James Fallows on election

As some of you know, I read the Atlantic monthly cover-to-cover. I have since 1995. James Fallows is one of my invisible friends who I trust and has been for a long time now. His comments on Palin reflect my own opinion. Palin is unprepared. Leave aside the fact that she has not demonstrated the capacity to prepare, at the moment, she could not assume the duties of VP or POTUS with any degree of knowledge or competence. That, for me, is enough reason to vote for someone else.

Framing the Election

In part as an effort to move away from my opinions about the current US election and moving the discussion towards a more neutral ground that includes some of my interests such as media literacy and young people, I offer the following link. Henry Jenkins provides a sustained analysis of the two presidential candidates bio videos. (By sustained I mean too long but it is worth touching down in a bunch of places). He uses George Lakoff's theory of how the two nt parties "frame" their presentation in such a way as to appeal to two different types of people. What I like about this piece is that Jenkins is using it specifically to talk to young people about how the media shapes our vision of the world.

I think that we often confuse being technologically savvy with being media savvy. There are always young people who are skeptical about the media that they consume but there are a larger number who are not as critical as they should be. Take for instance, Jenkins comment that his students typically view these bios as objective history and do not inquire into who and why they were produced. I look forward to the next installment which deals with the Vice Presidential candidates.

Clustering online

As I work through some research methodologies I came across the idea of "clustering" as a quick way of getting the writing juices working. Reminded me of a little online tool I've used a couple of times that mindmaps.

Links to references

In my response to burnlikestars below I referenced two items. First was an article about the dangers of talking points in a campaign. My friend John pointed me to this article earlier this morning.

Second, was the Sarah Palin interview where she did not understand the significance of the Bush Doctrine. Here it is:

Cutting Slack

A.K.M. Adam is correct, in my opinion, that the media can go overboard in crucifying candidates during an election. So it is clear - I could support either Obama or McCain but Palin makes the McCain ticket unpalatable to me. I'm not out to find the dirt, simply to say that she would make a horrible president.

My friend John has an interesting post about voting (since Canada is also having an election). Clearly our systems differ but there are enough similarities. Party platforms will form the core of any particular candidates stump speech and stock answers. These are immutable. What does give some room for original answers though are the intangible character traits that emerge during someone's governing. That is, the particular decision is not as important as the process of the decision.

I don't trust Palin to make the right decision regardless of her party's platform.

Election Mania

The first time we arrived in Princeton I stayed up all night watching George W. sort of getting elected. Very anticlimactic, even depressing, first hand experience of American politics.

Now we are here for either the first black president or first female vice president. I'm happy about that. Actually, when we were coming I figured we couldn't really lose. Obama or McCain, either one as a person is significantly better than GW.

Now however, there is no contest. I don't get to vote, but I'm actively campaigning against Palin. I'm somewhat obsessed these days with the Huffington Post because Palin does so many asinine things. Other folks I know have been getting in on this. Tony Jones has been seriously trying to shape Obama's campaign as you can see. Travis Allison, a Canadian photographer, has been more passively trawling for humourous campaign material such as this.

Either way, please, America, don't vote McCain/Palin or, if you watch her speak Palin/McCain.

Wildlife in Princeton

Our friends Jason, Shannon and Judah have a blog that chronicles a lot of the wildlife here in Princeton. Check out this entry. Garrett and I are the "caterpillar caretakers." Seriously, this sucker was huge.