For Class on 11/30: The First Family

It's Thanksgiving week and along with the focus on food (and black friday shopping and football...) Thanksgiving is often connected with family. The first family is often a fascination of many Americans. The Kennedy administration was often referred to as Camelot, due to the hope and optimism paid to the Kennedys and the first family, along the lines of European royalty. Jaqueline Kennedy along affected culture and style across the country and many first ladies have had direct connections to particular policy areas (none more so that Hillary Clinton, who helped design a health care reform bill). First Lady Michelle Obama, an accomplished lawyer and former boss to her husband, has her own official office and policy areas including the Let's Move campaign. She also has a huge following (also see here) and approval rating substanitally higher than her husband. The children of presidents have also recieved a lot of attention but are often kep out of the spotlight (see Clinton, Chelsea, and Obama, Sasha and Malia).

1. What role does the first family (or more specifically the first lady) play in our understand of, or connection to the president?
2. What role, if any, should the first family play in a president's image and/or campaign?

Enjoy your thanksgiving everyone!

For Class on 11/23: Campaign Finance

Note: You can get credit for posting on this blog until Tuesday night at midnight.

Campaign finance refers to the money that is given to campaigns. While around the world there are many different forms of this from private to public financing, the United States has a combination of factors which you can read about here, and here. Nearly all national candidates raise some money from private donors or organizations. Presidential candidates also have the option of taking public money which all have done for the general election (except Barack Obama in 2008, a trend that we will likely see continue moving forward). Some argue that campaign finance must be reformed in order to limit or eliminate private money entering the system. Their arguments generally support the idea that there are many ways that unlimited money can be donated which creates an unequal ability to influence elections and contributes to corruption and the dominance of wealthy individuals and organizations. Others argue that campaign finance should be unregulated. Supporters of this position suggest that campaign donations are a form of political speech and that this speech should not be limited in any way, they believe that this is a form of political participation that would be taken away from citizens. Recently a the Citizens United Supreme Court case altered campaign finance is a large way but allowing corporations and unions to contribute unlimited money as long as it is not donated directly to a campaign, but can be used to independently advocate for or against particular candidates.

1. After reading a bit more about current campaign finance laws in America, and the Citizens United decision, do we need campaign finance reform in America?
2. Do you support the idea that campaign donations are a form of speech and must be protected or that private donations should be regulated or eliminated to create a more equitable political system?
3. How do you think the current campaign finance laws will affect the 2012 presidential race?

For Class on 11/16: Forecasting the 2012 Election

OK, we probably shouldn't do it but we all constantly make predictions. We, as a society are addicted to predictions and it's easy to make them because incorrect predictions are a dime a dozen and correct predictions, especially unlikely ones, can get you noticed. There is perhaps no place where this comes into play as regularly as politics where predictions are used so often that we start to assume they are reliable. They aren't. But political predictions based on good social science can carry a bit more weight. This past weekend Nate Silver (who now writes a blog for the NY Times and used to run an independent prediction site knows ans fivethrityeight that used extensive and relaible models) wrote a very interesting piece predicting the 2012 race based on three factors (or variables to use good social science speak): Obama's favorability a year before the election, the economic growth measured by GDP, and how extreme the poltiical views of his opponent are. Read (or thoroughly skim) the article here, and play with the interactive feature predicting the popular vote winner here.

1. After reading this interesting article do you think that this prediction model should matter at all? What is useful? What is not?
2. What factor(s) (or variables) not included in Nate Silver's model do you think will play a  major role in determining who wins in Nov. 2012?

For Class on 11/9: Occupy Wall Street

Occupy Wall Street is a movement that has been growing nationwide over the past several weeks. While some criticize this growing movement as having no definitive policy agenda or organized platform, the activists involved are generally organized  against corporate greed, social inequality and other disparities between rich and poor.

These protests have continued to attract support from many around the nation as well as increasing media attention. Take a look at a good summary of this protest movement from the NY Times here and, if you are interested, you can look at the movement's main website here or livestream of events here. Also I suggest you look through a very interesting photo blog running of hundreds of supporters of the movement (identified as "the other 99 percent, as opposed to the top 1% of extremely wealthy Americans) sharing their stories here. Although there is no clear agenda yet, the primary purpose of the movement is a direct participatory process organized through general assemblies and working groups. Finally there is a very interesting visual description of why these protesters are so upset that gives some good data, which you can find here.

After reading and perusing through this information the growing movement (and there is much much more out there) please start a discussion using the following prompts as a starting point:

1. To what extend to you support the protests?
2. Do you believe that this movement is going to affect the political agenda of the President or GOP candidates? If yes, in what way? If no, why not?