Gettin' There...

Well, it's been a relatively calm week for so close to the election. The only scandalous news stories that have broken on the Washington Post have been about Sarah Palin and her expensive clothing and makeup selection. Most of the news that the Post has been running is to outline how Obama is supposedly ahead in every polled state that is up for grabs. I've been thinking about this, and I think that this could be a swaying tool for them to use to get people to vote for Obama. Post is of course a liberal paper if you haven't read my previous blogs or known anything at all about the paper, and I was thinking that if people who were either undecided or not necessarily thinking about the election and might not vote read the main stories the past few days about Obama leading in the polls they might decide to not vote at all because they think that maybe Obama's going to win it anyway and that their support for McCain would be wasted. My other thought was that they might be trying to encourage other people to come out and vote for Obama because they might see that most everyone else is voting for him and that he's "going to win anyway" so the people might as well vote for him if he's set up to win as it is right now anyway. The Post has a lot of following and is, next to the New York Times, a very largely and widely read newspaper which might have a lot of influence over people who follow the publication. I just thought that it was an interesting thing to think about how they might just be trying to sway voters or they could be just stating the facts about the polls they have incurred. Either way, the Washington Post could be a very influential piece of literature.

Top 5
1. McCain/Palin's Makeup and Clothing Bills
2. Obama Leading in Virginia Polls
3. Obama Leads on Economic Issues
4. GOP Has Split Personality Disorder
5. Colin Powell's Effect/Bradley Effect

Ever Closer

As we come around to the next few wonderful weeks of this election, of course there are more and more little issues that pop up from different parties or media sources to try and swing certain voters either which way. Some of the top articles this week were about the debate which took place on Tuesday evening of this week in which, yet again, it was felt that there was no clear winner from most angles. However, the Washington Post did declare that Obama did a better job of explaining his plans but not enough to woo any unexpected swing voters to change. One of the main news stories on the Post this week was that Obama had risen in the polls in Ohio and that McCain decided to pull out of Michigan completely, a state that could have easily gone to him not too long ago. Recently, the Post has had many articles featuring Gov. Palin's expereince and the dealings with the scandal that was recently cleared. Mostly, the paper has criticized Palin for her actions and judgements with a few complementary reports here and there. Whereas, everything that has centered around Obama has been built up in a positive light, proving that the Post is a liberal leaning paper by all means. Today's top story on the page is about Palin being cleared of the scandal at hand, however it highlights many of the skeptical angles of the story and is less clear about the actual case itself and the inner workings. Another top story today, which actually ran on the front page, was about race "finally" creeping into the race. The race of the candidates as well as the sex has been a topic of discussion with everyone since the candidates have secured their nominations. However, the candidates themselves do everything possible to avoid the subject. The article in the Post highlights the fact that Obama is, in fact, an African-American as well criticizing the people who aren't McCain spokespeople, but have rallies at which Obama is referred to as Barack Hussein Obama in order to highlight his middle name. However, the article never really says anything about McCain being a victim nor Palin. This is an obvious attempt to make Obama look as though he is the victim in such an arguement and that McCain and company are simply pointing fingers and being childish in their arguments and campaign in general. With only a few more weeks left to go, we can only hope that in the coming weeks that the campaigns don't get any more degrading and annoying than they already are.

Top 5
1. Palin Cleared of Scandal
2. Debate on Tuesday
3. Obama Ohio
4. Race Issues
5. McCain Pulls Out of Michigan

Palin and Biden: Ready to Lead?

After scrolling through all of the economic issues that seem to be everyone's top issues these past few weeks and days, I finally found the featured political articles. The Washington Post highlighted two articles that were counteractive to each other in theory. One was about Palin getting ready for the upcoming debates and the other was about Democrats being concerned that Biden would be...well...Biden. In what should be a fairly interesting match of personalities, the debate will be key in persuading people to either side of the political scene.

However, I found it interesting that in the article written about Palin, the author seemed to be poking more fun at her than actually telling how she will be getting ready for the debate and what issues are important. The article featured many mentions of the CBS interview with Katie Couric, which showed Palin's inexperience both of media shows as well as policy, and the Saturday Night Live spoofs of her failure to know much. Overall, it was a very negatively framed article, made to show people just how much experience and knowledge she might be lacking for the vice presidential nomination.

The article about Biden, however, highlighted his go-getting and harsh personality in debate situations and what democrats thought of it, of course with only one quote stating that it might not be a good thing. It's not in the articles themselves that you can see a bias toward the left, but it is clear when evaluating articles comparing the Democrats and Republicans where the paper's true bias lies. Biden, in the article, would be criticized for his roughness when discussing politics, but glosses over this by saying that it could easily throw Palin's rehearsed responses for a loop. either way, it's becoming more apparent as the campaign continues and the issues and time to the election creep closer where the Post's allegiances are.

To debate or not to debate? That is the question.

Friday September 26, 2008

For the last couple of days, the big news has been that Sen. McCain has decided to suspend his campaign and return to Washington until the financial crisis at hand has been settled. This also, in McCain's eyes, meant suspending the debate that is supposed to take place today. However, the Democrats have said that this is a stupid decision to make and that Sen. Obama will be present at the debate whether McCain shows up or not. The Posts' comments are definitely swaying toward the liberal end by showing more of the Democrats' stance on the issue than that of the Republican party. According to the Post, they believe that McCain's stand still is uncalled for in a time of election when people need to be informed about what kind of decisions and policies the two candidates want to enact. This, in their eyes, is a way for both parties to "show them what they're made of" so to speak. However, the Post doesn't have any perspective from the Republican side of things except to say that they're "hopeful" that they will come to an agreement on the bail out sometime this week. Now, of course, we know that McCain is definitely going to be at the debate tonight at 9:00 E.S.T. However, it wasn't his orignial intention. Many are saying that the move to suspend his campaign was a political stunt to send a message that said "Country first." But the Democratic party, and the Post from the way I'm reading it, seems to think that it's a stupid move, he wasn't essential to the planning, and shows that he can't handle more than one thing at a time. Either way, McCain has resumed campaigning even though a resolution on the bill hasn't been reached in order to come to the debate. The Post only said that he decided to "move forward with the face off."