Perspectives

From blogs.babble.com

First things first: GO VOTE!

Politico has an interesting article today on the prospects and possibilities of Sarah Palin possibly picking up the GOP nomination for 2012. It is assumed that Palin, who is releasing her second book, America by Heart this month (on the 23rd), will run for president. I’ve heard numerous arguments that she won’t, but surely this non-stop campaign via her book tour for Going Rogue, her presumed book tour for America by Heart, daughter Bristol’s appearance on Dancing With the Stars, and her many speeches around the country, including Iowa, where caucuses will be held and the campaigns jumpstarted, means a run will soon be announced. I personally will be shocked if she doesn’t. Call me an old-fashioned spotlight-hater, but why would you spend that much time touring the country, enduring endless crowds and awkward questions and having to worry about every single thing you say, do, and wear because it’ll all be scrutinized by the press… if you’re NOT trying to gain something politically?

Politco’s article presents an interesting predicament though: GOPers love Sarah… but she won’t beat Obama. (Interestingly enough though, the consensus seems to be that Obama’s chances of winning reelection are pretty slim… that’s taken independently from the GOP nomination though.) Could her affiliation with the extremist tea partiers hurt her chances of getting the moderate GOP vote? Does she have any chance at all of getting general moderates (moderates between GOP and democrat, I mean) and independents to vote for her over Mr. President or any other democrat candidate? I don’t know what the conclusion is here, but there’s certainly a stir forming over Politico’s recent articles, and Palin has apparently denounced Politico as a source of “yellow journalism” in response to them. What do you guys think? I suspect presidential campaigns are going to go into full swing here after the midterm elections end this week. Yay for exciting campaign times in US history again! The beginning is always the best… at least in my opinion. This is when everything’s still up for grabs.

KSU, Palin, and Power of the Press

I’m attempting to type this during the timeouts and breaks between overtimes of the KSU-Xavier game. So if a random GAH shows up in my post, I apologize.

March Madness just goes to show up how unpredictable things can be in this world. Some things, however, are not. For example: Sarah Palin has her own reality TV show. I mean really. Who didn’t see this coming? The gal has been beefed up to celebrity status, and frankly, America, I’m sick of it. As if yall didn’t already know how much her hype ticks me off, EVERYONE’s hype ticks me off. I studied British politics last semester, and I was intrigued. Because in Britain, politicians are held accountable. And I know that American politicians get plenty of crap, oftentimes undeserved crap, but we give them a hell of a pedestal to stand on, and that’s where the change needs to come in. We’re giving a governor a reality TV show to talk about Alaska. True, she was Alaska’s governor, but she essentially quit being governor so she could go on book tour in the lower 48, if I understand correctly. So I mean, you know, she REALLY cares about Alaska. But I’m sorry, I do NOT want a gal that turns down opportunities to lead and govern for opportunities to go on promotional book tours and host reality tv shows to be my president. No thank you. I admire book writers (reality TV show hosts, not as much, though it depends on the show). But that doesn’t mean that you’re qualified to be my president. Just sayin’.

That rant is over. Lo siento. (COME ON KSU!!!) But going with the we-put-our-politicians-on-a-pedestal-theme, I was thinking about it today when my professor brought up a local campus issue here. The student board of communications is at risk to lose a significant portion of funding due to the fact that it has lots of reserves saved up in case of emergency. Now, the Drake student senate isn’t some crazy governmental body on a power trip. BUT this motion was brought forward without any forewarning to the student board of communications, and this motion, were it to pass, has the potential to drastically affect the entire student body, as it is the budget reserved for newspaper, magazine, radio, and tv productions that serve the entire campus audience. How it will all play out is still to be determined, but it made me think about the power of the press and how so often we (we being us journalism folk) find ourselves unintentionally (and more often intentionally) directly battling government. But it is our job as the press to hold our politicians accountable for what they do. That is, partly, my purpose in this whole blog, and I hope that that’s evident. So, to all you journalists out there, keep trucking, and don’t let them take your funding. Once we lose our voice, the people lose their voice, and the government is no longer responsible to a people, but only to themselves.

Shpiel over. (AND KSU WON! THANK GOODNESS!)

Peace out.

Palin for 2012?

I apologize if I talk about Sarah Palin more than anybody else in my blog, but what can I say, she’s a fascinating woman. She said in an interview with Fox News yesterday that she will run for president in 2012 if it is the “right thing” to do for her family and her country. While I applaud Sarah for leaving some sort of vagueness in her answer to protect her reputation as a family woman (in my opinion it is ridiculous to decide for sure 2 years in advance to uproot your entire family for the DC life), I am a little suspicious and honest-to-goodness annoyed that she’s being vague when it sounds like her mind is completely made up–she criticizes Obama endlessly (which I again applaud her for doing–politicians should hold each other accountable and she does a decent job of providing solid reasons rather than just mud-slinging), and claims to know better ways to solve the problems he’s currently dealing with… so wouldn’t that mean that she feels that she would be the “right thing” for our country? I’m not a mind-reader by any means, but Sarah is the only solid candidate from the last election, besides Obama, that we can almost guarantee to see on the campaign trail in a year or so. She’s one to keep an eye on. The Republican party as well, which has dug its heels into the ground (and will continue to do so especially in the upcoming month as Obama calls for a health care summit) and latched on tightly to Scott Brown when he was elected last month, is one to watch–will it accept Sarah Palin again or is it looking for a fresh face? As sad as it is in today’s society, I think the fact that she’s a woman will affect her chances at getting the GOP nomination, especially as it didn’t help John McCain as much as it was expected to in 2008.