...states in a dead heat in the polls. This election has been portrayed to be an important election for our generation that would shape the future of our country, which is how both Obama and Romney pitched this election. This allowed the race to turn into an ideological battle between two main ideas of government. One that argued for less government and privatization and the other that argued for the fundamental need for government in order to provide foundation for our society to work. While this war of ideology waged on there was another war that was being waged, the all out money war that took place this election. This was the first presidential election after the infamous Supreme Court ruling on citizens united vs. The Federal election Commission, which paved the way for Super-Pacs and unlimited corporate and union donations. This ruling was thought to have powerful ramifications on future elections and the 2012 presidential election. After the election it remains somewhat unclear what effects Citizen United had on the presidential election and what future impacts it will have. Citizens United did not hurt Obama substantially in the election because of his demographics and organizational advantage; however, citizens united could have a significant negative affect on future state and federal elections. Citizens United did not hurt Obama because it allowed him to seize a demographic advantage in the election. In this election Obama’s key advantage was minorities. According...
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...Assess and evaluate the success of Barack Obama's presidency (45 marks) Barack Obama was elected to the White House in 2008 after being the Senator of Illinois since 2005. Although he still has two years remaining in his presidency, after winning a second term in 2012, there have already been significant events and actions that will dictate the success or failure of his presidency in years to come. His successes in reforming healthcare and gay rights are counteracted by his failures with Syria and relations with the EU. The relationship he has attained with the other branch of government has been a relatively successful one, introducing to new women to the Supreme Court, however losing two midterms and being office during the 2013 government shutdown and a severe reduction in the levels of bipartisanship in Congress have scared his presidency somewhat. Obama has made the presidency somewhat of a more trustworthy institute after removing the negative stigma left by George W Bush. However his introduction of policy tzars and using constitutional bypasses he said he wouldn't, such as executive orders and recess appointments, have caused backlash. Overall though, we can say that his presidency has been a successful one with some mistakes, but we can't really expect no mistakes to happen over 8 years as the a President. Obama has has both resounding success in his domestic policy as well as significant failures. One of his most notable successes, and one of the policies he...
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...THE COMPARISON OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION JOURNEYS, BETWEEN PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AND PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI INTRODUCTION | | BARACK OBAMAThe “Rise of President Barrack Obama” case reviewed upon on how the background of Barack Obama, his tussles and the leadership virtues made him the 44th President of the United State of America. Born in Honolulu Hawaii, on August 4th, 1962 to a black Kenyan native and a white woman from Kansas –who were married for only three years. He graduated from both Columbia University and Harvard Law School. In 1995 he was elected into Illinois State Senate and got elected into the US senate in 2004. He went on to become a democratic candidate for president by 2008, defeating Hilary Clinton. | GENERAL MUHAMMADU BUHARIAs the 23rd child of his father, Buhari was born on the 17th of December 1942 in Daura, Katsina State, to the father Adamu –who died when Buhari was four years old- and mother Zulaihat. He began his education at a primary school in Daura and then proceeded to Katsina Model School and Katsina Provincial Secondary School.Buhari joined the Nigerian Military Training School in Kaduna, where his military career began and he became the Head of state from 1983-1985.After three failed consecutive Presidential election contests, Buhari announced his fourth campaign in 2014, could this be his fourth failed contest or is the fourth time a charm? | VISIONS OF CHANGE Irrespective of their clear good objectives, politicians...
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...he earned degrees from Columbia University and Harvard Law School. Obama worked as a community organizer in Chicago, where he met and married Michelle LaVaughn Robinson in 1992. Their two daughters, Malia Ann and Natasha (Sasha) were born in 1998 and 2001, respectively. Obama was elected to the Illinois state senate in 1996 and served there for eight years. In 2004, he was elected by a record majority to the U.S. Senate from Illinois and, in February 2007, announced his candidacy for President. After winning a closely-fought contest against New York Senator and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton for the Democratic nomination, Obama handily defeated Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee for President, in the general election. When President Obama took office, he faced very significant challenges. The economy was officially in a recession, and the outgoing administration of George W. Bush had begun to implement a controversial "bail-out" package to try to help struggling financial institutions. In foreign affairs, the United States still had troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and warfare had broken out between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, illustrating the ongoing instability of the Middle East. During his first term, President Obama was able to work with Congress to improve the U.S. economy, pass health-care reform, and withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Still the President spent significant time and political effort negotiating, for the most part...
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...the New Hampshire primary in grass roots politics, Dante Scala in Stormy Weather asserts that the first presidential primaries either give or take away a candidate’s momentum with the influence of the media fishbowl. Reading number sixty-seven No Place for Amateurs by Dennis Johnson focuses on the effect of political consultants on a candidate’s campaign for election. Discussing negative campaigning, reading sixty-eight Going Dirty by David Mark gives detail on political marketing, 527 groups and the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform of 2002. Reading number sixty-nine Why we vote by David Campbell highlights the different reasons why people vote. Finally, reading number seventy How Barack Obama Won by Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser discusses the landmarks leading up to the 2008 election and the possibility of an alignment of the democrats. In Stormy Weather by Dante Scala the author describes the first stage of the election process as the exhibition season and the second stage as the media fishbowl. Scala describes the exhibition season as “the period that extends from the morning after a general presidential election, until the first contests in Iowa and New Hampshire more than three years later” (Scala, p. 491). This is the time where candidates create campaign themes in order to decide which constituencies are receptive of their ideals. “Key tasks include fundraising; the early stages of organization building in various primary states; and seeking the...
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...Is the Environmental Protection Agency protecting us or is it smothering us? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an agency of the U.S. government that is tasked with the goal of protecting the health of the U.S. population and environment. Over the past decade the EPA has increased its regulations dramatically. Over the past two years the EPA has started to pose heavy fines that result in closings on companies that violate their regulations. The Environmental Protection Agency has been in existence since1970. President Richard Nixon was the president who created the EPA after a stringent study of the environment of the U.S. and the effect it was having on the health of the citizens. The main reason that the EPA was created was to monitor Greenhouse gases and the effect of them on the Ozone layer. Every President from Richard Nixon on has either tolerated or out rightly supported the EPA. The Clean Air Act allowed the EPA to start to monitor these greenhouse gases from both mobile and stationary sources, for the first time on January 2, 2011. Although the EPA has only legally been allowed to monitor the greenhouse gases and other pollutions since January 2, 2011; the EPA has been handing out regulations and warning businesses for the past decade. Oil refineries have been hit the heaviest in terms of regulation. Most oil refineries argue that the EPA regulations decrease both the quality and quantity of the oil that they drill out the reservoirs every day. Other energy...
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...CAMPAIGN FINANCING Using financial clout to influence the outcome of an election is an age-old practice in America's politics, and all 50 states have published code sections that money is spent during such. These code sections are placed to provide both accountability and transparency. Elections and campaigns continue to become more expensive and the involved candidates are forced to seek funding from the private sector to cover these costs. The use of money to influence an election's outcome is seen as an expression of free speech by many. However, others believe that money has a corruptive influence on the candidates, which results in a net negative outcome. Each state, therefore, has the designated duty to regulate campaign finance either by imposing disclosure, by setting limits of contribution or by providing a system where elections are publicly funded, all these to promote political equality. I believe that campaign finance reform has failed to prevent corruption and to promote even political equality, and thus I oppose it. An article written in 2003 in the journal of economic perspectives published the results of a study of about forty peer reviewed studies that had been published from the year 1972. The study showed that more contributions had no significant statistical effects with regards to legislation; the legislators were staunch to stand by their beliefs, those of their voters and even stood by their parties. A corrupt legislator will not be swayed by the prospect...
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...the author’s personal definition of marketing as well three definitions from different sources are provided. The author also explains the importance of marketing in organizational success. Lastly, the author provides three examples from the business world to support her explanation. “Marketing is the performance of activities that seek to accomplish an organization’s objectives by anticipating customer or client needs and directing a flow of need-satisfying goods and services from producer to customer or client”(Perreault, Cannon, McCarthy, page 6, 2011). Marketing is about identifying and meeting human and social needs. One of the shortest good definitions of marketing is “meeting needs profitably” (Kotler ,& Keller, page 5, 2012). In 2008 AMA's definition of marketing was: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.” The author's definition of marketing after reading the learning material is that marketing is an ongoing communication exchange not only with costumers or buyers of products and services, but also look for receptors that need to buy specific ideas. Marketing includes diverse activities for businesses that help them to identify customers for their products and services. Marketing targets potential clienteles with advertising by creating in a way a new need for their products or services and generating all kind...
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...A Relationship on the Rocks: The United States and Israel Since 1948 Adrienne Jacobs American Foreign Policy Dr. Dua May 2012 The relationship between the United States is one of the most turbulent and debated relationships in world history. Throughout the ages, since its establishment in 1948, Israel has been confronted with eight different American presidents, and eight varying attitudes toward Israel as a state, how the US-Israeli relationship should be dealt with, and the question of Palestine and its people. In this piece, we will review the history of the US-Israeli relationship in six episodes of history, and how US foreign policy on Israel has shifted over the decades to what it is today, and we will then discuss the prospect for Israel, Israel-Palestine, and US-Israel relations in the coming presidential term. Professor Robert Lieber of Georgetown University, and expert on US-Israeli relations asserts that the relationship between the United States and Israel in the past six decades can be separated into two schools of thought: the “special relationship paradigm,” and “national interest orientation.” The United States chose to be the first to recognize the State of Israel because at the time in 1948, and until today, the US Government believed that it shares certain common values and political aims. Under the special relationship paradigm, which still serves today as the basis of US support of Israel, the Truman Administration felt that Israel, like the US...
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...Obama’s Yes We Can Speech ________________________________________ January 8, 2008. I want to congratulate Senator Clinton on a hard-fought victory here in New Hampshire. A few weeks ago, no one imagined that we'd have accomplished what we did here tonight in New Hampshire. For most of this campaign, we were far behind, and we always knew our climb would be steep. But in record numbers, you came out and spoke up for change. And with your voices and your votes, you made it clear that at this moment - in this election - there is something happening in America. There is something happening when men and women in Des Moines and Davenport; in Lebanon and Concord come out in the snows of January to wait in lines that stretch block after block because they believe in what this country can be. There is something happening when Americans who are young in age and in spirit - who have never before participated in politics - turn out in numbers we've never seen because they know in their hearts that this time must be different. There is something happening when people vote not just for the party they belong to but the hopes they hold in common - that whether we are rich or poor; black or white; Latino or Asian; whether we hail from Iowa or New Hampshire, Nevada or South Carolina, we are ready to take this country in a fundamentally new direction. That is what's happening in America right now. Change is what's happening in America. You can be the new majority who can...
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...BARACK OBAMA'S SOUTH CAROLINA SPEECH Introduction In this paper, I shall analyze US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's South Carolina victory speech from a particular pragmatic perspective. In particular, I shall explore the idea that this speech is constituted by many voices (in other words, it displays polyphony, to use an idea due to Bakhtin 1981, 1986) and that the audience is part of this speech event, adding and contributing to its text in a collaborative way (in particular, in constructing meaning). As many are aware (including the journalists who report day by day on Barack Obama's achievements), Obama uses the technique of 'personification' (The Economist, Dec 13th, 2007). When he voices an idea, he does not just expose it as if it came from himself, but gets another person (fictitious or, plausibly, real) to voice it. Since in an electoral speech, he cannot reasonably get people on stage to voice his ideas, he personifies ideas by narrating what people told him. His stories are his way of personifying his ideas. The discourse strategy he uses serves to reverse the direction of influence from the people in control to the people controlled (see van Dijk 2003). Duranti (2006b) writes that The language of politics has been presented and studied in terms of its ability to persuade an audience (of peers, subjects, and superiors) to go along with the speaker's view of the world and his or her proposal (Perrot 2000). In much of this literature, the successful political...
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...FAMILY, LIFE AND FIRST LADY OF ARKANSAS............................9 II.1 FROM THE EAST COAST TO ARKANSAS..................................................................9 II.2 EARLY ARKANSAS YEARS........................................................................................10 II.3 LATER ARKANSES YEARS.........................................................................................11 CHAPTER III: FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES............................................13 III.1 ROLE AS A FIRST LADY............................................................................................13 III.2 HEALTH CARE AND OTHER POLICY INITIATIVES.............................................14 CHAPTER IV: SENATE ELECTION OF 2000................................................................17 CHAPTER V: UNITED STATES SENATOR...................................................................18 V.1 FIRST TERM...................................................................................................................18 V.2...
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...GAME CHANGE OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS, MCCAIN AND PALIN, AND THE RACE OF A LIFETIME JOHN HEILEMANN AND MARK HALPERIN FOR DIANA AND KAREN Contents Cover Title Page Prologue Part I Chapter One – Her Time Chapter Two – The Alternative Chapter Three – The Ground Beneath Her Feet Chapter Four – Getting to Yes Chapter Five – The Inevitables Chapter Six – Barack in a Box Chapter Seven – “They Looooove Me!” Chapter Eight – The Turning Point Chapter Nine – The Fun Part Chapter Ten – Two For the Price of One Chapter Eleven – Fear and Loathing in the Lizard’s Thicket Chapter Twelve – Pulling Away and Falling Apart Chapter Thirteen – Obama Agonistes Chapter Fourteen – The Bitter End Game Part II Chapter Fifteen – The Maverick and His Meltdown Chapter Sixteen – Running Unopposed Chapter Seventeen – Slipping Nooses, Slaying Demons Part III Chapter Eighteen – Paris and Berlin Chapter Nineteen – The Mile-High Club Chapter Twenty – Sarahcuda Chapter Twenty-One – September Surprise Chapter Twenty-Two – Seconds in Command Chapter Twenty-Three – The Finish Line Epilogue – Together at Last Index Author’s Notes About the Authors Copyright About the Publisher Prologue BARACK OBAMA JERKED BOLT upright in bed at three o’clock in the morning. Darkness enveloped his low-rent room at the Des Moines Hampton Inn; the airport across the street was quiet in the hours before dawn. It was very late December 2007, a few days ahead of the Iowa caucuses. Obama had been sprinting flat out...
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...The Strategic Use of Drones in Modern Warfare Caleb E. Moore IS 3310 Troy University Author Note This article is intended solely for research and will have no biased opinions. Table of Contents 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Title page. 2------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Table of Contents. 3-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Abstract. 4-5 --------------------------------------------The Strategic Use of Drones in Modern Warfare. 5-6 ----------------------------------------------------------The Effectiveness of Drone Warfare. 6-7 –-----------------------------------------------------------------The Financial Cost of Drones. 7-8 –-----------------------------------------------------The Operational Capabilities of Drones. 8-9 –-------------------------------------------------------------------- Fueling Anti-Americanism. 9-10-------------------------------------------------------The Limitations of Drone Capabilities. 10-12 –------------------------------------------------------------------------The Future of Drones. 12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Reference Page. Abstract The emergence of drone warfare has completely revolutionized the strategy of our military surveillance and fights overseas. This study is intended to analyze...
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...November 4, 2008, Obama made history as the first African American to win the election against Republican candidate, John McCain, thus becoming the 44th president of the United States. Obama won by a margin of nearly 200 electoral votes and 8.5 million popular votes. Many factors contributed to his success, but a major one was the way Obama and his Chicago-based campaign team used social media and technology as an integral part of their campaign strategy, not only to raise money, but also more importantly, to develop a groundswell of empowered volunteers who felt that they could make a difference. Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute said: “No other candidate has ever integrated the full picture the way he [Obama] has, that‟s what‟s really new about his campaign.”1 Edelman Research analysts said that Obama won by “…converting everyday people into engaged and empowered volunteers, donors and advocates through social networks, e-mail advocacy, text messaging and online video. The campaign‟s proclivity to online advocacy is a major reason for his victory”2 (Exhibit 1). In terms of the numbers, externally, Obama‟s campaign was able to garner 5 million supporters on 15 different social networks ranging from Facebook to MySpace. By November 2008, Obama had approximately 2.5 million (some sources say as much as 3.2 million3) Facebook 1 2 Chris Lefkow, “Obama Has Huge Lead Over McCain—in Cyberspace,” Agence France Presse, October 5, 2008. Edelman Research...
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