A Great Nonpartisan Discussion

I have to start off saying that I loved the lecture by Sunshine Hillygus.  But then again how could it not be an interesting with the name Sunshine.  It does seem like a common theme, not only in our class but also the general public, the loathing of the Electoral College.

Sunshine started off her talk by why this election/campaign season is so historic.  I always thought it was because of the range of the candidates (young women running as VP under McCain, young black man running for president), I never really thought of any other reasons for it being historic, but she mentioned quite a few.  From the 22 weeks for the Democrats to choose their nominee, Independents allowed to vote in Vermont during the primary, only two Senators have EVER been elected and now we have both main party nominees being former Senators and a HUGE amount of money, just to name a few.  This was a very interesting way to look at the historic future of this election and I will bet most Americans have no idea about this aspect of this historical election.  I will assume that most Americans think the same way that I did when it come to the historic aspect only being in the candidates. 

The most interesting point that I took from Sunshine’s talk was about who is going to win.  Obviously that was a main point of the talk as well as the main thought in the American people as we get closer and closer to Election Day.  But she made interesting points about the fact that American Democrats are being very loud and yet that does not mean that there is not huge support for the Republicans.  In fact she used a great analogy to show why this is so.  She says that when people are excited they talk more about it.  They are louder and they want to be heard.  Obama is a new change, a new twist on the ‘normal’ candidates for president (as Hillary would have been as well).  Whereas McCain is just like the ‘normal’ candidate for president and the Republicans are not speaking out as much.  Yes Obama has more money and yes Obama has more people speaking out on his behalf but it does not in any way guarantee that he will be the President.   There is no doubt that because of Obama’s outspoken supporters there will be bandwagon voters.  The type of swing voters who will join Obama’s campaign because of all they hear and the amerce hype around his campaign.  One would hope voters choose a candidate over morals and political platforms not just on public appeal.  (but then again it is this public appeal that McCain was trying to get women voters to vote for Palin).

There is no doubt that this is going to be yet another election that is going to come down to the wire with a huge amount of upset either direction the results show.

I think the most pleasing aspect of Sunshine’s lecture was that she was NONPARTISAN!  It was nice to have a speaker with no agenda.  She was someone who wanted to tell us the facts and not push her personal views on us.