Week 1 Post

NPR: Talk of the Nation 2/4/08

The show features a conversation on the Republican nominee and the rise of John McCain and the impact that might have on the race. Ralph Reed, former executive director Christian Coalition discussed the various nominee choices and what each of them meant to social conservatives. He discusses how McCain seems to fail the test for many traditional conservatives. Senior Editor for The Atlantic Monthly, and blodder, Ross Daffa also joined the conversation to provide some historical context for the election and the Republican Party as well.
The show focused heavily on McCain as the front-runner and his lack of appeal to conservatives. The commentators featured spent time discussing other media coverage of the candidates and the role of the media in their campaigns as well.

Afterwards the show provided time for listeners to call in and weigh in on the Republican nominee and how they feel about choices they have this election year. The callers had a variety of issues, discussing the various contenders and their feelings about them. The callers were asked questions by the show’s host.

The show spend a solid 30 minutes having an in depth discussion with the two guest and callers.

The second part of the show discusses the role of the word “change” in elections with another expert. Historical context was provided for the word in past elections and how it had come to be co-opted by political parties to capture independents. They also discussed the role of it in the 2008 campaign, particularly with the Obama campaign.

The show once again brought in callers and emailers to discuss the topic and how they viewed the word, particularly in this campaign. The callers referenced Obama and the election extensively.

A solid 15 minutes was spent on this discussion.

2/7/08

The political divide among democrats over Obama and Clinton, as well as Romney’s departure from the race.

An interview is held with a married couple who are split between the two democratic options and how it has split their family along different political lines. The bottom line is that they will end up voting for the democratic nominee. The senior editor for Slate.com also commented on the divisive nature of the election and the way in which it’s dividing along family lines such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. Specifically she references patterns among men and women over candidates, and black women and white men towards Obama. Splits are occurring along Latino and black communities as well. The republican side does not have a gender gap however despite the split. The extended period of uncertainty is also discussed as the primary season drags on, at least on the Democratic side.

Callers were then invited to call and describe their experiences with inter-family divides over the election. The commentator and guest then also discussed how to deal with such animosity over the election within families. In particular religion and politics have been problematic with the role of candidates like Mitt Romney complicating many discussions over the election. The role of kids and their beliefs also was discussed. The election has also brought families together over candidates that they never thought they would because of the way that the Republican nominee has broken down, or the democratic.

Then the end of the Mitt Romney campaign was discussed. A long clip, running a minute and a half, was played of Romney’s concession speech was played, where he defended his need to quiet because it would be helping the democrats and surrendering to terror. Joining host Neal Conan is NPR’s political editor Ken Ruden who discussed the problems that Romney had had, winning only smaller states on Super Tuesday after splitting the vote with Huckabee, as well as the problem that this presents to some social conservatives who don’t like McCain. There was also a question as to what is done with remaining campaign funds for candidates that drop out. Other questions about the nominee process and such were also asked and answered. A trivia question was also asked about the first candidate to drop out in the 1968 presidential race. (It was George Romney. Mitt Romney’s father.)

Lastly the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) was discussed, where Romney made his concession speech, and John McCain tried to give a unifying speech in the wake of that withdrawal. The story featured a long clips of the speech that McCain gave, on several different occasions, addressing his role as the front runner, his absence from CPAC the previous year, his conversation with Romney earlier that day, and his position on immigration. The clip also included reactions from the crowd during the speech.



Playbook TV 2/4/08

Pre-Super Tuesday, reports a tight race on the Democratic side with Clinton with a slight edge, however. Then the commentator makes fun of the unpredictable nature of the democratic side of the race.

A quick flip through the Republican nominees gives them each a couple seconds on the screen with a picture of them campaigning. It focused a bit on Romney’s attacks on McCain. He then references a Politico reporter’s story on McCain’s lead and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum’s campaigning against McCain despite the fact that McCain campaigned for Santorum in 2006.

The commentator made fun of Hillary for plugging her town hall meeting on the Hallmark channel at the last debate and compared it to Obama holding a debate on Spike TV.

Lastly, quick references to Kennedy endorsements for Obama.

2/5/08

Super Duper Mega Ultra Fricken Huge Gargantuan Tuesday, as James Kotecki put it. He talks about the primaries in 24 states, particularly in California, mentioning the leaders, home states for each candidates and plugging Politico’s campaign coverage.

McCain is expected to lock up things, while the democrats will continue to slug it out due to the different structure of Democratic and Republican nominee processes. He discusses the importance Pennsylvania could take on due to the splitting of votes among Democrats instead of the take all methods of Republicans.

Lastly, P.Diddy’s new “Go Vote” slogan for this campaign as opposed to his “Vote or Die” slogan in the last campaign. Diddy will not be endorsing a candidate, but he believes the election to be important.

2/6/08

Buzz kill Wednesday, the day after Super Tuesday, realizing there is still along way to go. Hillary took California despite polls yesterday saying otherwise, she took eight states to Obama’s 13 states. He then referenced Hillary’s win in Mass. despite numerous important endorsements for Obama there. He then sights Tim Russet as saying that Obama may just have edged out Hillary on the delegate count. Also there was a reference to a Hillary win in American Samoa and Obama in Alaska.

On the Republican side the results were slightly more definitive with McCain taking home nine states, including the large ones. Romney did take California though, and seven other states, and Huckabee did well in the bible belt, which was expected to help John McCain by taking votes away from Romney. McCain was strong in the lead with delegates.

Ron Paul also did well in Montana coming in second to Romney.

The next primaries and causes coming up were mentioned as well, while poking fun of the states holding primaries that day as well.