My thoughts these past few weeks have been occupied with the US political process, as the democrats and then the republicans hold their respective conventions. I always wonder how people outside of the US perceive our political system – what do you make of the posturing and posing that American candidates exhibit (some more than others)? Can you see through it to the real issues?
An enterprising political science graduate student should collect anecdotes from democrats and republicans about campaign and convention events and do a VTA analysis. This may tell us - when it comes to voting, will big issues like war and the environment guide votes, or will voters more influenced by a candidate’s gender, ethnicity, or stance on gay marriage? (or do we already know the answer to that question?)
Actually, my best takes on the conventions come from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart “fake news” coverage. He managed to mock the Democratic National Convention pretty thoroughly and will no doubt do the same to the Republican National Convention this week. (You can probably figure out which side of the debate I’m on once you know I live in the SF Bay Area, got my PhD at UC Berkeley, and teach at a campus whose history includes a 1960’s student/faculty strike…)
Comments (3)
This might be a technical digression from the important questions you have posed. Some enterprising souls, aspiring graduate students or playful computer programmers have put the major speeches up into the IBM Alphaworks Many Eyes visualization tools. Obama's acceptance and President Bush's speaches are available; I suspect McCain's acceptance might be there by the time you read this. See http://services.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/view/Shcc1QsOtha6g0UuTPr1Q2~
Extremely interesting, but will these visualizations "Stick" and remain useful after the novelty wears off?
Posted by tony joyce | September 5, 2008 11:37 PM
Posted on September 5, 2008 23:37
From Australia, the main thing that interests me about the US political system is just how much it is in a world of its own. The obvious examples are climate change, guns and evolution, but there are longer term trends to this as well. For instance, when McCain said the most important thing that unites him with Obama is their Americanness and that identification matters more to McCain than any other one. No Australian politician could get away with that: it smacks too much of exclusive nationalism. And it is. But Teddy Roosevelt - today we can only hope futilely to find politicians half as good as he was - often said a similar thing.
Posted by Justin Kerr | September 6, 2008 2:45 AM
Posted on September 6, 2008 02:45
I've heard that a close McCain's councelor has told the press McCain had helped to invent the BlackBerry, and the press was astonished as everybody knows (and McCain acknoledges himself) he doesn't even know how to put a computer on (the councelor explained that during his work as a Senator he heard of things about IT and so indirectly helped to innovate -as if I were explaining I'm part of automotive progress because I furnish data to constructors while going to the repair !). So, I come to the purpose : the only reaction of McCain was to laugh ; do you think this reaction is somewhat banalizing storytelling abuses such as the one the councelor did (a more appropriate reaction would hava been firm condemnation) ?
Posted by Dangel Stephane | September 18, 2008 5:33 PM
Posted on September 18, 2008 17:33