Hillary won the Pennsylvania Primary? How did that happen??
I was a little disappointed that Hillary was able to grasp the Pennsylvania delegates even though I am not in the Democratic Party. Although she only won ten percent higher than Obama of the popular votes, I believe Hillary will continue to run for presidency, since her campaign plans on gaining $10 million as a result of her win in Pennsylvania.
Unfortunately, it does not really matter that I dislike Hillary because for the 2008 Presidential Election, I would not endorse any of the candidates. I am a registered Independent and I feel that neither Obama, Clinton, nor McCain fits the qualifications I deem necessary for the President of the United States.
Since January 2008, I have been researching the current issues of our nation and each candidate’s position on the concerns. Each candidate has his and her own strengths in their campaign, but I cannot bring myself to choose between them. I feel that I am choosing between “the lesser of two/three evils”. When speaking to many people about the presidential race, it seems as though they feel the same way I do at this point in time, especially young voters.
I believe the reasons for my choice relates to my limited experience with voting and politics. This election is the first time I have the ability to vote and I never truly followed politics before in my life. Regrettably, I admit that I am apathetic to issues concerning the United States, like many of my college peers.
I believe my Controlling Spin class has made me more aware of the issues and I will be more in-tune with my country now and into the future years. Even though I dislike the presidential candidates this year, I hope to become more educated before the next election in order to fully participate as a voter and “endorse” a candidate.
Amy Fusco '10
Wilkes University
Communication Studies
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Monday, May 5, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Don’t Let Gender Define this Campaign
With the upcoming Pennsylvania primary just a few weeks away, and considering the importance our state can have on which Democratic presidential candidate gets the nomination, I wanted to remind local residents of the importance of voting for a candidate based on their plan of action, rather than their race or gender.
I’m going through an invaluable experience this semester by studying each candidate and how they plan to make our country better, and I’m also learning how campaigns “spin” a message to their candidate’s advantage. And you know, for the first time I feel educated about the political process. But, it really upsets me when I have taken the time out to study each candidate’s plan of action to find that there are people here in Wilkes-Barre, and across the country for that matter, who vote in the primary based on gender or race alone. Or, they vote on looks as the sole reason for acceptance. Now, I don’t mind if someone is voting for John McCain, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, but let’s have some sense when we go to the voting booth!
In this upcoming primary in particular, I’ve heard countless women, including my mother, say they’ll vote for Hillary because “we need a woman as President because a man couldn’t get the job done.” Vote for Hillary, but do it because you find her universal health care plan irresistible, or because you have a child going to college in the near future and you like her ideas to make his or her education more affordable. To strip each candidate to simply their race or gender is being simple and narrow-minded.
I’m not being naive on this issue. I know there will always be people who will vote for a candidate because they like their inspirational speeches or they like their significant other, who previously served in office. But, in a critical primary that can potentially shape the next couple of generations, how about we look at the content of the speeches, rather than listen to the supporters strategically clap between every other sentence?
Jamie Gwynn '09
Wilkes University
Communication Studies
I’m going through an invaluable experience this semester by studying each candidate and how they plan to make our country better, and I’m also learning how campaigns “spin” a message to their candidate’s advantage. And you know, for the first time I feel educated about the political process. But, it really upsets me when I have taken the time out to study each candidate’s plan of action to find that there are people here in Wilkes-Barre, and across the country for that matter, who vote in the primary based on gender or race alone. Or, they vote on looks as the sole reason for acceptance. Now, I don’t mind if someone is voting for John McCain, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, but let’s have some sense when we go to the voting booth!
In this upcoming primary in particular, I’ve heard countless women, including my mother, say they’ll vote for Hillary because “we need a woman as President because a man couldn’t get the job done.” Vote for Hillary, but do it because you find her universal health care plan irresistible, or because you have a child going to college in the near future and you like her ideas to make his or her education more affordable. To strip each candidate to simply their race or gender is being simple and narrow-minded.
I’m not being naive on this issue. I know there will always be people who will vote for a candidate because they like their inspirational speeches or they like their significant other, who previously served in office. But, in a critical primary that can potentially shape the next couple of generations, how about we look at the content of the speeches, rather than listen to the supporters strategically clap between every other sentence?
Jamie Gwynn '09
Wilkes University
Communication Studies
Monday, March 10, 2008
McCain’s Education Plan Gets an F: A Cross-Generational Opinion
The next President of the United States will likely have a great impact on our nation’s educational policy in the next four years and for generations to come. As a student, it is something that is very important to me, but it is also important to others as I found out on a recent visit to the local Jewish Community Center. Recently, our class met with our partners in a cross-generational voting project to determine the most important issues facing voters in the Pennsylvania presidential primary.
Through a conversation there with a senior citizen woman named Roz Smulowitz, it became obvious to me that education was an issue she felt very passionately about. Surprisingly, although our age difference was significant we found some common ground along with a few differences on this topic, especially when we discussed John McCain’s position.
John McCain supports a plan to improve and equalize education throughout the country by offering parents the “voucher” option of using taxpayer money to send their children to private schools. He believes this will provide parents with the power and financial ability to remove their children from those public schools which are failing. Neither Roz nor I see this an effective plan, but we have different primary reasons for why we disagree with it.
In my opinion John McCain’s plan does not address the actual problem at hand, which is the fact that there are many public schools of poor quality. What the United States government needs to do is work to improve these schools by increasing their funding and working to attract good teachers to these schools. Instead McCain would simply help some students to leave these schools and then let the institutions continue to grow worse.
Roz had a different reason for disagreeing with McCain’s plan. She believed that this idea could not work because a large number of students would overcrowd the private schools. Consequently, the quality of these schools would then decrease. While I agree with this point, I see it as secondary to the fact that this plan is not designed to meet the real need in the first place.
Obviously there are some possible flaws in McCain’s plan for education on several different levels. However, I think that John McCain, Roz, and myself can all agree that the current inequality in the quality of education that children receive across our nation is unacceptable.
Christine Zavaskas '09
Wilkes University
Communication Studies
Through a conversation there with a senior citizen woman named Roz Smulowitz, it became obvious to me that education was an issue she felt very passionately about. Surprisingly, although our age difference was significant we found some common ground along with a few differences on this topic, especially when we discussed John McCain’s position.
John McCain supports a plan to improve and equalize education throughout the country by offering parents the “voucher” option of using taxpayer money to send their children to private schools. He believes this will provide parents with the power and financial ability to remove their children from those public schools which are failing. Neither Roz nor I see this an effective plan, but we have different primary reasons for why we disagree with it.
In my opinion John McCain’s plan does not address the actual problem at hand, which is the fact that there are many public schools of poor quality. What the United States government needs to do is work to improve these schools by increasing their funding and working to attract good teachers to these schools. Instead McCain would simply help some students to leave these schools and then let the institutions continue to grow worse.
Roz had a different reason for disagreeing with McCain’s plan. She believed that this idea could not work because a large number of students would overcrowd the private schools. Consequently, the quality of these schools would then decrease. While I agree with this point, I see it as secondary to the fact that this plan is not designed to meet the real need in the first place.
Obviously there are some possible flaws in McCain’s plan for education on several different levels. However, I think that John McCain, Roz, and myself can all agree that the current inequality in the quality of education that children receive across our nation is unacceptable.
Christine Zavaskas '09
Wilkes University
Communication Studies
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