Fog 'N' Blog

Election Day

2008-11-07T22:32:00.000-08:00

I sent in my absentee ballot several weeks ago but went with my sister to our polling place around the corner. There was a short line but everyone was friendly and fairly confident about Obama's impending success. There was a palpable nervous energy circulating among people, after weeks of tension the anticipation was clearly at is peak. But the older folks kept reminding us that we live in a bubble here in San Francisco and that the rest of the country isn't so optimistic or confident.There seemed to be a general concensus among the people around me that McCain's nomination of Sarah Palin had lost him the election. Some sounded affronted, personally offended almost, by his VP nomination. One older woman in particular who was buzzing around the line, talking to friends and neighbors, expressed her disappointment in the regression that Sarah Palin had cost women in politics.

I was a little nervous to hear one of my neighbors join the line, not sure if he belonged at this polling place. He said the place he normally voted didn't have his name on their roster and he hadn't moved since then. He waited and waited in the line to find out if he had been moved to this polling place but found out he wasn't on their list either. But he hund around and talked to people about what he would have voted for and how he hoped they would vote. I was actually quite surprised by how open people were in expressing what they were going to put on their ballot. I guess thats just San Francisco though, because most people seem to vote the same way.

All in all, it was a day I will always remember. It was the first election I was really a part of, and what a great city to experience it all in. For the first time in my life (like Michelle Obama!) I could really say that I was proud to be an American and proud of the people I share this country with, the young people especially. Look at all that we can overcome when choose to make our voices heard.

Sound Familiar?

2008-10-09T14:18:00.000-07:00

According to an article in The New York Times, several battleground states are in violation of federal law for dropping tens of thousands of voters from voter registration rolls. It doesn't appear to be linked with either party but does sound a little suspicious. Barack Obama's nomination and heightened efforts to get young people voting has caused an unprecedented increase in democratic voter registration. For every one person that was added to the voter lists in these states (Michigan and Colorado specifically), two were dropped from the lists by mistake. This is starting to feel familiar. I wonder how many other "mistakes" we're going to see in November.

Truth in Politics?

2008-10-09T13:45:00.000-07:00

With so many accusations flying around from both presidential campaigns, its difficult for people to know what the truth really is. This election has seen the emergence of several major non-partisan fact checking websites, which some truth-seeking voters have come to rely on. PolitiFact.com for example, recently won the Knight-Batten Award for Innovation in Journalism. It's founder, Bill Adair explained that as a political journalist, he often found it difficult to cover both sides of an issue or election where there are opposing views about what the facts are. He said it was difficult to draw attention to the falsity of one person's claims becasue it was often seen as biased reporting. Now, thanks to these non-partisan sites, reporters can cite the facts from an unbiased source without the fear of appearing to endorse one point of vew and tell the truth about what politicians are really claiming. I wonder how this will change politicians' campaign strategies for future elections. Will it put them in check once and for all? Will there finally be truth in politics? Probably not, but its a start.

700b Bailout. Enough media coverage?

2008-09-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

The $700 billion bailout plan to help Wallstreet should be getting more attention in the mainstream media. Some, including the SF Chronicle, are saying that the plan for congress to rebuild the financial state of our country is a pychological manuver to put the American public at ease. If people continue to lose conifdence in the economy they will stop investing their money, and pull their money out of US banks. Is the media downplaying the crisis to sway our opinion about the true financial state of the country?