Election Day under way with early voting

09/27/12 13:57 PM

by Laura Murphy Email: lmurphy@smu.edu   No, there are not 40 days or less left until Election Day. It’s happening now – at least in some states.  As of Tuesday, 25 states have started mail-in absentee or early in-person voting.  According to NPR, only 15 percent of the total ballots cast in the 2000 presidential election came from early voting. This year about 45 million Americans are expected to cast ballots before Nov. 6, according to the Los Angeles Times. With only a few days left before the first presidential debate, what does this mean for President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney? Now that the conventions are over, the three presidential debates coming up next month serve as the last opportunity for the two...

The 47 percent: Romney needs to tell us more

09/26/12 16:22 PM

by Victoria Petersen Email: vpetersen@smu.edu "There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what....These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives." This is the exact quote that has caused Mitt Romney to be a target of...

Fair media: What does it look like and is it being practiced?

09/25/12 10:05 AM

by Jonathan Machemehl Email: jmachemehl@smu.edu In a little over 40 days, America will decide whether to re-elect President Obama for another term or give Mitt Romney the position.  The question is whether the general population is able to make an informed decision with the facts on each candidate.  News stations claim they try to be non-biased by covering each candidate equally but is this the case? Ted Koppel in a recent piece on Rock Center took on this issue looking at the cable news channels (Fox News and MSNBC) and the progression of the partisan nature of the shows on the channels over the years.  Koppel reported that the cable news stations make $1 billion a year which is not even comparable to the amount the nightly news brings in on the big three...

Obama’s speech: mature, presidential but dull

09/07/12 11:27 AM

by Reem Abdelrazik  Email: rabdelrazi@smu.edu President Barack Obama entered the stage in Charlotte, N. C., to an already delirious crowd of delegates. Without saying a word he’d already worked them into a chant: four more years, they yelled. Four more years.  For me, the excitement seemed premature. To be frank, President Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention was dull and lacked the inspirational rhetoric that got him recognized at the 2004 Democratic Convention and later elected as president. It lacked the engaging one-liners of Bill Clinton’s speech and the genuine, heart-felt emotion of Michelle’s. But that was OK. Instead, Obama’s approach was much more mature. His speech was humble and modest – it was presidential. It was not...

Clinton fact-checks RNC claims

09/06/12 12:42 PM

by Leila Mustafa Email: lmustafa@smu.edu Former President Bill Clinton acted as a full-fledged supporter to President Barack Obama during his strong policy-packed speech nominating Obama for reelection. Clinton’s speech, attacking claims made in Tampa, Fla. during the Republican National Convention (RNC), was lengthy and passionate. So much so that according to a tweet by a reporter of The Washington Post, the speech was almost half ad-libbed. Clinton’s choice to speak wasn’t something I expected. After all, his wife was neck and neck with the president only four years ago during the Democratic presidential primaries, ending with Superdelegates determining the nomination. He also was the first former president to deliver a nomination according to The...

Michelle Obama focuses on home life, values in DNC speech

09/05/12 23:22 PM

by Danielle Gersh Email: dgersh@smu.edu  As the First Lady walked onto the stage of the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night, lyrics to Stevie Wonder’s hit song “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” filled audience ears—and let’s just say her speech did just that.    Michelle Obama used experiences from her and Barack’s home life to help sell her husband’s re-election. She explained how her “life before moving to Washington was filled with simple joys...Saturdays at soccer games, Sundays at grandma's house...and a date night for Barack and me was either dinner or a movie, because as an exhausted mom, I couldn't stay awake for both.” Mrs. Obama talked about things so rarely mentioned in the world of politics. She talked about normal things. She...

Romney humanizes himself, lacks policy specifics in speech

09/01/12 11:11 AM

by Daniella Rivera Email: driver@smu.edu   “Our problem with President Obama isn't that he's a bad person. By all accounts, he too is a good husband, and a good father — and thanks to lots of practice, a pretty good golfer. Our problem is he's a bad president." - Marco Rubio   After an impressive introduction from Marco Rubio, Mitt Romney took the stage at the Republican convention to give the most important speech of his career, his long-awaited acceptance speech. Five minutes into his speech I found myself wishing Senator Rubio would come back. I was so impressed with his presentation moments before. Romney’s however, was not my favorite. There weren’t any serious issues with the content of the speech, he could have been more successful had he touched on a...