Amin Kazak Lecture

From the beginning of Amin's lecture I was immediately reminded of the first day of our class when we began defining frames and lenses. Our perceptions about how we view information and how we present information can have great effects on the facts. As a result we often argue about the accuracy or political affiliations of many American media stations. We argue about how conservative Fox News has become; then we argue about how liberal CNN has become. Amin explained that the situation is very much the same in the Middle East. The television stations are owned and operated by many different groups. Here are a few that Amin mentioned:

Al Jazeera - Americans have been very critical of this station so it was to my surprise that the station is financed by Qatar, an American ally.

Al Manar - This station is controlled by Hezbollah and therefore often presents a negative frame when discussing issues of Israel.

Al Arabia - This station is financed by Saudi Arabia and thus is more sympathetic to the Untied States.

The frames presented by each television station are quite unique. For example, on this day CNN and Fox were both covering the kidnapping of an American soldier, however Al Jazeera didn't mention the story at all. Very interesting.
Of course, the American stations never overlook stories for political reasons....

A Western Strategy?

"...The stars are seemingly aligned for the Democrats to make a serious run for the West in 2008. But, are the states worth their weight in electors? Probably not.

There are four states in the West that seem most likely to switch to the Democrats. In order of likelihood they are: New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, and Montana. Those states carry a combined weight of 29 electoral votes. If Democrats were able to win all 4 states in addition to the states that John Kerry won in 2004 it would give them 281 electoral votes - more than the 270 votes needed to win the White House. But, victory in all 4 states is highly unlikely.

The Western strategy is severely dampened because it is almost impossible to imagine a Republican ticket without John McCain on the ballot. Even if Republican primary voters punish him for working with Democrats he will almost certainly be added to the ticket in an effort to appeal to independent voters. The prospect of John McCain on the ballot hinders the Democrat's western strategy as Arizona, McCain's home state, would be taken off the list immediately. Nevada, New Mexico, and Colorado would likely become very uncompetitive as well. Even if the Democrats were able to pick off two of the remaining western swing states they would still lose the election in less they won Republican states in other parts of the country...."

Ohio Election

The feeling on the ground here is amazing. There are more candidate signs on the streets than you could ever imagine. However, with all our optimisim and hard work we know that the race in CD-15 is deadly close. Our internal polls at the AFL-CIO have us up five points. However, neither Deborah Pryce (R) or Mary Jo Kilroy has publicly released a poll in over a month which means neither wants to share the news that this one will go down to the wire.

We are sending between 60-100 canvassers a day to canvass. We expect to send as many as 300 canvassers on election day. In addition we have a phone bank filled with volunteers up to 16 hours a day.

I have slept just a few hours since flying in on Thursday and I expect that to be less the next two nights. It is about 9:00 p.m. locally and we are awaiting our canvasser packs to arrive from D.C. They should arrive about midnight and then will need to be organized, priortized, and mapped. That process will take us about 8 hours. :(

The Democrats are poised to win up to 4 seats in Ohio with the possibility of an additional upset. The statewide races are looking amazing with Ted Strickland leading by 40-points in today's poll! Sherrod Brown is also leading by a sizeable amount and it looks like the Democrats will pick up every single statewide office in Ohio.

The polls close in 46 hours and I can't wait!