How does pop culture influence an election? Or the political process? Is it something we should let influence our vote? These questions have been on my mind a lot lately. During the 2004 Presidential Election we saw an increase in star participation in the election. Channels such as MTV and BET increased their coverage of the election and the issues that are affecting young voters. During this time, even though I was not able to vote, I found inspiration through these channels, famous musicians and entertainers. They inspired me to become better informed. I admired their activism.

The 2008 election has been a bit different. Instead of being inspired, I’ve felt as though the tactics used have been somewhat ridiculous. I have also been questioning if some of the candidates have taken their efforts to reach out too far. What are the candidates doing that are resourceful and beneficial. I’ve done a little research and this is what I’ve found…

Senator Barack Obama has been lauded for his work to incorporate a good means of technology into his campaign. He has implemented a text messaging program to keep supporters updated on what is going on inside of his campaign. Whether it is a reminder to donate to the Red Cross for Hurricane Victims or giving a listing of Presidential Debate Watch Parties in your area, the text message aspect of Obama’s campaign is ingenious. Not only can you get text messages, you can get Obama ringtones, wallpapers, and speeches sent directly to your phone. So in the aspect of capitalizing on a generation that is technologically savvy, Obama wins. However, I am still questioning what I think about our presidential candidates knowledge of music and television. Is it really appropriate for our future president to “brush his shoulder’s off” in the spirit of Jay-Z’s famous song? I will let you ponder this question as I move on.

Senator John McCain has seemed to tap into the use of pop culture in a different way. While he doesn’t have an educational use for today’s younger generation implemented into his campaign, he has seen if fit to appear in the movie Wedding Crashers. This is a movie that has been criticized for its heavy nudity and language. Senator McCain also felt that it was appropriate to show his knowledge for the famous MTV show The Hills. While I am in love with this show, I don’t think I want its characters endorsing my next president.

I am sure I am going to regret this later, but where is P. Diddy when you need him? I miss the Vote or Die movement and I hope that our generation makes a concerted effort to educate themselves fully on the issues versus letting pop culture sway us.

Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin demonstrated her lack of knowledge on foreign policy in her interview with CBS News anchor Katie Couric. Standing outside of the United Nations, Palin defended herself when Couric asked why she had just recently applied for a passport. As a working woman, she claimed to be limited in her ability to travel outside of the U.S.; instead, gaining all of her knowledge on foreign countries and policies from education, books and other various mediums. Obviously, her limited experience has stunted her mental capacity to understand any policy that does not include “values” or “Alaska.” Seeing that on those two topics, she comes across as intelligent and quite endearing at times.
Nonetheless at one question involving Alaska, she failed yet again. When Couric offered to give Palin a chance to redeem her position concerning Russia’s close proximity to Alaska giving her foreign policy experience, Palin still sang the same tune. “Our next-door neighbors are foreign countries,” Palin said. She continued to state that Alaska and Russia trade together and that Putin enters the fly space of Alaska.
When asked about the economic crisis, Palin asserted that people were waiting to see what McCain would do, not Obama. When Couric insisted that Obama’s rating with the public has increased with the current crisis, Palin balked at the poll numbers claiming instead that Americans look at track records. However, her lack of knowledge on McCain’s track record of commerce regulation left her clambering for an answer when Couric insisted on “specific examples” of McCain “pushing for more regulation” in the last 26 years. With a smile on her face Palin said, “I’ll try to find you some and I’ll bring ‘em to ya.”
Palin has done wonders for the Republican ticket, boosting poll numbers and attracting media attention. She is pretty, down-to-earth and fierce at times; even so, she is beginning to look like the caricature political cartoonists have drawn her to be. It is obvious from this interview and her “track record” that she is not ready to fill in for McCain if he were to take office and croak. Perhaps the McCain advisors and staff should begin preparing her for her next interview, or better yet for the debate on Thursday night.


The SNL parody of the interview was hilarious.

Barack Obama has dominated the newsstands the past few weeks, and it seemed as though we would never get to know the families' of the the Republican candidates. So when I picked up the Sept. 22nd copy of People, I was pleasantly surprised to see the entire McCain brood on the front cover.
Yes, Palin has become the media darling over the past few weeks, but McCain has managed to keep the majority of his family off the record and out of the spotlight. We all know his background in the Navy and as a prisoner of war, and we know about Cindy McCain's work in charities and his adopted daughter Bridget, but People took the time to take a deeper look into the familiy.
While the majoirty of the family was kept off the record, for military or campaign reasons, McCain's eldest daughter Meghan implied that she and her youngest brothers leaned more the the liberal side of life, which is intriguing considering their father's staunch conservatism. Futhermore, the family was in full disclosure about Cindy's past prescription drug problems, which served only to cast a brighter light on the family. Perhaps it is my appeciation for full disclosure, but honesty from within the family serves only to make them more real and down to earth.
Finally, the article portrayed McCain not as a naval officer, a politician or a prisoner of war, but as a father, which is a rold McCain has not been seen in as often as he should. There seems to be the same closeness and comraderie within the McCain family that the media has grasped firmly within the Obamas. It's high time the McCain's got their moment in the spotlight.

We've all squabbled and blogged on our views surrounding the recent choices for the vice presidential candidates. I am not trying to make light of the role of the VP, but I think people are getting carried away with how much support they are giving to the VPs. Obama fever and Palin fever are VERY different. One must remember that even if Palin seems like the "savior" of the Republican party, she is NOT the presidential nominee, and she'll only be the president if something happens to McCain. Do the Republicans want McCain out of the way so Palin can be president? This realization doesn't discredit Palin at all, just focuses in her job. When it comes down to it, the race is still against Obama and McCain, and people need to remember that McCain's name will be before Palin's on the ticket.

John McCain has an obsession with honor. At least that is what TIME magazine is saying and I agree with them. In fact the word honor is mentioned more than 24 times throughout the article. The article published in the September 8 edition, titled “Hon.or- It’s John McCain’s greatest strength and his greatest weakness”, has made me question the motives of McCain and his slogan ‘Country First’.

This article gave a great overview of McCain’s personal and political history that really put things into perspective for me, beyond this year’s campaign. The article states that to McCain, honor means “telling the truth, doing the right thing rather than the easy thing and putting America’s needs ahead of your needs”. This definition is debatable. Looking at the past, McCain wasn’t always faithful to his Republican party and often rebelled against his colleagues, with one senator describing him as “nasty, vindictive and mean-spirited”. The article was by no means bias, it showed a balanced view, so I found this interesting. Why can’t he co-operate with others in Senate? Last time I check McCain isn’t a 6-year-old, he should know how to ‘share’ by now.

The writer explores McCain’s early adulthood growing up with family service background, telling how he was resistant to join the navy, ranking 894th out of 899 in his Naval Academy. He is described as a rebel, a joker, rude and defiant to the law. This is of course throughout McCain’s early life and has no impact on my opinion of him as a presidential candidate however, it does explain his rogue political career. This includes a number of scandals that challenged his ‘honor’ including the Keating Five scandal. Failing to be elected as president in 2000, McCain has tried a more conservative and rigid approach to his campaign this time around and it seems to be working, with the polls closer than ever.

In response to Cadley’s blog early last week stating that McCain is consistent, I disagree. If you look at McCain’s foreign policies there is many differences between McCain in 2000 and McCain today. The article highlights the fact that once upon a time McCain was opposed to U.S troops fighting abroad, against military interventions in Haiti, Somalia and Balkans. However, as McCain began to campaign for president in 2000, he changed his tune saying America's honor required much stronger responses to tyrants. How hypocritical is that! If you look at McCain’s attitude towards military in his current campaign, he is very pro war, saying in his presidential nomination speech “I fought for the right strategy and more troops in Iraq, when it wasn’t a popular thing to do…I said I’d rather lose an election than see my country lose a war.” McCain has failed to acknowledge the negative consequences of sending troops to war. So in light of all this, is McCain really putting the country first? Or will McCain’s obsession with honor be the end of him and us?