[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Re: Dubya causes chaos in the Heartland...
Well, first off, I'm not a political expert by any means. I'm slowly
beginning to think, however, that this idea of beginning a war has as one
of its factors the simple fact that Dubya wants to get reelected.
Despite his mostly good handling of the events following 9/11, a
President can Bring G-d down to Palm Beach for a round of golf and win
and still not get elected if that game happens to take place more that
eighteen months before the election. In other words, voters have
extremely short memories. 2001 will simply be too far away to factor into
the election in 2004. Dubya has to keep his momentum going, and this is a
fairly tied-and-true way of doing it. Providing, of course, he can
actually get public opinion behind it.
Liesel, don't jump on me, too, but I have to say I really see where
Amy-Raven (hi, baby!) is coming from. Yes, I believe the inevitability of
some kind of Iraqui-based attack is real, but we've done an awful lot
of-- if you'll pardon the expression-- dick-waving across the globe this
year. I don't think a preemptive strike-- which some are discussing
oh-so-deriously in Congress as something we must do, damn the civilians--
is something that's really going to make us friends in the rest of the
world. I believe our best interests would be better served in an
international court, where we can prove our allegatins without giving the
rest of the world the opportunity to march in the streets denouncing
Americans, getting increasingly incensed at our foreign policy, and doing
really nasty things to our foreign nationals. Or people right here. We've
done the big stick thing. I believe it reflects better on us to at least
attempt to try a few intelligent, non-fatal steps before we go in there
with planes, trains, and automatic weapons.
Also, get used to seeing Dubya in the Midwest. I'm sure he'll also be
campaigning hard in Florida and Pennsylvania. There are several crucial
Senate races he has to plug, as well as a few House contests.
Which is as good a segue as I guess I'm ever going to get, so....
I have a new job. I'm now a Research Coordinator at the Annenberg Center
for Public Policy, which is part of the Annenberg School for
Communications, here at the University of Pennsylvania. If any of you are
familiar with Kathleen Hall Jamieson ("Packaging the Presidency,"
"Everything You Think You Know About Politics...And Why You're Wrong,"),
she's my boss, and an amazing woman.
The study on which I'm now working is a Pew-funded grant to look at ways
to get people more politically engaged, and how local news broadcasts and
their related websites affect voters. We're studying ten markets across
the US, looking at elections of particular importance or interest. My
markets are Des Moines, which has one of the big Senate races, and Sioux
Falls, which has, perhaps, the biggest Senate contest of them all this
year. Both markets also have big House races, and even hot Gubernatorial
contests. It's totally not something in which I thought I'd be
interested, but I'm fascinated, and enjoying it very, very much. Just ask
Anita-- I didn't shut up about it once all day Monday.
If anyone's interested, you can take a look at the APPC at
http://www.appcpenn.org/.
---------------
Unsubscribe by going to http://www.actwin.com/OtR/
Follow-Ups: