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Sunday, October 30, 2011

Perry Problems

Candidate Rick Perry, Source: CNN

                Presidential nominee and former Governor of Texas, Rick Perry has fallen on hard times in his campaign. After two shaky performances during back to back debates and the inability to catch up in the polls, the Perry campaign has attempted to stay relevant in order to stay in the race. 
                In a recent interview, Perry assured voters that he would in fact perform in the next four debates that will take place in the next month.  This statement comes after claim from Perry’s own campaign that he would skip on future debates due to his poor performances and consequential drop in the polls. When commenting on his problems with debates he cited that "We've got a great debater, a smooth politician in the White House right now, and that's not working out very well,"(cnn.com).  Perry also offered some confidence with his future as a debater. He claimed that due to the intensive schedule of debates coming up in the next month, the practice will do him good and help turn his impact during debates around. In keeping with the same topic, Perry also expressed his confidence partaking in national debates with President Barack Obama. During the 2008 election, Obama proved to be an unshakable debater and consistently performed successfully. With such low approval ratings and Obama’s recent failure to capture his audience the way he has in the past, it is safe to say that his performance in the 2012 debates will be much different regardless of his challenger. Perry, however, expressed his thoughts on the matter stating that he is not the least bit worried and that he would offer a stark contrast to the current president.
Presidential Candidate Rick Perry

                Other obstacles faced by Perry have been his incapability of gaining supporters for his flat-tax plan.  The plan as gained criticism from both Democrats and Republicans as it is Perry’s attempt to offer a tax plan to compete with other candidates like Perry and Romney. Critics claim that the plan seems to complicated, that the revenue accumulated will decrease and that the taxes for the upper class will also decrease. Perry insists that these criticisms are illogical and that he would rather money be kept in the hands of private sector spenders than in the federal government.
Perry’s struggle to gain momentum for his tax plan is highlighted by the fact that for the last 30 years support for such reform has dissipated due to failed attempts by politicians to pass flat-tax plans. Most notably was Steve Forbes during his presidential campaign in 1996; Forbes in now a Perry supporter. Forbes presidential primary campaign was mounted on his flat-tax plan and he only one two states. It is very clear that many people in Congress would be opposed to such a tax reform which hurts Perry’s chances. There has also been a struggle for the candidate to explain the plan in detail. There is also an option for American’s to opt out of the flat rate of 20%, which is another detail that has caused both confusion and criticism. 
It is clear that Perry will continue the struggle to gain support and rise in the polls. Since the race for the Republican nomination seems wide open the most important factors will become, I suspect, debates. Not only will the performance of each candidate be closely watched, but also their ability to bring substantial plans to the table and defend their past records.  The resistance from candidates to drop out of the race is also a large factor. It seems that most Republicans are waiting for the last possible moment to throw their support behind a candidate. However, the closer we get to the first primary in New Hampshire the more intense the race will get for Perry as well as the other candidates.

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Saturday, October 29, 2011

Money Spent on 2012 election.

Commentators Jonathan Martin and Amy Gardener respond to a question about the amount of money spent on campaigning. The caller, from England, emphasized the fact that candidates spend all of this money while Americans struggle from day to day. The commentators respond by explaining the importance of spending money on media as it will help gain voters.


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Media's Effect on Polling

Professor William Adams responds to a question about the role of media in campaign polling. He uses the example of the recent New Hampshire poll. Later on in the interview Mr. Adams stresses the mistake the media makes as they give too much attention to the polls instead of the candidates themselves.


Broadcast News Stations Role in Politics


           Professor of Media Studies Michael Robinson discussed the role of broadcast stations in the media.  He uses advertisements created by news stations in order to gain viewers as examples. He makes the argument that this use of advertisement is similar to campaigning. The  interview occurred during the 1984 Republican Convention.

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Wednesday, October 26, 2011

The Loan Ranger Takes on Economy and the West

President Obama speaks with homeowners in Las Vegas, source: cnn.com
               President Obama has clearly been growing impatient with Congress in Washington as they have not yet passed his American Jobs Act. The frustration comes after this week’s unanimous vote from Senate Republicans to block the vote as well as the House Republican’s refusal to put the plan to a vote at all. Despite the President’s pleas and various stump speeches, he has been unsuccessful in getting his plan passed. This has prompted President Obama to take matters into his own hands. He plans on taking various executive actions in order to enact the proper programs to help the deteriorating economy. 
                  Evident in the title of this post, President Obama has organized a trip out West in order to promote his plans to re-shape the economy. He focused primarily on housing loans in Las Vegas and student loans in Denver, hence the terrible “Loan Ranger” pun Obama intends on making changes on his own using executive authority. This trip also included stops in California cities Los Angeles and San Francisco for fundraising purposes. Obama intends on using his executive authority that oversees federal laws and agencies in order to prove that he is not completely incapable of instating his own plans for the country. However past uses of executive power simply resulted in more modifications and re-writes from Congress.  Aides of Mr. Obama claim that these recent surges of executive orders are less far-reaching than the legislation that is now before Congress.
             Obama’s first stop on his Western trail was Las Vegas in which he attended a campaign event at the Bellagio hotel and casino. Shortly after, he addressed a group of homeowners at a private residence about his new plans in home refinancing. Las Vegas is an appropriate place to make such a speech because it has been greatly affected by the housing  market crisis as their home prices are down 53%. Obama’s plan consists of two modifications to the already existent Home Affordable Refinance Program, which up till now helped 894,000 borrowers since its enactment in 2009. In order to broaden the range of requirements for the program and to subsequently help more people the Obama Administration will make two important changes. The first and most important will be to allow homeowners who owe more than 125% of the market value of their homes to obtain the new loans given out by the refinancing program. The result of this modification will allow more people to be eligible for refinance and will save them hundreds of dollars a month in mortgage costs. The second change will be the elimination of refinancing fees and lower closing costs which Obama hopes will allow consumers to shop around for better rates. 

Source: Google Images
           Much criticism follows this announcement. Although many people see the housing crisis as one of the main factors for the downfall in the economy, many believe that Obama’s modifications will not help in the long run. There are 3.5 million people who have foreclosed on their houses, or are four months behind, that will not benefit from Obama’s plan. It seems that his plan is more of an economic stimulus that would reduce eligible homeowner’s monthly payments so they can spend the money elsewhere. Overall, Obama’s modifications to the program that already exists will no doubt help people with little or no equity on their home but will in no way solve the housing market crisis.
The last stop of Obama’s trip was in Denver where he announced plans to help relieve student loans. Obama addressed the issue with student loans and suggested his plans to relieve such debts. The first is to advance the start date of the loan repayment program based on income to help struggling graduate students. The current Income-Based Repayment Plan charges graduate students who enroll 15% of their monthly discretionary income to pay off loans and after 25 years the debt is forgiven. Congress recently signed a law that would begin in 2014 to lower the monthly payment percentage to 10% of the discretionary income and relieve debt after 20 years. Obama seeks to advance the start time of that law to 2012. The other proposal is to encourage graduate students with two or more kinds of federal loans to consolidate them which would result in an interest break rate of 0.5%.  
The recent drive from President Obama to enact certain executive orders can either be seen as a need to make things happen while avoiding the politics of Congress or as a campaign move in order to prove the vitality of Obama and his policies, or both. In many ways this trip out West was a mix of both business and campaign fundraising. It was estimated that the Obama campaign would collect up to $4 million dollars at six fundraisers in three states over a three day trip. An impressive figure that proves that Obama is still able to win over fundraisers but does not secure a win in the general election.

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