The Running Mate, Joe Klein’s political novel, contained a fictional candidate named Charlie Martin. In this book, Charlie Martin is democratic candidate for the U. S. Senate. Martin was a Vietnam veteran, who became a politician because of his mother who was Martin’s hometown Mayor. Four years earlier, Mr. Martin ran for President. He was defeated in the primary election by the current fictional President, Democrat Jack Stanton and at the end of novel has aspirations to run for Governor. Charlie Martin has several strengths and weakness as a political candidate. Some of his strengths are that he is a good speaker, as demonstrated in the debates, a Vietnam veteran, and has experience. His major weakness was that his mind was not on the campaign, but on a woman. Also, in this novel, there were the Lords. These characters served were Charlie Martin’s Vietnam buddies. They were his friends and some were his advisors, like Gidian Reese, who was the National Security Advisor. His role as a Senator was like that of any other Senator. He votes on bills, like the bills that were proposed by President Jack Stanton, proposes bills, and accepts illegal money from outside sources. The President, media, interest groups, committees, congressional staff and money all influence on who is appointed to office. All of these people/groups influence by giving money, influencing of a persons’ background, or on who is an important person. Policy for appointing someone to office is that, if you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours. Meaning, that if someone gives you a large amount of money, then the candidate usually returns the favor by appointed him or her to a selected office.
During Charlie Martin’s campaign to become U. S. Senator, his advantage over his opponent was that Martin was the incumbent. The term “folk-poking” generally refers to shaking hands, meeting people, and making public appearances. Elected officials use this tactic because it helps the official appear to be “of the people.” Also, it may help a potential official get his name out. Martin’s opponent, the Muffler Man, Lee Butler has several advantages over Martin. Some of these advantages are that Butler is a newcomer to politics, has his own radio show, the bible biker tour, is a well-known celebrity, and is very wealthy. The significance of family plays an important factor in Martin’s campaign. When running for an elected office the candidate’s family will be under much scrutiny.
The excerpt “Congress: The Electoral Connection” written by David Mayhew centers around the fundamental arguments that discusses how members of congress are self-interested for reelection. Mayhew further elaborates on his idea by discussing the electoral activities that congress members devote their time into and resource from, which are advertising, credit-claiming, and position taking. Mayhew’s excerpt further examines the framework in how congress operates which contributes to the explanation of how and why congress partakes in the certain electoral activities.
This paper will be focusing on Robert Casey better known as “Bob” Casey the Senator from Pennsylvania. Casey was born and raised on April 13, 1960, in Scranton Pennsylvania. Casey; “graduated from The College of the Holy Cross in 1982 and spent the following year teaching fifth grade and coaching eighth-grade basketball in inner city Philadelphia for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps”. (Senate.gov) Later on, he received his law degree from Catholic University in 1988. He married to his wife Teresa and has 4 children. In 2002 Casey wanted to follow his father into running for governor of Pennsylvania, however, he was defeated, later becoming the “treasurer” in the elections of 2004. Casey was first elected to the senate in 2006 as a Democrat, showing as one of the second highest victories since “1920” against an incumbent Senator. Later in 2012, he was re-elected becoming the first Democrat Senator into serving a full term and into being re-elected as a Pennsylvania Senator. Casey has become and followed the step of his father who was also a governor.
Rings and alliances within political forces allowed powerful individuals to dictate the outcomes of decisions that would further increase their power and influence. By exploiting the desperation of powerless workers and immigrants, prominent figures like Mike Scully were able to rig elections, keeping specific people in power by buying votes with money replaceable to him, but invaluable to the desperate. The democratic party, to which Scully belonged, remained in power by giving the poor man so little that he was eager to undertake any task for the sake of money. When Jurgis was offered bribes for his vote, he realized that it was not “supposed to be right” to sell his vote, but also that refusing the money would not make “the slightest difference in the results” (Sinclair 134). Sacrificing the bribing money to take a stand was not an expenditure that the poor man could afford, and the working class was thus forced to facilitate the medium of their
Dye, Thomas R. , L. Tucker Gibson Jr., and Clay Robinson. Politics In America. Brief Texas Edition ed. New Jersey: Pearson, 2005.
During the several weeks I volunteered my time as an intern for the campaign of presently elected mayor Erin Stewart, I was not only thrilled to shadow her throughout various political fundraisers, I was indeed excited to help with so many forms of community outreach as well. As I conducted my work, making a plethora of phone calls and delivering campaign signs, I was able to learn many of the assumptions people had about my candidate. Usually, once a conversation would begin and I was beleaguered with questions regarding Stewart, I ended up having to explain in loquacious discourse of why Stewart, if elected, was the panacea for New Britain’s financial woes. As I had to do this on the spot, organizing my logic was somewhat difficult, but indeed I learned that a little prepping can be very useful. Quite often, usually I was able to sway potential voters on both sides of the aisle to consider team Stewart as their chosen candidates. As I applied myself and showed my dedication to the cause, I discovered how a politician should articulate and prepare for an election, how democratically...
Our current political system seems to be built around Machiavelli’s principles on how to obtain and gain political power. We must take into account that Machiavelli’s “Qualities of a Prince” associates more to government officials and those in political power instead of pertaining to the common people; he divides the concepts of political prosperity and morality. American politicians are encompassed with Machiavellianism, a “cynical disregard for morality and focus on self-interest and personal gain.” We allow this to occur for some particular psychological reason because we’ve become convinced that there is a differentiation between politicians lying to us and lying for us. According to Democratic strategist Jamal Simmons, “I think most presidential
Shugart, Matthew. "Elections: The American Process of Selecting a President: A Comparative Perspective." Presidential Studies, 34, 3 (September 2004): 632-656.
Being that you have a lot of support from lower class Athenians and not so much from Athenians of nobility, how will you change to receive equal support from both parties?
South University Online. (2013). POL2076: American Government: Week 4: People and Politics—Interest Groups. Retrieved from http://myeclassonline.com
New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2004. Romance, Joseph. Political Science 6 class lectures. Drew University, Summer 2004.
An example would be a politician who managed to get a major bridge built in their district let the bridge be named after themselves. It would be also a congressmen’s desire to be seen as the cause of benefitting constituents mutually helpful. For candidates who are trying to win an election, the “image” or impression they give has been very important in politics. And through credit claiming, the image of the candidate would definitely give an impact to the people to vote for them. First impressions are extremely important as it is the factor of success or rejection. It shows the personality and how it can come across to voters. Politicians are aware of how the public views them and take years to build trust, make connections, and establish a vision for a community. However, one negative comment or distrustful action can destroy the foundation. There has to be an image of confidence, in order for citizens to trust politicians. As body language plays a significant role in public communications, it delivers a level of comfort leading the public and the standings of their ideas. Politicians must also keep calm in high- pressure situations, such as debates. Strong images must be kept whenever the public’s attention is on them, as every word and movement matters. Since public politicians are constantly in the public eye, image has been important as to how they appear
Television has affected every aspect of life in society, radically changing the way individuals live and interact with the world. However, change is not always for the better, especially the influence of television on political campaigns towards presidency. Since the 1960s, presidential elections in the United States were greatly impacted by television, yet the impact has not been positive. Television allowed the public to have more access to information and gained reassurance to which candidate they chose to vote for. However, the media failed to recognize the importance of elections. Candidates became image based rather than issue based using a “celebrity system” to concern the public with subjects regarding debates (Hart and Trice). Due to “hyperfamiliarity” television turned numerous people away from being interested in debates between candidates (Hart and Trice). Although television had the ability to reach a greater number of people than it did before the Nixon/Kennedy debate, it shortened the attention span of the public, which made the overall process of elections unfair, due to the emphasis on image rather than issue.
A young boy, just breaking into his adolescence, at Choate boarding school was living in the shadow of his older brother. Unlike his older sibling he had no spectacular athletic talent and was often plagued with many different illnesses. The fact that his grades stuck strictly in the average margin only cast the shade further over him. It also didn’t help the young boys case that he defied authority on campus on a regular basis. One day while sitting in chapel, he took comments about the undisciplined boys on campus, branded “muckers”, as a personal challenge and created a crew of “miscreants” and dubbed the clique “The Muckers Club”. Ultimately, as a result of his leader status in the group his father was summoned to speak with the headmaster directly. It may seem hard to believe but this young boy would become one of the most memorable and effective president’s in American history. John F. Kennedy would grow to posses an arsenal of leadership qualities that was wide in scope and used with the precision of clockwork. Jack, as he is also called, exhibited theses attributes simultaneously during his presidency in his speeches as well as dealing with foreign affairs, and through actions in and out of office.
Much propaganda is aimed at belittling opponents, making them seem untrustworthy or idiotic. Name-calling is a tactic that gets the point across fast and can have a detrimental effect to the receiving side. One can see politicians of every race and gender being called “stupid”, “incompetent”, and other more colorful names. Edwin Diamond and Stephen Bates wrote, “Name-calling and invective are themselves nothing new in American political life. Washington was called a "Whore Master" and would-be-monarch; Jefferson a coward and atheist; Lincoln, a "rail-splitting baboon." Franklin O. Roosevelt, Jr., as a surrogate for John Kennedy in the West Virginia primary in 1960, declared Hubert Humphrey was a draft dodger.” (Diamond 327). This shows not only a wide variety of slander, but also that name-calling has always been a part of politics, even in the very first United States presidential election. In the 2010 presidential election, Sarah Palin, who was runni...
Politics is a bloodsport, one big game of corruption, muckraking, prostitution, and defilement, which is played by the politicians, the media, and the seemingly innocent public that tends to forget that politicians are humans also, no better than the masses except for one thing, the ability to play the game. Primary Colors by Anonymous portrays this fraudulent game perfectly, exhibiting all of the dark aspects of a political campaign: from the vicious media in their pursuit of scandals, to the traitorousness of opposing candidates to destroy each other, all the way to the secretive sexual interactions taking place during the campaigning process. Yet in this vice-corrupted novel, Anonymous also manages to let the human side of the tainted politicians shine through, showing that they are imperfect, that they have flaws and weaknesses, and that they make mistakes in exactly the same fashion as all other human beings do. It is with these decadent political figures, Jack Stanton and Freddy Picker, that Anonymous in Primary Colors shows that there is still a nobleness to politics, a dedication to the voters, a love of the political game, and a human compassion in all of it.