This page is dedicated to the upcoming 2008 presidential election, which promises to be one of the more interesting in recent memory. Never before has there been an opportunity for an African American, a woman, or an Italian to become President of the United States. Now all three–Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Rudolph Giuliani–have the chance in the same election. Below is a link to the electoral map (with results from the 2004 presidential election) that will determine the outcome of this historic event.
The Independent Thinkers
A page for thinking people who tirelessly challenge their own assumptions and let neither conventionality nor agenda nor political party obstruct the relentless pursuit of truth
- Home
- Books of Note
- Election 2008
- Films of Note
- Groundbreakers
- In the News
- Music
- Video Presentations and Clips
Google US. News- Couple crashes into notoriety - Philadelphia Inquirer
- Palin book-signing draws long line of eastern Washington fans - Seattle Times
- The First Fan takes in some college hoops at the GW/Oregon State game - FOXNews
- Arrest warrant issued for Florida man in quadruple slaying - CNN
- Terrorism trial in New York carries few risks for government - Los Angeles Times
April 5, 2007 at 2:47 pm |
The first quarter fundraising results for each of the candidates have been reported. They are as follows: On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has raised $26 million (added to the $10 million she already had from her Senate campaign contributions) and Barack Obama $25 million. John Edwards came in a respectable third with about $14 million, while Bill Richardson, Christopher Dodd, and Joe Biden raised $6 million, $4 million, and about $ 2 million respectively.
On the Republican side, the winner was Mitt Romney, who raised $20.6 million. Rudy Giuliani totaled $ 14 million, John McCain $12.5 million, Sam Brownback $ 1.3 million, and Mike Huckabee $ .5 million.
April 6, 2007 at 1:07 am |
It’s kind of ironic that they choose to use this money to campaign for the ability to do good in the world, when in fact they could just use that damned money to do the good already.
April 9, 2007 at 3:26 am |
Haha, i agree with you Chris. Why not litterally put their money where their mouths are and actually do something rather than just preaching words to earn votes. A bit childish.
April 26, 2007 at 10:38 pm |
Democratic Presidential Debate on MSNBC 7 pm TONIGHT, re-airing at 11 pm.
April 27, 2007 at 12:58 am |
Republican Candidate Debate scheduled for May 3 MSNBC.
April 29, 2007 at 1:09 am |
The Democrats held their first presidential debates this week in what can only be decribed as uneventful. The highlight of the evening came when contender Joe Biden was asked whether he thought his tendency to ramble when answering questions hurts his candidacy and his response was a terse “yes.”
April 30, 2007 at 5:40 pm |
Uneventful, I agree I suppose, but it was a good chance, for me anyway to see them speak. I’d never seen Obama speak. I was impressed with most of them. Many of them do have extremely similar ideologies, the main discerning point seemed to be who supported going to Iraq and who didn’t. It will be interesting to see if and how that point will be played out with the Republicans.
They should have asked the same question to NM Gov. Richardson, although I thought he had the best quip of the night: “Stubborness is not a foreign policy.”
Does anyone else who saw it have any comments?
May 8, 2007 at 1:15 pm |
The Republicans also had their debate last Thursday. I must say that it too was uneventful. I think the problem with these early debates is that there are too many contestants and the viewer gets a very vague idea of what the candidates stand for.
May 8, 2007 at 1:20 pm |
Joseph Lieberman has made some critical remarks about both the Democratic and Republican Parties recently. Could he be thinking about launching a Third Party bid for the presidency? He has not even suggested the possibility, but I wonder about him. For those students who are political junkies, listen to Lieberman carefully and tell me what you think.
October 19, 2007 at 6:43 pm |
Some now want Al Gore, in the wake of his Nobel Peace Prize achievement, to run for President. His supporters argue that he would be the anti-war candidate the Democratic Party truly needs.
January 28, 2008 at 2:42 pm |
This primary season has been the most interesting in decades with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton challenging each other at every turn. The issue of race has entered the picture and has created a rather divisive atmoshpere–among Democrats. The irony here is that African Americans vote overwhelmingly Democrat in national elections.
February 24, 2008 at 3:31 am |
The primaries certainly are interesting and the actual election promises to be as well. I think Obama and Clinton have been pretty civil toward each other which is reasonable because I think they have quite a bit in common. It’s amazing that either an African American or a woman will be a Presidential nominee, and a strong one at that.
I’m a Democrat and although I like them both Obama at the same time scares the heck out of me. Only one state Senate term and one U.S. Senate term, and I don’t believe he achieved anything especially remarkable during either. Clinton, on the other hand, seems to have achieved more and gained leadership positions and was very popular and considered successful among her constituents. And, of course her somewhat indirect “White House experience.” And she’s brilliant. Obama is too, of course. But his strength seems to be his inspirational speeches. I’ve heard a few from start to finish, and they are so uplifting and positive and give you the feeling that he will absolutely change the world. But then a little later after the drug wears off you sit there and realize that there really much said of any substance. He just has the whole cult-of-personality thing going on, which is fun and historic but doesn’t always pan out. I just don’t know if someone so untested and fluffy should be trusted with some of the huge decisions a U.S. President has to make in these extraordinary times. And I’m not buying his theme that the biggest problems in this country now are divisiveness and apathy. I think the biggest problems in this country right now are conditions that are the result of hidden agendas, stupid decisions and arrogance on the part of our current president.
I’m still stunned that already we only have one viable Republican candidate. I liked McCain somewhat when he was a little more moderate and attempted the run several years ago. I didn’t understand why he didn’t go farther than. I still like much about him, not the least of which is his concern about the environment, an issue that has always been important to me. He has such a strong record of environmental support, in fact, that it will be very interesting to see who the big environmental groups endorse when the time comes. If a Republican gets some of these endorsements it will be another amazing angle to this amazing election.
Other thoughts on the election by any fellow students?
February 25, 2008 at 1:04 am |
Lori,
Nice comments. I would beg to differ with you on the experience question. One President was surely untested, spending very little of his political life in Congress before taking the helm as commander in chief. His name? Abraham Lincoln. You could argue similaly regarding John F. Kennedy and a host of others. The fact of the matter is that no matter how long in the Senate, that position does not prepare you to be President of the United States. This is why so few presidents have come from the Senate. More have been governors, which does give some executive experience.
Regarding Hillary Clinton specifically, she’s only been in the Senate a few years longer than Obama, but she claims 35 years experience overall, which is puzzling to me. Is she including her husband’s years in the White House as part of her experience? If so, then her recent claim that she “wasn’t on the ballot back then as Bill isn’t now” seems a bit confusing.
February 26, 2008 at 12:37 am |
Hilary doesn’t need to rely on her affiliation with her husband as evidence of political, and especially public service, experience. In 197 . . 4?, while Barak Obama was in elementary school, Hilary was serving on a House Judicial Committee considering the impeachment of Richard Nixon. Not long after she was asked by by Pres. Carter to serve on a nonprofit legal assistance fund for the poor. During the ensuing decades she’s been considered an extremely influental lawyer nationally for all her non-profit work for families, the poor, and children. She was staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund and so on. During much of this time she was a partner in a law firm and didn’t have to do any of this.
While her husband was president, she served also. A woman of her abilities and background was probably unprecedented, and she certainly wasn’t going to be satisfied working on, say, beautification campaigns. Her universal healthcare attempt failed miserably, but it qualifies as experience nonethless, and presumably experience that she learned from. Bill asked her to take the reigns on this and a few other issues and he never hid his high regard for her, claiming the American people were getting “two for the price of one.” She was a Washington insider of the highest order. He has said that she was his closest confidant and advisor. This attitude of his along with her ambition during those times never really set well with a lot of Americans, which is why I think a lot of people just don’t like her. For a country such as ours that is supposedly so progressive toward equality of of women, this is a shame. Women have been running countries successfully around the world for quite a while now, including countries where women’s rights are suppressed, and including situations where part of their credentials include marriage or familial ties, such as Benazhir Bhutto.
Which isn’t to say that Obama has no chance of being a good President because of his youth and lack of experirence. I have no doubt that he has much potential, and his youthful optimism is exciting. It just feels like he’ll be learning on the job for a while. And it didn’t help, to me anyway, when he made the remark about bombing Pakistan because they won’t give up the Al-Quida guys hiding there. Even McCain was stunned by that one.
That’s very interesting that most Presidents have been former governors rather than senators. I assumed it was the other way around, and also assumed that it was better experience, working with Congress, working with the feds and all. I always thought that former governor presidential candidates always sounded a little lame when they espoused their experience of balancing budgets and managing staff as quality experience. But I guess being a governor is like running a small country. But don’t you think governors can get away with being a little less accountable, a little more prone to corruption and arrogance? Especially if you have, say, a Karl Rove in the background orchestrating things.
In other campaign news, I’ve got to vent about my friend Ralph Nadar crawling out of the woodwork to once again attempt to teach us all a lesson. In spite of the most optimistic, “time for real change” , exciting candidates in recent history, Nadar still feels we need to learn the error of our ways. He will do this, of course, by sapping votes from the people most likely to agree with him, thereby helping those who decidedly don’t. I wish he could go somewhere where his work toward political reform would actually be helpful. I’m thinking a one-way ticket to Cuba.
February 26, 2008 at 3:24 am |
Lori,
You’ve reminded me of how much I enjoyed when you were taking my course. Good points, of course. My point though still holds that “experience” has never really been a good indicator of a President’s success. The historical record has demonstrated this time and time again. The fact is that nothing prepares you to be President of the United States except being President of the United States. And if experience matters so much, why have the second terms of virtually every Commander in Chief always been much worse than their first four years in office?
Anyway, want to retake my American Government course? I am hoping that other students will indeed participate here.
February 27, 2008 at 3:26 am |
Thank you! I’ve never forgotten how much I enjoyed BEING in your class, you’re an excellent instructor who made the subject matter ten times more interesting than I had thought it would be! Actually, I REALLY wish I could take one of your Am. History classes, I like history very much but what I’ve had of it is sparse and so long ago the history books have been rewritten many times over! I know with you teaching it an already interesting subject would be fascinating — and then I’d know much more about things like excellent presidents who came in with little experience . . .
You’ve had some good participation on this site but I am surprised more people aren’t blogging here about the election esp. since it’s such an interesting one . . . here’s a thought, how about a little promo about it in The Sun? This site isn’t just for your past or present students for but all TCC students, right?
March 6, 2008 at 2:38 pm |
As Clinton hangs in there, I’d like to mention a couple of interesting points I’ve heard and read recently. One is that if Democrats believe that it’s of utmost importance that this election ends with a Democratic rather than Republican president, it’s worth it to start to put some serious consideration into which candidate has a better chance of defeating McCain. It’s hard to profile the Independents and Undecideds, of course, but I would venture a guess that they may be more facts- and- figures types than strongly idealistic types. Would Clinton or Obama be more impressive to these people in a debate against McCain?
The other point is that how ironic and unfortunate it is that with Clinton and Obama we have two such worthy and historic candidates being forced to battle each other, rather than having their own separate moments in history. Along those lines I wish Obama had been a bit more patient. It’s been said that he began running for President as soon as he began running for the Senate (although the same could be said for Clinton, I guess). He’s a man of great potential, but if he spent a little more time gaining experience and refining some discrepancies in his record, he would have had his own time with most likely much greater chance for success.