21
Oct
2008
State Profiles
Many of you are looking for the ‘key issues’ in your swing states.
The New York Times has good profiles for all 50 states, including several key issues for each state! Use the drop down menu on the right to select your swing state.
14 days from today!
21
Oct
2008
Google Does Elections
This is pretty cool.
Google has a feature on maps.google.com where you can analyze the polls! It’s pretty cool and you can look at everything at once, not just one site.
Click on “Electoral Votes Estimates” and play away!
8
Oct
2008
Money, Money, Money!!!
The Fix reports that Barack Obama is outspending John McCain nearly 3 to 1 on television ads! The Fix even believes that this may account for Obama’s surge in the polls.
He also breaks the spending so far down by individual states. How much are Obama and McCain spending in YOUR state? Do you think this will translate to one particular candidate winning your state?
21
Sep
2008
A More Perfect Constitution
This week we’ll spend a lot of time talking about how we can change the Constitution. Every year dozens of amendments are proposed to the Constitution an in the entire history (230+ years) of the United States, we’ve only approved 27 amendments. Of those 27, the first 10 (the Bill of Rights) were more like an extension to the original Constitution. In fact, several amendments have been passed by congress and not passed by the states. Obviously its pretty difficult to amend it!
However, the Constitution is far from a perfect document. We have an Electoral College that prevents the people from directly electing the President, a Senate that isn’t truly democratic, and a Supreme Court that isn’t democratic at all! Some political scientists even argue that so many Americans are disinterested in the political system because an antiquated Constitution alienates them!
If you WERE actually able to amend the Constitution, what would you change?
I found a list of recently proposed amendments to the Constitution.
Some of the more interesting ones ( along with the Congress that voted them down) are:
109th Congress (2005-2006)
- To ensure reproductive rights of women
- To allow non-natural born citizens to become President if they have been a citizen for 20 years
- The “Every Vote Counts” Amendment – providing for direct election of the President and Vice President, abolishing the Electoral College
108th Congress (2003-2004)
- To lower the age restriction on Representatives and Senators from 30 and 25 respectively to 21
- To restrict marriage in all states to be between a man and a woman
- To allow Congress to pass laws for emergency replenishment of its membership should more than a quarter of either house be killed
107th Congress (2001-2002)
- To specify a right to “equal high quality” health care
- To allow for any person who has been a citizen of the United States for twenty years or more to be eligible for the Presidency
106th Congress (1999-2000)
- To provide a new method for proposing amendments to the Constitution, where two-thirds of all state legislatures could start the process
- To declare that life begins at conception and that the 5th and 14th amendments apply to unborn children
105th Congress (1997-1998)
- To provide for the reconfirmation of federal judges every 12 years
- To prohibit the early release of convicted criminals
Sanford Levinson, professor at the University of Texas, says we need to make some significant changes to the Constitution!
Larry J. Sabato, professor at the University of Virginia, makes of list of 23 amendments that should be made to the Constitution!
Some other interesting ideas:
- War Making Limitations
- Non-Natural Born Presidents
- Proportional Representation in the Senate
- Extending the length of House Terms
- Term limits for members of Congress
- End Lifetime tenure for Supreme Court Judges
- Mandatory retirement for Federal Judges
- Improving/Removing the Electoral College
- Automatic Voter Registration
- Mandatory National Service in the Military
What do you think? Should we add something new to the Constitution? What should we amend? Or should we simply have another Constitutional Convention and start all over?
And remember Thomas Jefferson’s ideas on the Constitution:
Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it be
enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right. – 1789
Download the assignment (.doc) here:
Amending the Constitution activity
You will use Microsoft Word, the textbook, and the internet to complete the assignment. I will let you know how to turn the assignment in at the end of class. Do not print it!
Take some time, when you’re completed with the assignment, to post some comments on MrOsman.com!
(Don’t forget your next test is on Wednesday the 24th)
10
Sep
2008
McCain’s New Lead (tie?) in the Polls
John McCain’s Surge in the Polls!
It appear that John McCain is pulling ahead of Barack Obama in the national polls. We’ve seen an increasing trend in the past week puching McCain ahead. Some believe it is simply a post convention ‘bump’ in the polls, but many other believe that it is John McCain’s excellent pick of Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate. In the begining of the summer, McCain was behind Obama by 15-20 percentage points. For him to be tied, and even leading in some polls, is quite amazing.
While the national polls have significant value, we have to remember that the Electoral College actually elects the President. The national trends may lead (or be pushed) by trends leaning McCain in key states. However, we haven’t seen the data yet from those key states quite yet. You Obama folks will really need to worry if polls in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Virginia, Florida, and New Hampshire really start swinging McCain’s way. In addition, you McCain kids should really worry if those same few states swing the other way.
Let’s see if this trend lasts more than a week, or it’s something that will really stick for McCain.
There is an excellent site out there, www.electoral-vote.com, that posts the most recent polls as they are published. Remember though: not all polls are equal! Some are MUCH more reliable than others! There are several inheirent flaws to most polls today, including the increased use of cell phones and caller-ID.
You need 270 to win!
You can play it all out at www.270towin.com and predict what YOU think will happen on November 4th. Will Texas go Obama? California for McCain? What about something in between that’s a little more likely?
A bonus question for you!
Bonus to the person who finds the ‘reddest’ state out there right now, and the ‘bluest’ state also!
But here’s something, after you’ve read some articles and crunched some numbers, that you can really discuss:
[poll ID=4]