Sunday Election Issues - 17 August 2008
Sunday, 17 August 2008
This Sunday post is a collection of links to elderblog stories about the issues that are important to understand in making our choices on who to vote for in the November election. You can read the original post announcing this feature here.
Education
• From Elaine Frankonis at Kalilily Time: Technology in the Classroom
The Race Issue
• From Sylvia K of The View From Over the Hill: Black or White – It Still Comes Down to Racism
Voting Rights
• From Gary White of Having Fun Until I Die: What Elders Can Do For Democracy
American Foreign Policy and Empire
• From Jan Adams of Happening-Here: Georgia on My Mind
Senator John McCain
• From Rain at Rainy Day Thoughts: McCain - Our Next President?
• From Ronni Bennett: No link here, just a question: Will someone explain to me why John Edwards is being crucified for philandering while an actual presidential candidate has been given a pass for cheating on his crippled wife with an heiress 20 years his junior and then divorcing his wife to marry the heiress who bankrolled his political career?
Marital infidelity is so common that I don’t include it among my criteria for making choices among politicians. However, if it is a “crime” for one politician to have cheated on his wife, shouldn’t the punishment be applied equally to all?
Corporate Accountability
• One of the issues not much addressed so far in this election cycle is lack of corporate accountability, exacerbated by many policies of Republicans in general and the Bush administration in particular. Here’s a ruefully amusing video on that topic titled Insurance Company Rules. [1:42 minutes]
Hey Ronni,
I'm really enjoying this Sunday roundup of elder opinion. I'm reading them all each Sunday. Loved the piece on Insurance Company Rules.
Posted by: Gary White | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 06:56 AM
As I went down your list of blogs to check the ones I read daily, I discovered that you have included mine. Thank you, Ronnni.
Posted by: Darlene | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 12:35 PM
Ronni said: "Marital infidelity is so common that I don’t include it among my criteria for making choices among politicians."
And this is why we get the leaders
we deserve; low expectations, poor results. Something every good teacher knows.
Posted by: smoore | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 12:39 PM
I think the Edwards "story" is being told and re-told because a) Mrs. Edwards is alive and struggling to survive with her illness; b) "the press" is in high dudgeon because they were lied to, and then scooped by a supermarket tabloid; c) because every inch of ink and/or second of airtime spent on the Edwards non-story is subtracted from gross APA (available public attention); d) Edwards was an enormous threat to the right-wing power-structure, particularly had he been elected Vice Pres (there could have been 16 years of Dem. presidency on the horizon); e) it's soft-core soap-opera p0rn of the type that titillates American minds without offending sensibilities. No flesh-on-flesh here, no sweat, no saliva -- just wholesome folks that the average Saddleback congregant would like to pull off their high horses once and for all because the kingdom of god has no room in it for sinners, particularly attractive sinners.
Posted by: fp | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 12:40 PM
smoore: Personally, I reject the idea that what anyone does in bed and with whom is the public's business. More importantly, I don't believe marital infidelity has anything to do with a person's ability to do their job.
If we operated on that assumption, half the people in the U.S. would be out of work.
I will admit the hypocrisy is amusing when such transgressions are revealed in politicians, but it's way too commonplace to use as a determining factor in voting. There are a whole lot more, undoubtedly that we all have voted for over the years, who just haven't been caught.
But as long as American culture condemns such behavior in politicans (no one seems as concerned about it in business leaders), the public humiliation and punishment should be equally applied.
Posted by: Ronni Bennett | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 02:57 PM
Oh, wow, good answer, Frank. And I especially like the potential 16-year Democratic presidency argument.
Posted by: Ronni Bennett | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 03:00 PM
Many people consider FDR to have been a great president and we know he had a long term mistress of which is wife was also aware. Thomas Jefferson had children with a slave and yet he wrote the Declaration of Independence. You can go down the line and find many good presidents who were not sexually faithful but did a good job. I do not think it relates to the job the president does and if his wife disapproves, she knows what she can do about it.
What has gotten me about McCain is why the press gives him a white wash on pretty much everything he goofs up on. He not only was unfaithful to his first wife but there are stories that he has been to the current one also. The press just doesn't want to call him out for what he is. Frank Rich wrote a good piece on that in today's NYTimes. People do not know McCain like they think they do.
Posted by: Rain | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 03:40 PM
I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one that caught that tidbit about McCain. Thanks for pointing out the hypocrisy. While I tend to still, idealistically I suppose, expect a little more in the morality department from those who proclaim or aspire to be nationalleaders, I'm more interested in the measuring stick simply being applied equally.
Posted by: Stella | Sunday, 17 August 2008 at 08:42 PM
IOKYAR -- It's ok if you're a Republican!
Posted by: donna | Monday, 18 August 2008 at 09:20 PM