Political cartoon #3

McCain targets poverty saying he is an average person, but he’s actually wealthy. For example, this cartoon shows a man nailing a banner supporting McCain to the side of a poor person’s house. This shows how McCain targets poverty for votes, even though he is wealthy. The lady on the porch on this cartoon expresses this irony by stating: “If he’s such a regular man of the people, how come he’s got all them houses and we ain’t got but two.” Therefore McCain could be making bad decisions by targeting the wrong group of people. John McCain (and other politicians) making wrong and ironic decisions, by targeting the wrong group of people.

Political cartoon #4

Candidates try to manipulate the focus of the public, and drawing attention away from the details. This cartoon depicts a McCain with makeup on, and putting different kinds of lipstick on that say different things (i.e. Lipstick distraction). This shows how John McCain is using the lipstick (representing Sarah Palin) to draw attention away from the rest of the face (representing the Republican party). This cartoon also shows the words “The Joker.” This further shows how the rest of the face is the actual “Joker,” (representing the Republican party) and the lipstick directs attention away from it. McCain tries to keep the public from seeing what he essentially stands for, and using Sarah Palin (as the distraction) so people will look at gender instead.

Political cartoon #5

Wall Street is crashing, and this forces the citizens to pay off the huge amounts of debt. For example, this cartoon depicts Wall Street (represented as a man) pushing a man, with empty pockets, titled Taxpayers off of a building. This shows how Wall Street is forcing the citizens to pay off the debt, and someone is going to have to take the hit (and it will be us). This cartoon also depicts Wall Street saying “You First…” This further shows how the stock market is making the taxpayers pay for this, and the citizens are going to “fall” before Wall Street. This country is in a horrible economic crisis, and, in the end, taxpayers are going to be the ones to pay.

Political cartoon #6

Gas has gotten better, where as more and more people have been losing jobs. For example, this cartoon depicts a man pumping gas and a sign in the background saying “gas on sale.” This shows that gas prices have dropped, and that means people can drive more and worry less. This cartoon also shows a woman leaning out of the car saying: “It’s nice the price of gas is so much cheaper…if only we had jobs to drive to!” This further shows that the gas prices have dropped, but the economy is so bad and the unemployment rate is so high lots of people are losing their jobs.

McCain's Mission statement

I plan to eliminate capital gains tax, strengthen our borders, boost the economy. Lower our dependency on foreign oil, and promote offshore drilling. I also want to stop the killing of baby's, I am for the death penalty, also for our troops remaining in Iraq until they have a stable government. I want to lower the unemployment rate, while benefiting the country in every way, in my power. I want alternative energy sources. If elected, I will help this country in every way, shape, and form.

Obama's Mission statement

My goal is to ensure the protection of wealthy, allow people to decide weather a baby lives or dies, distribute the wealth, and raise the economy and lower the unemployment rate. Thereby promoting our nation and getting us out of debt. I plan to lower the dependence of foreign oil and raise alternative fuel sources. Get our troops out of the war, is also a necessity. I plan to do everything in my power to do what I see fit, and make the correct, not necessarily the popular, decisions.

Technology in Politics

McCain's policy on technology: McCain wants to have a whole bunch of people at the white house to help use tech. as a solution to improve education, health care, homeland security and other issues. He wants people who's job is to sit and think up of ways so that technology can help things such as education. So that way more schools will hand out personal laptops, and offer more technology exeperince for a further education.

Obama's policy on tech:Obama is for providing every school in the USA with access to the enternet. There are many things that you can learn from the enternet. Obama also wants to send phone lines to rural areas who don't get phone service. That way equal distrubition of technology is given to everyone. Where as McCain just wants to improve technology to some of the people.

How everything fits

Well...as you can see I searched and did biographies on every candidate. For someones background can tell us a lot of their views and how they will run the country. I also interviewed the one person from the public on the election and various aspects of it. I made two different colleges one representing the Rep. and the other representing the demo. Visual literacy helps look at things from different perspectives. I analyzed each candidates basic platform. Therefore we wont judge people by their appearance. I created graphs and tables from swing states to predict who would win that state by who has the most consistency. I identified the main political science issues and who stood where. I also constructed various political cartoons showing the progression of the race and the economy during the race.

Obama's basic platform

Obama

#1- Abortion-Obama is Pro-Choice. He believes that the individual should have a choice to kill the baby or not. So that way if the person gets raped she won’t have to have it, or have to deal with it.

#2- Education-Obama is against the No Child left behind act. He wants to improve the pay of teachers. Also wants to get children a head start on their education.

#3- Death Penalty-Obama is more or less for the death penalty. It all depends on the case, for example, if a man is convicted for treason than he is destined to die, but for murder in depends on how many and the specifics.

#4- Environment-Wants to reduce green house gases by 80% by 2050, and is for alternative energy sources. He wants to reduce foreign oil reliance by 35% by 2025. Also wants 25% of energy to come from 2025.

#5- Health care-He wants all children to have health care. Obama also wants all companies to support their clients with health care, including small business owners. If they fail to do so, they will be fined a certain percentage according to what they are paid. He will also allow enrollees to keep their coverage when they change jobs.

#6- Immigration- He wants to make a stronger border and he also wants to make illegal immigrants legal. By giving them citizenship.

#7- Iraq War-He supports immediate troop withdraw, and for this to happen within one or two brigades a month. He wants this to be completed by the end of 2008.

#8- Economy-“ Obama supports repeal of tax cuts for upper income earners to pay for health care. Opposes repeal of the estate tax.” From site: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/politics/2008/bios/view.bg?articleid=1063110
Who got their information from site: http://www.barackobama.com

#9- Poverty-Obama wants to “spread the wealth.” The only people that this applies to are the upper class and the lower class. He wants to increase taxes for those who make over a certain percentage and lower it for those under a certain percentage.

#10-Stem Cell Research-Obama has always been a supporter of stem cell research. He thinks that it will further our education. He approves of government funding on Stem Cell Research, also on a wide variety of research including embryos.

McCain's basic platform

McCain

#1- Abortion- He is Pro-life. He believes that Abortion should be illegal in order to support our future, our children, because adoption is always a choice.

#2- Education-“Excellence, choice, and competition in American education. John McCain believes American education must be worthy of the promise we make to our children and ourselves. He understands that we are a nation committed to equal opportunity, and there is no equal opportunity without equal access to excellent education.” From site: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/issues/

#3- Death Penalty-For federal crimes, John McCain agrees the Death Penalty. It makes others and them stop and think before they do something so bad that they could lose their own life.

#4- Environment-He is for alternative forms of energy, such as wind turbines. He also wants to cut our reliance on foreign oil.

#5- Health Care- “John McCain is willing to address the fundamental problem: the rapidly rising cost of U.S. health care. Bringing costs under control is the only way to stop the erosion of affordable health insurance, save Medicare and Medicaid, protect private health benefits for retirees, and allow our companies to effectively compete around the world.” From site: http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/issues/

#6- Immigration-McCain believes that we should further secures our borders. He thinks that we already have too many Illegal aliens in our country. And he wants to stop that.

#7- Iraq War- McCain wants us to remain in Iraq until the government can withstand by itself. But until then we need to help them. That way there will be long-term peace. The troops can only return home once Iraq can safeguard their own country.

#8- Economy- John McCain wants to take long-term steps to improve the economy as well as short-term actions. Some long-term actions are things such as offshore drilling, which he is for. Some short-term actions are cutting capital gains tax.

#9- Poverty-McCain wants to increase the number of jobs in the US thereby decreasing the unemployment rate and decreasing poverty.

#10-Stem Cell Research-He is agrees with stem cell research, but I against the creation of human embryos. He thinks that it is unethical to create things but to research it in order to learn more is good.

Interview

I interviewed my mom: Emily Beddoes
This is what she said:
Q1) What is one good and bad thing about McCain?
A1)Good: "He is basically a selfless indiv. who has given his whole life to this country"
Bad: "He is associated with president Bush, just by being in the republican party"

Q2)What is one good and bad thing regarding Obama?
A2)Good: "Hes got a Hugh number of people willing to go out and vote for him. Therefore the most people in history will have voted, because normally only ~20% vote. So we will have the biggest turn out of voters ever in history"
Bad: "I dislike his tax plan/'Death Tax'"

Q3)What are some differences between Biden and Palin?
A3)Biden: "He has more experience with foreign policy"
Palin: "She only had but a couple months to prepare"

Q4)Who are you voting for and why?
A4) "McCain, because I believe that he will make the right decisions regarding the economy and Obama will not."

Q5)What is your opinions regarding race and gender and how that is entering into the election?
A5)"I think that people should vote for the person that will most benefit the country and not on gender and race, but I'm afraid that some adults will vote on according to race but lie and say otherwise."

Interview reflection

I interviewed my Mom, Emily Beddoes regarding the election. She is an active voter every four years. I interviewed her regarding who she thought would be the best candidate and why. Also comparing one person to another. As-well-as how biased views enters the elections. She is a Republican and a Conservative. She is very opinionated. She is an example of all the voters out there.

Republican college

This college depicts many things regarding the republican party. It shows all of the presidents who where elected into office and were republicans. Their sign is an elephant. they are against the democrats. They are big on fighting for their country. Whereas the democratic is big on helping "the middle man." They have always been up in arms with the democratic party. For example they once sacked a Democrat's room for information at the Watergate hotel. This incident is known for the Watergate incident.

Democratic college

This college depicts many things. Obama and Joe Biden are in it because they are the candidates running for president and vice president this year. They are against guns. They are pro-choice, which is why i have a baby's picture cut up. They also want to take us out of the war. The Democratic party is for gay marriage and for alternative energy sources. A donkey is their symbol. And the reason there is part of Martin Luther king Jr.'s speech on the edges is because MLK is tantamount to Obama becoming president, because he will be the first African-American to be president.

pregraph responce

The state I have chosen is North Carolina. That reason is because North Carolina is a swing state. A swing state is a state that could go either way, because half is republican and the other half is democrat. It can “swing” either way. Also I live at North Carolina, so I know what things are needed most here. Later I will post a "postgraph" paragraph seeing the results and how things have changed.

McCain graph and Obama table

Obama graph and McCain table

final predictions

I found that the McCain polls have been swinging up and down. I think that Palin made him go up and then the political cartoons, and how they affected the public’s opinion about Palin, which made the polls go down. Whereas Obama stayed constant, although when McCain swings up he is higher than Obama. The only thing is that he stays up only for a short period of time. So for McCain’s standpoint it is all about timing. I think that Obama is going to win, because I made a graph and his line is positive, and McCain’s line is negative. The only problem is that, polls tend to be skew so it is really hard to be correct.

Offshore Drilling

Offshore drilling is important, because if we find oil than we won’t have to use other countries oil. Which means we won’t have to spend as much buying oil from other countries, therefore, gas won’t be so expensive. Offshore Drilling is bad economically, because it costs so much to drill. Offshore Drilling is beneficial economically, because then we won’t have to pay all of the money to other countries to get oil. Each candidate think are for it, but only in certain areas. I say that we drill as much as possible because if we drill than we won’t have to pay as much to the other countries, and this means we will come out ahead.

Nuclear Weapons

Nuclear Weapons are important because they give us power, and they give us protection. This is bad economically because of their cost to make them. Nuclear Weapons are good economically because if used properly, and used at the correct time, we won’t have to worry about the cost of war. John McCain and Obama are for Nuclear Weapons, and they both stand in the correct position compared to their political parties. I would like for them to keep nuclear weapons for protection of a nuclear war happening.

Global Warming

Global Warming is important because it can alter the human, animal and plant races. It is also important because it can cause climate change, and cause things such as droughts and other climate changes. An economically bad thing about fixing global warming is how it costs more to go green than to stay normal. An economically good thing about Global Warming is, in the end we won’t have to pay for gas because we won’t need it. Both candidates believe global warming is a real subject and is man-made. Obama and McCain stand in the correct position on global warming compared to the Democratic/Republican Party. I would like for them to come up with things such as solar, wind, and offshore drilling, and for continuing the search for an alternative fuel source.

Joe Biden

A person's decision making, belifs, and views are based on their background. "Joe" Biden, Jr. was born on November 20, 1942. He was born to Joseph Robinette Biden, Sr. and Catherine Eugenia Finnegan. He was born in Scranto, Pennsylvania and lived there for 10 years. Then he moved to Delaware at the age of 10. Biden got his B.A. at the University of Delaware in 1965. Following he obtained his J.D. at Syracuse University College of Law, in 1968. The year before Joe was a attorney,he was elected to a county council, in 1970. He was first elected Senator of Delaware in 1972 and is the 5Th youngest senator in the history of the U.S. He was then re-elected 5 times.
Biden is the current chairman of Foreign Relations committee. Biden worked on Yugoslav wars and the Iraq war. He served as a chairman of the Judiciary committee. He worked with issues such as Violence Against Woman Act (VAWA), drug policies, crime prevention, law enforcement act, civil liberties and creation of violent crime control. He has gone through a personal tragedy and a near fatal illness. His wife and his 3-month old daughter had died in a car crash shortly after he was elected into the senate in 1972. Later on Biden had a brain aneurysm on Feb. 12Th 1988, and had a 4 1/2 hour long surgery. His second wife is Jill Jacobs and Joe Biden married in 1977.

Obama Biography

People have different beliefs, emotional responses and make different decisions, because of their different backgrounds and how it affected them. Barack Hussein Obama was born on August 4Th 1961 in Hawaii, and to a racially mixed couple named Barack Obama Sr. and Anne Dunham. He went to school in Jarakta, Indonesia. Following high school he atteneded a college in Los Angeles, California. There he obtained his B.A. in 1983. Then he attended Colombia University in New York. He moved to Chicago in 1985. Obama tried to improve living conditions in poor neighborhoods and neighborhoods with a high crime rate. He did this by working with a church based group. He also attended Harvard following this program, and became the first African-American to become president of Harvard Law Review and got his J.D. in 1991. He married his current wife in 1992 and had 2 daughters. He currently lives in south Chicago.
In 1997 Barack became a senator for Illinois and was re-elected in 2005. He served on a committee which served health care, school, employment, and retirement programs. One of his goals is to change energy to things such as solar and wind energy. He is for conserving oil and improving technology. He also wants to with draw troops in Iraq and reform the tax code.

Sarah Palin

An Individuals background is affected by their direct emotional response, beliefs, and their different view points. In order for us to justify weather or not Palin is a good V.P. we must know how much experience she has. Sarah Louise Heath Palin was born on Feb. 11, 1964. She was born to Charles 'Chuck' and Sarah 'Sally' Heath. She attended Wasilla High School and graduated in 1982. She has always been known as a hard working and stubborn woman. Palin attended the University of Idaho and obtained a B.S. degree in communication and journalism in 1987. She was a mayor from 1996-2002.
Palin is the 11Th Governor of Alaska, first woman Governor, and the youngest Governor in Alaska. She is for resource development, education, workforce and development, public health and safety, and transportation. And she is pro-life, pro-marriage, supports all types of oil drilling and she is pro-gun. Sarah, as Governor, made Wasilla a business friendly environment and drew need to the industry by reduced property taxes and increased services. Married to Todd Plain and have 5 children named Track, Bristol, Willow, Piper and Trig.

McCain Biography

An individuals background influences their emotional responses, ultimate views, and their core of beliefs. John Sidney McCain III was born at the Coco Solo Naval Air station on August 29, 1936, in the Panama Canal Zone. He is the is the middle child. McCain spent his childhood moving from base to base, enhancing his knowledge of warfare. Theoretically he always had a horrible temper. His dad was a Naval officer John S. McCain Jr. His mom's name is Roberta Wright McCain. Both his granddad and his dad were 4-star Admirals in the Navy. His dad commanded, in the Pacific, the U.S. naval forces.

John McCain went into war after graduating 5Th from the bottom of his class in Virginia Episcopal High School. During the Vietnam War, he was a navy flight captain. He flied attack bombing planes, off of Air Craft Carriers. On his 23rd mission on October 26, 1967, he was shot down. He was captured and held a POW (Prisoner Of War) and tortured for 5 years. When he finally got out he wanted to rejoin with the navy, wanting to reach the same height of his dad and grandpa. His strength limited him. McCain had received several awards including the Silver Star, Bronze Star,Purple Heart, Legion of Merit, and Distinguished Flying Cross metals. He became a House Of Representatives on November 2ND, 1982. He was then re-elected. He then succeeded in becoming a Senate, and re-elected 3 times. Ran for president and failed because he did not have enough Electoral Votes. He introduced a bill in which would re-establish the economy. He worked on this for 6 years, and then ran for president again in April of 2007.