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

Where Were They Then?

It seems like the candidates have been debating and campaigning for decades, thanks to all of the media surrounding the Election '08. The news services all cover everything, of course, from the Obama's "fist bump" to McCain's uncertainty about the number of houses he owns. By now, we should all feel as though we're best friends with the candidates since there is coverage every moment of every day. But in all actuality, this race has only been going on in a serious fashion for the last year and a half. We all know where Obama and McCain stand now, ready to be thrust into the most powerful position in our country, but where were they just one year ago?

After announcing his candidacy in February of 2007,Barack Obama, a Junior Senator from Illinois, became caught up in the whirlwind of media and campaigning with the other 6 candidates for President on the democratic side. Soon, the Senator had come in second to Hillary Clinton in the national polls conducted by the most prominent news services, CNN, FOX, and MSNBC, trailing her 44 percent at 22 percent. Although there were six other candidates at this time, the front runners were clearly Clinton, Obama, and John Edwards. There were a series of debates, the closest one to a year ago being on September 26th at Dartmouth University. Also at this time, there were Straw Polls being conducted in Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire. While Obama came in third in Nevada, he won decisively in Iowa but then came in with a not so close second to Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. While Obama's campaign was trying to boost itself into the Americans' minds, he definitely gained more money in his campaign pocketbook than any of the other candidates, raising nearly $380 million by August due to small donations and the use of social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace to get the word out.

John McCain, on the other hand, was hard at work trying to weed away the other 10 candidates in his party in order to finally wrap up the nomination in March of 2008. This was quite a turn around from August and September of the previous year where in the national standings, he was regarded in third place in the race to Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. McCain, known for being a strong supporter of President Bush's policies, being a prisoner of war in the Vietnam War, and being a Senator for the state of Arizona, McCain was a valid choice for the Republican nomination for President. However in the same Straw Polls in Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire McCain came in at a disappointing fifth in Iowa and third in both Nevada and New Hampshire. He, unlike Obama, also had some financial difficulties in 2007, and was not able to fund raise as much as his top competitors, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Eventually, McCain took more of an advantage of free media such as debates and sponsored events to get his message across to America.

Today, both candidates are miles ahead of where they were this time last year. With Obama finally picking his Vice President, Joe Biden, and McCain's choice said to come later in the week, it should be interesting to see how everything irons out in the coming months.