Youth Politics

Biden, I choose you!

I’m slightly disappointed by the pick. Biden didn’t seem like the better choice out of numerous candidates, so we’ll see how that flies with the rest of the Democratic Party.

Read it here.

Okay, let’s talk about the past.

Obama accused McCain of not being in touch with the average American. He would be correct. McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he owns. He owns seven. The average American owns 0-1. But how in touch is Obama with the rest of the population? Not any better.

Let’s face it, the guy owns a mansion. How can you make fun of someone when you’re accused of the exact same thing? That doesn’t make any sense. If I make fun of someone for say, going to jail, and I had gone to jail before (and I’ve never been to jail, this is an example people), then who am I to poke fun at him? That person is only going to fight back with the exact same words, and that’s exactly what McCain did.

This turned out bad for both candidates. One, McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he owns, which sort of hints at how well he’ll be able to remember other facts while in office, especially the more important facts. As for Obama, he’s attacking an elderly person. That’s not going to fly well with the older voters. I’m not saying it’s wrong to attack the guy because he is old, but it’s just a fact of life.

You see the same sorts of attacks on both sides, and it’s annoying at best. I mean how shortsighted can you be to attack your opponent on an issue that you yourself have? It’s best to attack the issues, not the person. Think about it, we’re not voting for someone because of their wealth, we’re hopefully voting for someone who shares the same beliefs and values as us. At least ideally, this should be true. People get so passionate about their candidate that they’re willing to spread any sort of attack that hurts the other candidates. However, these same people don’t do their research to cover themselves. One simple attack isn’t going to hurt a candidate’s reputation forever, and it’s possible that your candidate will go down even harder with a well-placed counterattack.

If you take the time to notice, you will find various flaws in both candidates. These flaws will create an abundance of attacks, and the media is going to make sure that each of these attacks becomes at least visible to the public. The public gets to decide which of these attacks are effective, but why settle for random chance? Make a legitimate attack that cannot somehow be traced back to your candidate, and you will soon figure out that the counterattacks are either non-existent or terrible. This is true for any kind of attacks, so naturally this makes sense here. It’s obvious. In a real war you wouldn’t make an assault that leaves you vulnerable to obvious counter-assaults, would you?

As the election comes closer and closer, the attacks will continue to increase in number and magnitude. I expect tons more ill-advised, ill-constructed attacks, and I’m going to criticize each and every single one.

The recent polls show that McCain is catching up to Obama and that the race is close. The recent polls also show that Obama is performing far better than Kerry and Clinton did during this time in their respective election years. Okay, so how can this happen? Wait, it can’t. The McCain catching up poll I got from the Wall Street Journal. The Obama performing better poll is from CSPAN radio. Which one then should I believe?

Neither. And not only should I not believe them, but I should ignore them. Again, who cares how the public feels right now? People are saying how Obama is poised to lose at this point, and I would ask how anyone could possibly say that. Who says he’s poised to lose? Republicans? Of course that’s what they think. I think the Republican party is grossly underestimated the number of Obama supporters and will live to regret banking on that fact should they lose. I’d say the race has only just begun. There are a lot of people who wait until once the debates have begun to finally choose their candidate. It’s their right to wait that long so that they can make the most informed decision possible.

I’ve never been polled. Then again I’ve only been allowed to vote for a little over two years, so I don’t expect to be called up. But even if they wanted to, how would they reach me? By calling the house I do not own? How can they get an accurate polling of young voters when most of them do not own houses and polls do not generally call cell phones?

While listening to the radio, I heard a comment saying how polls are good enough with just a diverse sample of people and that you do not need to poll the entire population, much like how doctors do not need all of your blood to run a blood test. This is the worst analogy I’ve ever heard. How can you compare people to blood? Your blood is mostly the same throughout your body minus a few imperfections. Can you say that about a population of people? If I scooped up a bunch of people from China is that the same as scooping up a bunch of people from the United States? Is scooping up a portion of Maine the same as a portion of Texas? I’d think not. And while you can get a few people to poll in from each state, there are no guarantees. Polls try to mimic circumstances, but it’s impossible to do so with so many variables affecting the poll.

The one thing to remember about polls is that they are snapshots of viewpoints at the time of the polling. This is extremely important. You cannot declare a candidate the winner before the election or it’s not fair. Remember when the media goofed in 2000? That can have a serious impact on voting, and that is not something I want to see happen.

I do not trust polls. I do not care about polls. I never participate in polls (although I’m not saying that I wouldn’t). Should you base your vote on a poll? Absolutely not.

Members of the two big political parties in the United States are interested in two things: getting their party candidates elected into offices, and bashing the opponent. Look at how many insults fly left and right (no pun intended) as each side tries to crucify the other. Sometimes these attacks come from absolutely nowhere, sometimes they are provoked, and usually someone will bring up an interesting point about the other party that bashes that party. Sometimes the attack is on a specific person in the party, and thus the attack propagates as an attack on the party as a whole. I see so many people get infuriated when McCain is made fun of or when Obama is made fun of. I just do not understand where all of this anger is coming from.

Well, okay, that’s not really true. The anger comes from the fact that people take it as a personal insult to themselves when someone attacks their beliefs. Plain and simple. The media encourages such acts because of all of the coverage it gives. The political campaign of McCain has been largely aggressive at attacking Obama, and now Obama is beginning to fight back. Americans love fighting. It doesn’t much matter if anyone’s policy is any good, only that the policy is better than the other side’s. I don’t think that’s a good plan, but people would disagree. Attacks and aggression are a lot more fun apparently, and that’s why American politics is going to continue to be a pick for the lesser of two evils.

How can America overcome other aggressors in the forms of terrorists and enemy nations when we fight amongst ourselves? It’s ridiculous. Both parties essentially want the same thing: a prosperous America. Republicans will tell you that Democrats are looking to undermine everything. Democrats will tell you that Republicans have undermined everything. It’s nonsense because I seem to be living my life alright, and I’m sure a lot of other people are too. Yes, there are those who have lost family members, those who have lost homes, and those who have lost jobs for years. I understand this and I wish them the best. But even if the country shifts gears and goes Democrat, how long will it be before Democrats are seen as the people who have undermined everything, and then the Republicans take control again? It’s just a never-ending cycle of hate, whine, and complain.

I don’t think this would happen as much if more political parties and/or independents came into play. Now you’ve got a whole pool of different ideals from which to choose, and you can more finely tune what you want for the country. Americans like choices I thought, why settle for only two? If my choices of food at a restaurant were limited to just two, would I continue to eat there? Only if it was damned good food. Do we have damned good candidates?

P.S. Just a quick side note, I still hate polls. Maybe I’ll write about how I can’t trust a single poll next time…

I live in Northern Virginia. Why is this significant? Because Northern Virginia is transforming Virginia from a Republican stronghold into a battleground. Obama is putting in significant resources to try to win over the voters in my state, especially seeing the current trends (250,000 new voters, Democratic governor). This is good news for Democratic Virginians, and an even more compelling reason to register to vote. It does not matter if you’re going to college in another state, your ballot will still count for Virginia unless you change it otherwise.

I have noticed myself that there are a lot more Democrats than there were before. I don’t know what it is about the Northern Virginia area that’s making it more and more Democratic, but I suspect it has to do with its proximity to Washington. Further south Virginia still looks largely Republican because of its root; however the Northern Virginia population is exploding, and with this explosion comes a higher percentage now of Democratic voters. Let’s not forget the Independents though. There are plenty of Independents in my area, and a lot of them seem to be left-leaning.

So if you’re from Virginia, and you’re not registered to vote, I urge you to do so. In Virginia your vote is going to be even more important than ever, as now it is not certain whether we will go red or blue. Do not let others determine the fate of your state, vote!