On Point with Maira!

Political wars, rusty strategies and the constant nagging between Democrats and Republicans might get a little out of hand at times. However, for centuries the political system in the United States o f America has worked this way and succeeded.

Chuck Todd, an MSNBC White House correspondent, and Marjorie Hershey, author of Party Politics in America, discussed the future of both parties, with participating students of George Mason University, Denver University, and the Pace University, as well as Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks.

The distance learning course produced by C-SPAN provides these students an opportunity to interview guests via video conference.  The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.cspan.org/distance_learning/).

Bob Sharp a student from GMU asked if the recent election of Scott Brown as Senator was an indicator of what was going to happen in the midterm elections in 2010. To which Todd responded that “It’s an indicator to what could happen and it shows you that it is a tumultuous environment out there.”

This tumultuous environment Todd is referring to is the economic disaster that is creating anxiety and panic all over. This is leading to a ‘long term future pessimism’.

When the conversation swayed to independent candidates, Hershey disagreed with the fact that possible candidates such as Bloomberg or Palin will leave their parties and run as independents. “The seeds are there, but the ground is very hospitable. There is very little sun and no water,” Hershey said.

Democrats and Republicans’ constantly increasing tug-o-war has held the American people’s needs as an opportunity cost for much too long. Yet, that’s the way the system works.

“This is what the American government is and how the democracy was set up,” Todd said. “What has changed is not the tug-o-war, but that you see so much of it. Some will argue that’s a good thing and some will argue that’s a bad thing.”

Watching Face the Nation with a host like Bob Schieffer, on CBS, is everyone’s fantasy Sunday morning. No really, he is the Sunday morning news God! He does epic interviews.

“What is your approach to doing an interview,” Steve Scully of C-SPAN asked Scheiffer in an interview for Distance Learning.

“To get news,” Schieffer replied. “That’s the point of Sunday morning broadcasts.”

Schieffer joined participating students of George Mason University, Denver University, and the Schieffer School of Journalism from Texas Christian University, as well as Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks.

The distance learning course produced by C-SPAN, provides these students an opportunity to interview guests via video conference.  The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.cspan.org/distance_learning/).

We all know that technology has changed the way journalism works. When Scully asked Schieffer’s opinion on the technological evolution of journalism, he said that “the internet has changed everything about the way journalism works.” Schieffer has been on the journalism scene for decades now, which gave him the opportunity to experience and transition through different phases of technology.

Schieffer advised young journalists to ask obvious questions. “Young journalists are afraid to ask obvious questions, so that they don’t sound dumb,” he said. “Never be afraid.” He says that the best follow up question you can ask in an interview is “what do you mean by that?” This gets the interviewee talking about things and gets them to go in detail to answer the question, on their own. A great technique!

During the question answer session with students, Ben Libby, a communications major at GMU, asked Schieffer if the younger generation is drawn more towards contemporary newscasters such as John Stewart and Stephen Colbert, and as a result less informed?

To this Schieffer replied that Stewart and Colbert are to television what editorial cartoonists are to a newspaper. He believes that using these shows as a supplementary source is alright. However, one shouldn’t say that they are totally informed if the only source of their news is the editorial page.

No matter what the era is, the sole purpose of journalism is to provide honest news. Nevertheless, its upto the readers whether they want to be misinformed or well informed.

The decades of Democratic reign on the Massachusetts Senate seat ended with the win of a Republican candidate, Scott Brown. This election did not depend on the popularity of Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate nor on the excellent experience Brown had to offer. It depended solely on the rights and wrongs of the two campaigns, as well as the Democracy that runs the American government.

“There’s lessons to be learned from what happened on Tuesday for the November midterm elections,” said Chris Cillizza, a reporter for the Washington Post and writer of the blog, The Fix.

Cillizza joined participating students of George Mason University, Pace University and Denver University, as well as Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-SPAN networks.

The distance learning course produced by C-SPAN, provides these students an opportunity to interview guests via video conference.  The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.cspan.org/distance_learning/).

Brown made excellent moves during his campaign. His campaign released an ad in which he talked about and drove his truck. This ad caused a huge turnout of supporters. Why? Because this ad made  the people of Massachusetts feel as if Brown was one of them.
Chris Cillizza comments on his ads and says that Brown  portrayed himself as “someone who understood the average concerns of the people of Massachusetts.” These concerns would include taxes, government spending etc.”This establishes him as ‘of the people’,” Cillizza said. “That’s a winner.”

What Coakley did wrong in her campaign was, she did not “define her opponent,” Cillizza said. “Why don’t we know more about the wrongs of Scott Brown?” She waited till last minute to attack Brown. However, this backfired on her. The Coakley campaign aired something negative about Brown every day, starting five days before the campaign. This was a desperate move on their part. They came out to look untrustworthy.”If it looks like panic, smells like panic, then it probably is panic,” said Cillizza.

Steve Klein of GMU brought up an important point about  the functionality of the system. “Politics is the new sports,” he said. “But are we playing the right game?” He asked Cillizza if  “the government of the people is really working for the people?” In response to Klein’s question Cillizza said that Barack Obama won Mass. 62 percent to 48 percent. However, when a Republican wins a majority Democratic state with a message similar to that of Barack Obama, Cillizza continued, you know that democracy and our system is working. The popularity of political parties is far less important than what the candidates have to offer to the public.

Cokaley’s panic led Democrats out of the Senate in Massachusetts.  In contrast, Brown’s consistent message and connection to the average people of Mass., carved his way to victory.

How well-mannered for a President to be speaking this way.

Mr. Well-Mannered

Here comes a  brand new semester! I cant wait to get started.

This post is just a test publication, just wanna make sure that everything works and of course, how it works :).

Anyway,

Keep checking for more.

To be continued….

Live, Love, Laugh.

-Maira