views have definitely changed since being in college. I don't think that every person in college is going to become enlightened and vote Democrat-- we have plenty of very educated Republicans on this campus whom I respect very much. BUT-- I do wish that people could figure out what they believe in and take the initiative to make an informed choice. Is that too much to ask?

Obama and Clinton neck and neck

So I get washington post emails everday, and the latest polls say Clinton leads in Ohio, 50 to 43 %, Obama! wow, good job Clinton, finally getting something. Actually Ohio is were my brother and sister in law live, so i have a feelin they might vote for Clinton, because i parents did in MD polls... but i dont know specfically why.. maybe they like her economy plan, which seems to be her stregnth. In Texas, clinton barely has a winnig prediction in polls of 48% and Obama 47%.. maan that is close, eeks.. thats when you got to campaign galore. She seems to be be a lead for most hispanics in Texas, which might be the reason they predict that 1% lead. Unfortunetly for CLinton, wining these two latest states still wont be good enough to beat out all the states Obama has won.. it helps a lot, but still she needs to do some serious campaigning, and convice a lot of people, inorder to get a tighter grasp and better chance, to beat Obama. Well they have until march 4 i believe, is the offical day Ohio and Texas vote? Bill even said that it is vital for Hillary to win Ohio and Texas, because that will then keep her in the race for nomination. Democrates are split between the two because they all want an experienced candidate who can bring real change and progress, which is most likely thought to be Hillary, but they also find that Obama will be a good president who will fufil the needs and would bring the most change in Washington. For this exact reason i was not sure who i was going to vote for back in the MD elections, its such a tough choice, because i think they are both great candidates who will get a lot done. A lot of what the demographics is in each state, is what will be the big counter for who will win each state. (like any other election). Oh man this election process has been crazy. Its such a close race, its like you never know whats gonna happen each time!
Oh what about the supposed affair McCain had? Does that seem to be affecting his campaign? Can someone tell me more about that becasue i just heard about it and therefore do not know whats going on with that and the rublican votes.

Potomac Primary and More

I don’t know how many of you guys actually voted past Tuesday, but it was really interesting to see so many people at the voting stations. I live right across voting station in my voting district, and I think I saw as many people as I would normally see for the presidential election. There were many people in the line! As far as I remember, I didn’t see that much people back in 2004 primary in the same place, so I guess this primary is really different. There wasn’t much surprise or excitement compared to the Super Tuesday from last week, but I was happy to see that Sen. Obama finally made his breakthrough, which he supposes to made a month ago in NH. Now, for the first time in this campaign, Hilary has to run her campaign as an underdog, and it would be really interesting to see how she would make a great comeback like she did in NH. It would be very interesting to watch Obama campaign too. Since he is considered as a front runner, both Sen. Clinton and Sen. McCain would attack his campaign, and it would be very interesting to see how Sen. Obama reacts on those negative spins. Speaking of negative campaign, I heard very disturbing stories about Hilary campaign in Texas. As many people expected, Sen. Clinton won CA primary by winning over Latino voters, and she might win Texas by the same mechanism. However, what really disturbed me about Hilary campaign’s Latino strategy was that her campaign tried to use the century-old division between African Americans and Latino population in the Southwest, especially in CA and Texas. Hilary campaign already launched rapid negative ads against Sen. Obama specifically targeted to Latino voters in Texas, which is pretty large blocks of voting coalition. I also heard from my Latino friends in Texas along with some online sources saying that Hilary campaign is raising unpleasant racial campaigns there like she did in South Carolina. Hilary’s TA campaign theme goes something like this – if you Latino people put inexperienced Black man on the White House, you all would regret and suffer. Of course, she stays clean on all those unpleasant businesses, but Texans are saying that those kind of ugly words are clearly out there. Hilary desperately needs to win TA and Ohio, but I really hope that she wouldn’t purposely try to divide the country to win her presidency.

Now that Obama campaign made a major breakthrough and Sen. Obama became an unstoppable rock star figure, I was started to worry about if he could really bring us changes that he promised over and over again on the campaign trail. After all those excitements from campaigns are over, he needs to seriously working for American people who gave him enormous support and enthusiastic spirit in his historical campaign. Some people were really disappointed by Clinton’s eight years of presidency because he campaigned like he would be the next JFK, but he turned out to be just an ordinary president who did his job relatively well compared to other average presidents. I guess people are really excited about Obama campaign now because they see next Dr. King or next Kennedy from his campaign. However, if Obama turned out to be very ideological, but not practical president like President Carter back in 70s, it would be another nightmare and disaster for liberals. I was really surprised to hear about Romney drop out last week. Obviously, I think he is an extremely good candidate for conservative (R) s, and I thought he was kind of guy who would fight until his last man, last dollar. But, I guess it’s always smart decision to quit while you still have a choice rather than forced to quit. Some says Gov. Romney looks for 2012 bid, but I’m not sure how it would work for him. Waiting for next chance seems worked very well for Sen. McCain, but it was completely opposite affect for Sen. Edwards. Everybody thought John Edwards had a bright future back in 2004, but he couldn’t even come to second on his own party. I don’t even know Gov. Romney would go for another round, but I hope he could make a great comeback for next round to make 2012 primary more interesting.

Voting Day

First, THANK YOU! professor Muir-i think was who helped me be able to post!

ok second lets talk about voting day.
So i was really excited to vote yesterday, Ive never voted before, i knw im horrible for not votin at the last presidential election but Im out of state and couldnt drive to MD.. and i knew my absentee ballot wouldnt count so.. ya
So im driving to MD, i call my dad to make sure i got what i need and all.. im pumped lets go, voting in a primary is just and exciting thought, this is prob the biggest election in history, you know and im pretty up to date, it becomes a big deal to me (esp after NH).. my moms all mad that im 'wasting' my time to drive to MD.. whatver i didnt have a class til 4:30pm.. so i get to my community center where the voting was being held, gave my info and whatnot.. THEN the lady tells me im registerd as an independent!!!!!! I was like, ok, what do i do now? and she was tellin me how MD is a closed primary, only democrats and republicans can vote.. BUT I THOUGHT I WAS REGISTERD AS A DEMOCRATE!! (crap).. grant it i registerd like 5years ago, so maybe then i wanted options, bc you never know a candadite from a diff party suprises you and you like there ideas/stands.. so she tells me i can vote for the board of education.. i didnt know anything about the candidates! but since thats my field i thought it was important to do it.. they gave me a booklet with the runners info.. so i made the best choice i could and voted for that.. i mean im proud i did that bc its important too.. HOWEVER.. i was SO upset that i couldnt vote for the presidental primary.. im not gonna lie, i got emotional.. as you all know this election will/has made history! I know I can still vote in the actual novemeber elections.. but still i dunno, i kinda feel jipped (sp?).

I'm happy at least the person i was gonna vote for won, with great numbers.. all of the district.. I mean both democratic candidates i think are great choices.. but i like Obama more. The problem however is that evryone says that Obama wont get the nomination bc hes black and he will get assasinated as soon as he becomes president.. what the heck.. and then i hear from others that if he gets the nomination, democrates are gonna vote for McCain instead!! none of the older crowd seem to want Obama (even though he got so many states). I dont know whats gonna happen, this really is such a close race, not just for the Democrates, but I mean you really dont know which political party will win! It can go either way and it is just crazy!!!

ok, everyone stay warm, be safe, and try not to stress out :) ~Nishah

Today is the Virginia Primary!!! Dont forget to vote....unless ur voting against my party...just kidding vote vote vote!!!!

Heartbroken Follower

Well I guess it's official now. Mitt Romney has decided to stop compaigning and leaving it up to McCain, the dinosaur. Now the republican party will lose the election it seems since Obama and Clinton have such steam going behind them.

As the whole group knew I was supporting Romney and now...I'm heartbroken. There goes my vote.. Now since he is out I will have to decide on who to vote for next teusday and I'm certain its going to be for Ron Paul (youre welcome David). If he decides to drop out now too I'm voting Obama.

This just looks to me like the Republican party is giving up. McCain has the nomination it seems and I really hope he doesn't get it. I'm surprised Romney dropped out, I figured Huckabee would drop out before him but he is still on the ballot. This republican is quite upset. hah

Mitt Romney!

Mitt Romney has decided to suspend his campaign! At first I was pretty surprised, but then I thought back to Tuesday and figured it was coming. His Super Tuesday results were pretty disappointing and that would have been his biggest chance to top McCain, butI thought he might have waited until after the Kansas/Lousiana primaries coming up in two days. Since distribution of his delegates is left up to each State's Republican party, it's going to be interesting to see where those votes go. I feel like his suspension, along with the fight between McCain and the ultra-right wing conservatives could catapult Mike Huckabee into a position where he could pose a threat to McCain's front-runner status!

Hillary

So, it not much of a secret to anyone who went on the trip that I am a republican. Despite that, I feel the need to defend Hillary Clinton in one specific aspect....her attire. Yesterday in one of my classes we were talking about her choice of attire. The majority of the class was bashing her because they said that she wasnt wearing appropriate clothing because she "did not look presidential". Some people made fun of the blue turchoise necklace and the brown suit she wore at the debate in California.
Who can say what is the correct attire for a female running for president?
I believe that there is no guideline for what she can and cannot wear mainly because she is the very first female to run. Now im not saying that she can wear jeans but I dont think because she wore a blue necklace and a brown suit makes that she looks unpresidential...am I wrong?

Super Tuesday Results

So, who watched the results? Can you predict now who will be the next President? What do you think of Huckabee's success? Any surprises?

JM