Political Narratives/Covering the President http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091130/pl_politico/29993

The headline and lead on this story captured my attention. I found it interesting how the reporter focused his article on narratives and weaved in public opinion.

The End of Mass Communication?

Here's a link to an interesting article referenced by Bennett and Iyengar about the changing foundations of mass communication in general. Should the term "mass communication" be changed to "media communication"? For discussion Monday!

http://www.udel.edu/communication/COMM418/cai/extra/chaffee.pdf

Limited Effects reading

Here is the Bennett & Iyengar article about "A New Era of Limited Effects?" in political communication. You may, but are not required to, substitute this article for one of the required readings for our next and last class meeting.

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

PPT

Trying to send the presentation as an attachment again...

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

---

From: Gentle Spirit <gentlespirit73@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:11:17 -0600

To: <gentlespirit73.7005@blogger.com>

Subject: Fwd: Focus Group

The SICKO second focus group is Tuesday 11/24 at 12n-3pm in Hodges 233.

Please encourage anyone to attend. There will be refreshments.

Thank you!
Roslyn

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Abstracts

Abstracts are due Wednesday Dec 2 by noon. E-mail me a WORD DOCUMENT (not in the text of the e-mail) with the following information in this order:

Your name as you wish it to be on the program
The title of your paper (I recommend against cute names and the over-use of colons)
Your abstract, 150 words or less (Abstract MadLibs)
(Your name here) is a (Ph.D./Master's/etc.) student in (Mass Communication/Liberal Arts/ etc.). This paper (will/may) be submitted to (insert a specific publication or conference; try journal citation reports in Web of Knowledge)

I will distribute these abstracts as part of a program with the invitation to attend the presentations, which are on Monday Dec 7 from 1:40 to 4:30 (or perhaps somewhat later.) Abstracts are not separately evaluated apart from the paper, but if you miss the deadline you'll have "TBA" next to your name.

Economists Polled http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091123/ap_on_bi_ge/us_nabe_survey

When I worked in news ... I didn't see a lot of stories where economists were polled... found this to be an interesting aspect of this news story

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/11/21/econonists-say-stimulus-package-rescued-economy-from-free-fall/

Column on a political web site about the economy and whether the stimulus package worked.. includes public opinion poll.. This is the first time I've been to this site.. but found the article and poll interesting.

What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession?

We talked about the effect of the economy, recession, etc on public opinion last class.

I found this interesting NY Times article and video done in May about fulfilling the American dream despite recession issues.

No Healthcare Inform/ Ignoring Public Opinion? http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/mcconnell-americans-dont-even-want-health-care-reform-

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says if there is health reform... and if Democrats pass they are ignoring the majority of American's public opinion.

National Campaign Organizer Visits Manship

I'm sharing this email from Prof. Bob Mann:

You and your students are welcome to drop in tomorrow to hear from Daren Berringer, formerly national field director for the 2008 John Edwards campaign and who worked with Joe Trippi's firm during the 2004 Howard Dean campaign. His bio is below. He'll be in Hodges 216 at 11 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 16.

Daren Berringer

Daren has worked in local, congressional, gubernatorial, senate and
presidential politics since 1995. Within those campaigns he has held the
positions of media consultant, campaign manager, political director, field
director and press secretary.

Some of the more notable roles Daren has played in the political arena were
as the field and political director for the 2002 upset victory for Democratic
Congressman Tim Holden who, as the result of redistricting, faced a 20-year
incumbent congressman in which the Republican had a 60% to 40% voter
registration edge. The campaign was rated by Roll Call as one of the best
campaigns of 2002.

In 2003, Daren took on the position as state director of Michigan for the
Dean for America presidential campaign, during which he was profiled by the
Washington, D.C. based political online publication, The Hotline. Despite
having no financial resources spent on commercial advertising, Governor Dean
finished second and captured more delegates in Michigan to the 2004 Democratic
National Convention than any other state.

Following the Dean for America campaign, Daren became the political director
for the Democratic U.S. Senate campaign of Joe Hoeffel in Pennsylvania and was
named to the 2004 Dream Team by the political website, PoliticsPA.com.

After joining Joe Trippi & Associates at the end of 2004, Daren worked pro
bono in 2005 to assist in the building of the ONE Campaign and organizing
their famed worldwide Live 8 concert series. This included the finale event in
Edinburgh, Scotland as the run-up to the G8 Summit.

During the 2006 election cycle Daren served as the Senior Advisor and General
Consultant to Patrick Murphy (PA 8th) and John Hall (NY 19th) in their upset
victories over two highly-funded Republican incumbents. Both districts were
historical Republican strongholds. Earlier in that year, Daren produced his
first gubernatorial ad campaign that was rated as one of the Top 5 ads by The
Hotline's WebAttic for the primary election season.

In 2007 Daren joined John Edwards' presidential campaign to serve as his
National Field Director. While in that position, Daren implemented a
thirty-two state program that built a Community Leadership base of traditional
and non-traditional political activists—the first time any national campaign
had conducted this message-moving and organizing operation. He also created an
SMS (text messaging) organizing campaign that was featured in The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNN. The innovative approach to voter
communication also resulted in John Edwards for President being the first
campaign in history to ever receive financial contributions via SMS, including
a $2,300 FEC maximum donation. Daren transitioned back into his media
consultant background as the campaign moved forward by creating concepts and
producing advertising that focused on New Hampshire television markets.

Daren has also appeared as a guest on Fox News and MSNBC's Hardball with
Chris Matthews and has on-the-record experience with Roll Call, Campaigns &
Elections, The New Republic, The New York Times, the Financial Times of
London, The Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, Detroit Free Press and
many other local news media outlets. In addition, Daren has been a guest
lecturer at The Washington Center, Louisiana State University and Indiana
University of Pennsylvania.

Palin Billboard and First Ammendment Rights http://www.sphere.com/2009/11/12/battling-for-palin-billboard-in-democratic-stronghold/?icid=main|hp-lapto

Interesting article on the right to speak out with billobards and Sarah Palin

Voter behavior - further reading

Ben Jenkins and I are discussion leaders this Monday for voter bahavior and we realize that you have a particularly heavy reading load. For this reason, rather than add additional readings for the in-class discussion, we’ve decided to only suggest some supplemental readings for people who are interested in further readings on the subject.

The importance of economic news and information for elections is of particular interest to me. Both The American Voter Revisited (Chapter 13) and one of our assigned articles (Kinder & Kiewiet, 1981) discuss this theme. Specifially they discuss the pocketbook vs. sociotropic models of voter behavior. An interesting recent article that addresses the same question is: Grafstein, Robert. Journal of Theoretical Politics, Oct2009, Vol. 21 Issue 4, p451-482, 32p. (available through the LSU libraries electronic databases). Graftstein pursues questions that come out of our readings, and specifically asks why sociotropism tends to dwarf pocketbook voting.

If you are interested in the O-S-O-R model from social psychology used by the authors of the second article we read this week (McLeod, Scheufele, & Moy, 1999), you may also wish to check out the chapter in Media Effects, which offers additional description of this modeling technique. McLeod, J. M., Kosicki, G. M., & McLeod, D. M. (1994). The expanding boundaries of political communication effects. In J. Bryant & D. Zillman (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (pp. 123–162). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Current support for shifting public opinion based on question wording

This NY Times article combines NBC news and Wall Street Journal, CNN, Washington Post and ABC news, USA Today and Gallup, and the Kaiser Health Tracking Poll to determine public opinion about the public insurance option. As seen in the article, public opinion changes.

Daily Show Busts FNC over Rally http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-november-10-2009/sean-hannity-uses-glenn-beck-s-protest-footage

Not sure if you saw this, but CNN is giving credit to The Daily Show for busting FNC... The Daily Show showed that FNC used video of a bigger rally than the one they were covering...

Covering Public Opinion: http://www.whas11.com/archive/65064192.html

Public Opinion Split on Topic of Rick Pitino

Sorry had to put the link in the title.. blog hasn't been letting me add links to the text box.

Interesting example of how the media says they are covering public opinion.. only two views represented.

Murdoch to block Google to encourage people to pay for content

An interesting article in light of the speaker we had on Monday.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google

Public Divided Over Afghan Troop Request...

Roslyn has shared the following article with you from pewresearch.org:

Public Divided Over Afghan Troop Requests, But Still Sees Rationale for War
As Obama weighs difficult choices in Afghanistan, the public also appears to be finding it difficult to judge the merits of different options for expanding, maintaining or contracting the U.S. effort on that front.

Read the full article at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1400/public-divided-over-afghanistan-troop-requests-still-sees-rationale-for-war

Roslyn Satchel Augustine has shared the following article with you from pewresearch.org:

What Does the Public Know?Well-Known: Public Option, Sotomayor

Little-Known: Cap & Trade, Baucus
There is a lot to keep up with in the news right now. Many Americans know key facts about health care and the economy, but questions about Afghanistan and environmental legislation in Congress stump the public.
Read the full article at http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1378/political-news-iq-quiz

interesting way to track public opinion

http://contexts.org/socimages/2009/11/05/support-for-same-sex-marriage-by-age-and-state/

Opinion Leadership in New Media: health care

I stumbled across this fascinating website "Shifting the Debate" that tracks thought leadership in the blogosphere. It has incredible maps: see this map of liberals overtaking conservatives on healthcare Nov. 6, 2009.

It also has a nifty map correlating Obama and the 2009 Iran Election in the Farsi blogosphere.

Coding Help?

• SEEKING PARTNER to code news articles for my final research project! If you code my content, I'll code yours and we can all experience intercoder reliability happiness.
• Anyone who will code my research content: I'll bring you to visit a movie set shooting on a stage in Baton Rouge - yes it's a big movie.
• Email me about coding: amber.havens@gmail.com

*Monday, I will have a coding sheet prepared, so you can judge if this is for you.

Exit Polling from 2008 Election

TIME's exit polls from 2008 election on YouTube by state. Below is Virginia's, but other state's interviews are listed on the site.

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,1900229455_1856471,00.html

A failed plan to give senior citizens $200 each to hasten the end of the great Depression had a lasting influence on Social Security

http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,47295116001_1933785,00.html

Obama Campaign Shaping Public Opinion (2008 Campaign)

Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009
How They Did It: David Plouffe on Obama's 2008 Victory
By David Plouffe
In a new memoir, The Audacity to Win, David Plouffe, who managed Barack Obama's 2008 race for the White House, provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside the campaign. Here's an excerpt:
Agony. Ecstasy.The [Rev. Jeremiah] Wright story broke on a Wednesday and exploded across the media landscape the next day. We decided Obama had to take questions about [his former pastor's inflammatory sermons] head-on on Friday, in a series of lengthy national cable interviews.
There was one not-so-minor complication. He was already scheduled to do editorial boards that Friday afternoon with both Chicago papers about [real estate developer and political fundraiser] Tony Rezko, two hours each, no holds barred. Given no choice but to address Wright as soon as possible, we decided we would do a round of TV interviews on him directly after the Rezko boards. It shaped into quite a day, like having your legs amputated in the morning and your arms at night. The question was whether we would still have a heartbeat at the end of the day.
It was chaos and, quite frankly, frightening. I felt as if the wheels could easily spin off our whole venture. Still, Obama was the pillar of reassurance. "Don't worry, guys," he told us while making some notes on a stack of pages. "I can do more than one thing at a time. We are taking the trash out today. It won't be fun, but we'll be stronger for it." (See pictures of Barack Obama's convention-week journey.)
Obama handled everything with brilliance. The editorial boards, though grueling, went well. Obama called me after 11 that night, while my wife and son were sleeping. "So we survived. But it feels really unsatisfying — to me and I'm sure to voters ... I think I need to give a speech on race and how Wright fits into that. Whether people will accept it or not, I don't know. But I don't think we can move forward until I try."
Obama had raised giving a race speech back in the fall. At the time, [chief strategist David] Axelrod and I strenuously disagreed, believing that we should not inject into the campaign an issue that for the most part was not on voters' minds. Now we were in a much different situation. I agreed that a traditional political move — the damage-control interviews we had done that night — would not be enough. But a speech was fraught with peril. If it was off-key, it could compound our problems.
He said he was calling Axelrod and that after they spoke, he wanted me to call Ax and then conference him in; the three of us would make a decision. "I don't want a big meeting or conference call on this," he told me. "You and Ax and I will arbitrate this. But know this is what I think I need to do, so I'll need an awfully compelling argument not to give this speech. And I think it needs to be delivered in the early part of next week and I need to write most of it."
Axelrod and I spoke a few minutes later and quickly decided we were in uncharted waters. There was no playbook for how to handle something like this. It had never been done. "He really wants to give this speech," I concluded. "And I don't have a better idea. Do you?"
"Nope," said Ax. He began to fret about the real-world problems of constructing the most important speech of our candidacy largely on the fly, when I interrupted: "Look, let's call him and walk through it," I said. "We'll do the speech, but he has to own the reality of the time constraints." (See TIME's best pictures of Barack Obama.)
We conferenced Barack in. "So?" he asked. "What's the deal?" We told him we agreed with the speech but that it was going to be hard to put it together.
"Tonight is Friday — well, Saturday morning," I said. "We have to give this speech no later than Tuesday. You have a full schedule in Pennsylvania the next three days. It has already been publicized. If we start canceling events, it will fuel the impression that we're panicked and our candidacy is on the rocks."
From The Audacity to Win: The Inside Story and Lessons of Barack Obama's Historic Victory by David Plouffe. ©2009 by Plouffe Strategies Ltd. To be published by Viking, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Watch a video of Barack Obama at the Inauguration.
Watch a video of Barack Obama's last days on the campaign trail.
"No, we can't cancel anything," Obama interjected. "But I already know what I want to say in this speech. I've been thinking about it for almost 30 years. I'll call [lead campaign speechwriter Jon Favreau] in the morning and give him some initial guidance. And I'll work on this during downtime in the hotel room each night. Don't worry. Even if I have to pull all-nighters, I can make this work." We were flying by the seat of our pants. Somehow we had to keep faith that it would come together. (See pictures of Barack Obama's speechwriting team.)
The speech received rave reviews from political commentators and spawned hundreds of positive editorials. More important, voters also responded very well to it. Wright still bothered them — but they respected how Obama dealt with the issue.
As was the case throughout the campaign, most people did not watch the speech on TV. It was delivered on a Tuesday morning, when just about everyone was at work. Instead, people watched it online, most of them on YouTube, either as it was happening or at their leisure later that day or in the days to come. Eventually, tens of millions of voters saw the speech through various outlets.
This marked a fundamental change in political coverage and message consumption, and one that will only continue as technology rolls forward: big moments, political or otherwise, will no longer be remembered by people as times when everyone gathered around TVs to watch a speech, press conference or other event. Increasingly, most of us will recall firing up the computer, searching for a video and watching it at home or at the office — or even on our cell phones.
Filling Out the TicketWhat surprised me at [our first meeting to discuss the vice presidency] was that Obama was clearly thinking more seriously about picking Hillary Clinton than Ax and I had realized. He said if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list. She was competent, could help in Congress, would have international bona fides and had been through this before, albeit in a different role. He wanted to continue discussing her as we moved forward.
We met again a couple of weeks later in mid-June and winnowed the list down to about 10 names.
At our next meeting, we narrowed the list down to six. Barack continued to be intrigued by Hillary. "I still think Hillary has a lot of what I am looking for in a VP," he said to us. "Smarts, discipline, steadfastness. I think Bill may be too big a complication. If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship." (See pictures of the last days of Hillary Clinton's campaign.)
Neither Ax nor I were fans of the Hillary option. We saw her obvious strengths, but we thought there were too many complications, both pre-election and postelection, should we be so fortunate as to win. Still, we were very careful not to object too forcefully. This needed to be his call.
We had initially received a lot of advice from many of her supporters to pick her, though this "advice" was perhaps more accurately described as subtle pressure. Their fervor was abating a bit every day, though, helped by Hillary's comments that this was Obama's decision and that he should be left to make it.
In early August, he narrowed his list down to three names: Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia. Hillary did not make the last cut. At the end of the day, Obama decided that there were just too many complications outweighing the potential strengths. But I gave him a lot of credit for so seriously thinking about his fierce former rival. Some in the Clinton orbit thought we gave Hillary short shrift. My view is that any serious consideration was somewhat surprising given all the complications and the toxicity during the primary campaign.
Shortly before he took off for Hawaii and his much needed vacation, Obama asked Axelrod and me to meet with the three finalists. [We] pieced together a schedule that had us departing Chicago at 5:30 a.m. for Wilmington, Del., to meet with Biden; then on to West Virginia, where Bayh was vacationing with his family; and then to Virginia to meet with Kaine.
See pictures of Joe Biden.
Read "Biden's Debate Challenge: Keeping His Mouth Shut."
The [first] meeting started with Biden launching into a nearly 20-minute monologue that ranged from the strength of our campaign in Iowa ("I literally wouldn't have run if I knew the steamroller you guys would put together"); to his evolving views of Obama ("I wasn't sure about him in the beginning of the campaign, but I am now"); why he didn't want to be VP ("The last thing I should do is VP; after 36 years of being the top dog, it will be hard to be No. 2"); why he was a good choice ("But I would be a good soldier and could provide real value, domestically and internationally"); and everything else under the sun. Ax and I couldn't get a word in edgewise.
It confirmed what we suspected: this dog could not be taught new tricks. But the conversation also confirmed our positive assumptions: his firm grasp of issues, his blue collar sensibilities and the fact that while he would readily accept the VP slot if offered, he was not pining for it. (Read "The Five Faces of Barack Obama.")
Later that day, we met with the two other finalists. Bayh's answers to our questions were substantively close to perfect, if cautiously so. Seeing Bayh right after Biden provided some interesting contrasts and comparisons. Listening to Bayh talk, I thought, There's no way this guy will color outside the lines. Biden may cross them with too much frequency. Biden will probably end up having more range — he can reach higher heights but could cause us real pain. Bayh's upside and downside are probably the closest spread of the three. As the day grew long, we headed to Richmond, our last stop. We appreciated [Kaine's] opening remarks. "I'd be honored to be picked," he told us. "But I have to assume I'm at the bottom of the list right now. I'll try to explain why I think I'd be a good pick, both for the campaign and after we win, but just know that I won't have an ounce of hard feelings or disappointment if I don't get picked. I signed on to this team in the beginning — all I want is for Barack to be elected President."
There was no great way to explain putting someone with no foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency. If we chose him, we would need to rely on some of the same language we had used on this issue as it related to Obama — judgment vs. Washington experience, a new foreign policy vision vs. the status quo — but doubling down would make it twice as tough for us to roll this boulder uphill.
Later that night, we held a conference call with Obama to brief him on our day. "Well, it sounds like you both are for Biden, but barely," he said. "I really haven't settled this yet in my own mind. It's a coin toss now between Bayh and Biden, but Kaine is still a distinct possibility. I know the experience attack people will make if we pick him. But if that really concerned me, I wouldn't have run in the first place. My sense is — and you tell me if the research backs this up — that Barack Hussein Obama is change enough for people. I don't have to convince people with my VP selection that I am serious about change." (Read "Obama and Biden's Chemistry Test.")
The selection of his vice-presidential nominee was his first presidential decision. On the evening of Aug. 17, he called Ax and me with the news. "I've decided," he said. "It's Biden."
Hurricane SarahWe always knew this day was going to be a pain in the ass. Coming right off the exhaustion and exhilaration of our convention week and VP pick, we would have to jump right in and deal with theirs. But [Sarah] Palin was a bolt of lightning, a true surprise. She was such a long shot, I didn't even have her research file on my computer, as I did for the likely McCain picks. I started Googling her, refreshing my memory while I waited for our research to be sent.
Her story was original: small-town mayor takes on the Establishment and wins a governor's race; she was an avid hunter, sportswoman and athlete, and her husband was a champion snowmobiler; she had just given birth to a child with Down syndrome. A profile out of a novel, I thought.
But here she was, joining our real-life drama. And given her life story, coupled with the surprise nature of her selection, her entrance to the race would be nothing short of a phenomenon. But I also thought it was a downright bizarre, ill-considered and deeply puzzling choice. The one thing every voter knew about John McCain's campaign at this point was that it had been shouting from the rooftops that Barack Obama lacked the experience to be President.
Read "Behind Obama's Palin Strategy."
Read "How Did Sarah Palin Write Her Memoir So Fast?"
With the Palin pick, he had completely undermined his core argument against us. Worse yet for McCain, he would look inherently political in doing so. His strength — and the threat he posed to us — was rooted in the fact that many independent voters believed in his maverick reputation and believed he did not make his decisions by prioritizing politics over what was right. I guessed people would view this choice more as a political stunt than a sound, reasoned call.
On our 6:00 a.m. conference call, [campaign adviser] Anita Dunn, who had worked against Palin in Alaska in the 2006 governor's race, warned us that she was a formidable political talent — clearly not up to this moment, she assured us, but bound to be a compelling player and a real headliner in the weeks ahead. (Read about where Sarah Palin is going next.)
"All of you on this call should watch video of her debates and speeches," Dunn counseled. "The substance is thin, but she's a very able performer. And her story is out of Hollywood. She'll be a phenomenon for a while."
Our strategy with the other potential picks would've been to start by saying that choice X subscribed to the same failed George Bush policies as John McCain; all they were doing was doubling down on the same out-of-touch economic policies that had hurt American families. We should have gone the same way with Palin. But McCain had been haranguing us for months about experience, and we were incredulous that he had picked someone with zero foreign policy experience who had been a governor for less time than Obama had been a Senator. Galled by the hypocrisy, we moved in a more aggressive direction.
We decided to call McCain on the experience card directly. The value was in making him look political — essentially, calling him full of shit — and we sent out a release making that clear. "Today, John McCain put the former mayor of a town of 9,000 with zero foreign policy experience a heartbeat away from the presidency," it read. "Governor Palin shares John McCain's commitment to overturning Roe v. Wade, the agenda of Big Oil and continuing George Bush's failed economic policies — that's not the change we need; it's just more of the same."
Our statement immediately received an enormous amount of attention because it went right at her experience. The press clearly sensed heat and was eager to help drive the fight. Seeing the reaction, I began to think perhaps we had misfired. Obama clearly thought so. He called me from the air. "Listen, I just told this to Axelrod and [communications director Robert] Gibbs," he began. "I understand the argument you guys were trying to make. And maybe we should make it someday. But not today. We shouldn't have put out the first part of that statement. I want to put out another statement that simply welcomes her to the race, and I'll call her and congratulate her when I land." (Read a two-minute bio of Robert Gibbs.)
I didn't disagree but thought backtracking would only add to the sense in the press that perhaps Palin was a brilliant game-changing pick that had scrambled the race. Even the famously disciplined Obama campaign can't get its story straight — this would be the blowback. "Look," I told him, "simply say that you're adding your own personal voice, one principal to another." He acknowledged that he understood and would watch his words. "We'll send out a personal statement from you and Biden," I said, "but it's important you not suggest we misfired on the original statement. Don't throw the campaign under the bus."
But when he took a few questions from the press later that day, he proceeded to drive the bus right over us. "I think that, you know, campaigns start getting these hair triggers, and the statement that Joe and I put out reflects our sentiments," he said. Great, I thought, already imagining the heat we'd take on this. But all in all, I felt solid about our instincts. Despite our clumsiness, I still thought we had nailed, in the predawn hours, what this pick would mean over time.
Obama and I had a long talk late that afternoon to evaluate Palin. "I just don't understand how this ends up working out for McCain," he said. "In the long term, I mean. The short term will be good for them. But when voters step back and analyze how he made this decision, I think he's going to be in big trouble. You just can't wing something like this — it's too important."
"I think we just need to sit back and play our game," said Obama. "It actually won't be bad to be off-Broadway for a few days. We should just leave her out of the equation. This is a race between John McCain and me. To the extent we talk about Palin, I think it should be about the differences in our selection processes — it illuminates differences in how we'd make decisions in the White House."
Read "Plouffe to Democrats: Calm Down."
See David Plouffe as a 2009 TIME 100 finalist.

Click to Print
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http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1932963,00.html
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Five Realities About Public Opinion on Health Care

Gallup today summed up "five key realities" about what the polls do (or do not show) about health care reform. They are:

1. Public opinion on health care reform is divided, yet stable, and for a variety of reasons that Gallup details, the continuing debate over the legislation is not likely to change any minds.

2. The public does not feel a strong sense of urgency about passing health care reform.

3. A substantial majority of Americans have health insurance and are satisfied with their coverage and care. They don't believe passage of a reform measure will improve their own situations. So, most of the support for health care comes from people who believe coverage should be provided for those who don't have it.

4. Parts of the health care reform proposals have strong appeal and a few do not. There is wide support for requiring insurance companies to cover people with pre-existing medical conditions, prohibiting insurers from dropping people who get sick, and providing assistance to low-income Americans to help them get insurance. But Gallup (unlike some other national polls) found Americans closely divided on whether there should be a "public option" to provide competition to private insurance. Gallup has found consistent opposition to reducing Medicare payments or taxing insurance plans with the most generous benefits in order to pay for a health care overhaul.

5.President Obama has the upper hand in the battle. Americans trust him more on health care than lawmakers from either party on Capitol Hill, although his margins are not overwhelming.

For the full Gallup analysis, click here. 

Political Ad Database

The Washington Post has been archiving ads creating a researcher's goldmine. Check out this site

Ads are sorted by year, race, issue, narrator, method of dissemination, type, etc. It has 716 ads in total.

COMMENTARY: In the Twitter, YouTube age, we are all (not the news) media

Interesting article on the changing elements of "the media."

http://www.theadvertiser.com/article/20091102/OPINION/91029019/1014/COMMENTARY--In-the-Twitter--YouTube-age--we-are-all-(not-the-news)-media

Additional Articles for Monday

If you have trouble with the links for my and Laura's additional article... try the links below. If you have a problem, feel free to email me vbemke1@lsu.edu

First article: Pulp Politics: Popular Culture and Political Advertising by Glenn Richardson


http://web.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=7&hid=112&sid=76f771ee-7e4b-41a3-9a9f-072f942d9040%40sessionmgr112

Political Advertising: A Neglected Policy Issue in Marketing by Michael Rothschild


http://web.ebscohost.com.libezp.lib.lsu.edu/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=104&sid=0d582256-96b0-4868-a069-a6004ad4d985%40sessionmgr112