The Election. . .

A few impressions, comments, surprises, etc., etc., etc., regarding the current campaign for President (I'm seriously wondering who in their right mind would want this job---hmmmm, may be an important insight buried in there somewhere):

Think this campaign season has turned negative and bitter (no pun intended, Senator Obama!)? You would have loved the election of 1800 that set Thomas Jefferson against the incumbent John Adams. The Federalists attacked Jefferson unmercifully, branding him a Jacobin and an atheist. His election, critics warned, would bring "dwellings in flames, hoary hairs bathed in blood, female chastity violated. . .children writhing on the pike and halberd" (George Brown Tindall, America: A Narrative History, page 324). Jefferson won.

Monday, April 21, 2008 will go down as a very different day in the life and history of Selma, Alabama. Republican Presidential nominee, Senator John McCain became the very first Republican candidate for the nation's highest office to visit the city ever. McCain made a speech at the foot of the Edmund Pettus Bridge, an icon of the Civil Rights Movement in the South. Surprises everywhere. I applaud McCain for his trip to Selma. Nice move.

Even worse than the Jefferson-Adams struggle of 1800, just read some of the campaign rhetoric during the days of Andrew Jackson! Old Hickory had his detractors for sure. I remember doing research while in graduate school at Tulane University that set me reading newspapers from the 1820s and 1830s. The editorial comments made the current news of the political day sound like a Sunday School picnic. Face it: Americans have always fought dirty when it come to politics!

Anyone have other rough and tumble political campaign stories to share?

ABC News: Children, Families and Health Care--Part 3 and last night's debate

Facing the reality of 9,000,000 uninsured children in the United States turns out to be sobering work.

Take a look at this report by ABC News:

"Red Tape and Bureaucracy in Health Care" (June 10) http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=3264531.

We must do better.

[As in previous segments of this series, please tolerate the commercial message at the beginning of the report.]

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Don't know about you, but I found last night's Presidential debate on CNN among the Democratic candidates using the YouTube question format to be interesting and refreshing compared to previous debates. Ordinary folks asking the questions that concerned them.

Opinion: there would have been many more questions on the Iraq War if the U. S. "recruited" its soldiers from a national draft. Funny how current, pressing self-interest shapes our primary concerns, huh? I find it to be the same with the issues associated with poverty, like the video above.

What do you think?


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YouTube Presidential Debates

CNN has come up with a new to-the-people format for two coming Presidential debates.

On next Monday, July 23, Democratic candidates for President will engage in what will undoubtedly be a very lively debate. Questions will come directly from people all across the nation via the interesting media provided by YouTube!

Ordinary people post their questions with all the charm, particularity, creativity and passion that YouTube video can deliver.


Questions will cover all the hot and, possibly, not so hot topics of the day: Iraq, health care, Katrina, international relief, religion, civil liberties and rights, gay marriage, abortion, Israel, Darfur and many others.

Truth be known, I bet these candidates hate this form of debate! Talk about no ability to control the discussion. Likely just what we need.

Here's what CNN had up on its website last weeek:

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Get your first glimpse at some of the YouTube submissions for July’s CNN-YouTube Democratic presidential debate – the first in history to be driven by user-generated video questions.

Click here to view the latest submissions and add yours.

CNN and YouTube’s live forum will feature video questions submitted to YouTube and answered by Democratic and Republican candidates live on CNN. CNN’s Anderson Cooper will moderate the two two-hour debates and pose follow-up questions.

The Democratic debate, the first Democratic National Committee-sanctioned presidential forum of the 2008 election cycle, will be held at the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, on Monday, July 23, at and will air live on CNN. The Republican presidential forum hosted by CNN and YouTube will take place on Monday, Sept 17, in Florida.

Questions for the Democratic Debate can be submitted until July 22.

It will be much like a national town hall meeting of sorts. Very interesting format for people just like you and me and many of our friends.

What do you think about it? I'd love to hear your reaction.

It is still not too late to get your question in!