These are my final thoughts on the Election that took place yesterday. Not that I had many pre-thoughts or mid-election thoughts, but this is the last time I want to think about it all.

Okay, so... IF the Republicans really want to get Obama out of the White House in 2012, wouldn't it have been smarter to let him "really screw things up"* for the next two years and then campaigned on how horrible he is/was? I mean, now, for the next two years, not much will get done (my guess) because Obama "owns" the Senate but not the House, blahblahblah. Technically, if nothing happens, they can point fingers at each other. I'm no genius, but this smacked me upside the head this morning. I'm guessing they would've had a better shot just letting him and the Dems "totally ruin"* the place before they took over and made everything pretty again.

*I don't think he's screwed up much, by the way, but that is a mid-election thought that has distanced itself from my blog and brain. (p.s. That link has expletives all over it. Warning!)
(p.p.s. I'm so happy the ads have faded away!)

Ah, The Daily Show. Gotta love that Jon Stewart. Seriously. So, right now is a repeat of last night's episode. They replayed some of Obama's speech & oddly/coincidentally/surprisingly enough, Bush has said some of those very things in various speeches he gave in the eight years he was prez.

The difference?
Pretty much some good ol' Ethos, I'd say...

"A General Summary of Aristotle's Appeals: The goal of argumentative writing is to persuade your audience that your ideas are valid, or more valid than someone else's. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories--Ethos, Pathos, Logos.

Ethos (Credibility), or ethical appeal, means convincing by the character of the author. We tend to believe people whom we respect. One of the central problems of argumentation is to project an impression to the reader that you are someone worth listening to, in other words making yourself as author into an authority on the subject of the paper, as well as someone who is likable and worthy of respect.

Pathos (Emotional) means persuading by appealing to the reader's emotions. We can look at texts ranging from classic essays to contemporary advertisements to see how pathos, emotional appeals, are used to persuade. Language choice affects the audience's emotional response, and emotional appeal can effectively be used to enhance an argument.

Logos (Logical) means persuading by the use of reasoning. This will be the most important technique we will study, and Aristotle's favorite. [...] Giving reasons is the heart of argumentation, and cannot be emphasized enough."

Then one of Jon's correspondents said (I'm paraphrasing): "It's like cheese, Jon. It's fabulous on Italian food, but if you melt it on Chinese food it tastes like crap." I love that analogy.

In connection to all this=

It occurred to me last night that... as a nation, no matter who is our president, no matter where we fall on the political spectrum, the question to ask ourselves always is: What am I doing to better my country? My state? My city? My neighborhood?

For me, the answer is teaching. I didn't really go into it for that reason, but basically I am trying to better the world by having students THINK about the world around them. Figure out what is wrong. Argue their thoughts logically on paper. Ask questions. Communicate problems & issues.

Pre and Post Election sure brought out the political side of everyone and their dog.
This is what I've noticed. I don't think I'm as guilty because I think a few of my close friends & family can vouch for the fact that I've been politically-charged ever since I realized the "politics in education" that favored white, married males who coached over blasphemous single women. Now, as for those I've known forever suddenly coming out of the woodwork to protest Obama... that's another story. Either way, I hope we all continue to educate ourselves and move forward.

What IF McCain had won?

I think, perhaps, I would've been bummed out (compared to flying high today!) a little bit, but it's not like I thought the guy was going to do a horrible job (that was reserved for his running mate's potential). In fact, a long time ago I thought McCain was an okay fella. Maybe I even blogged about it, but there was an interview he did where they asked him how he felt about being linked to the war if he ran for president. He didn't beat around the bush: "I guess I'll deal with that when it happens." He didn't state that he kinda was for the war then wasn't or whatever. He stood by the decision, as crappy as it was (in my opinion). Since then, his crankiness (maverick-ness?) started to wear on me. It dominoed from there.

I'm sincerely hoping that Obama doesn't get trampled on by the media and by those who didn't vote for him. I highly doubt he'll be able to accomplish every wonderful thing his most-devoted follower would want. He may disappoint us from time to time, he has too big of a mess to clean up, and he's human (not our savior). We have many weeks before Bush packs up, so I guess we'll have to just "wait and see."

I'm finally, though, just really proud to be an American.

What do you think? What if things were switched around?
{Received via email.}
> What if the Obamas had paraded five children across the stage, following the debate, including a three month-old infant and an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter?
> What if John McCain was a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
> What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his college graduating class?
> What if McCain had only married once, and Obama was divorced?
> What if Obama had met his second wife in a bar and had a long affair while he was still married?
> What if Michelle Obama was the wife who not only became addicted to pain killers but also acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
> What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?
> What if Obama had been a member of the Keating Five?(The Keating Five were five United States Senators accused of corruption in 1989, igniting a major political scandal as part of the larger Savings and Loan crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s.)
> What if Obama couldn't read from a teleprompter?
> What if Obama was the one who had military experience that included discipline problems and a record of crashing seven planes?
> What if Obama was the one who was known to publicly display a serious anger management problem?
> What if Michelle Obama's family had made their money from beer distribution?
You could easily add to this list. If these questions reflected a reality, if the tables were turned, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are? This is what racism does. It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative characteristics in another when there is a color difference.
And, think of this - the candidates' educational backgrounds:
=Barack Obama:
            Columbia University - B.A. Political Science with a Specialization
            International Relations.
            Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
=Joseph Biden:
            University of Delaware - B.A. in History and B.A. in Political Science.
            Syracuse University College of Law - Juris Doctor (J.D.)
=John McCain:
            United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
=Sarah Palin:
            Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
            North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
            University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
            Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
            University of Idaho - 3 semesters - B.A. in Journalism
=Education isn't everything, but this is about the two highest offices in the land as well as our standing in the world.
=You make the call.

 Key images from antisoccermom:

Marrying Obama? and other Political Thoughts...

Faith. As a non-religious person, I suppose it's pretty odd that I leave my voting decision up to faith. I just have to hope that my candidate is really going to do some good. There's no way of really knowing. There isn't; no one can tell me differently. If someone thinks they know what will happen with either candidate, then I'd like to find out where they live because they have a time machine.

It's gotten to the point where no one really cares to focus on any particular issue (or maybe it's always been that way - political times like these get so blurry... who said what, who attacked whom, blahblahblah) - both sides are just going back and forth with meaningless banter. Maybe the debates will straighten out some stuff, maybe they won't. Either way, no matter what is said during those debates, my mind is made up. It was four years ago and eight years ago. Did my candidates "get in" then? Of course not. But I voted, so I can complain.

I've educated myself on what both have said and done. Even within those confines, though, it's hard to know exactly what to educate WITH? What can be read that's objective? My women's magazines? (They've all leaned to the liberal side of things, which, as a liberal, I can admit to). Newsweek? The Daily Show? MSNBC? Obama's book? Fox News? Practically everything has some slant to it, yes? And for every person like myself  who reads up (from various sources) on what each candidate has said and done, there are probably ten people that are just going to vote based on practically no knowledge whatsoever.

At one point, way back when, after McCain admitted that if backing the Iraq war hurts his chances for becoming the GOP nominee, then so be it... I remember saying, "Wow. That's pretty cool of him to just say, 'Oh well, I backed it and I'll pay that price.' He didn't try to run around and pretend he didn't or whatever." I appreciated that honestly. Although I don't agree with much of what he stands for, at one point I did admire him a bit. That has faded since.

Maybe that Election Day is a little bit like the start of a short-term marriage. We go into it with the best of intentions, hoping the other person doesn't cheat on us. That we don't have constant fights about money or the kids. That we will get along with our neighbors and their dog won't poo in our yard. We hope our mate will take out the garbage, clean up around the house, and put the seat down. Typically, we do a lot of "research" on our future mates. We date them, we ask them questions, and then when we think we've found "the one" we bring up the "M-word" and go from there. There are shotgun marriages, though, and arranged ones... so the outcome is unknown even more so with those.

If it's not one thing, it's another.
We complain about "them" all the time.
No solutions given.

I've read quite a few blog posts lately about Obama and him being apparently "god-like" to his supporters. I don't follow all the news as much as I should, but I've never looked at him like a god. I appreciate the fact he wrote a book about what to do with our nation (because I know publishing is tough, as is writing politically) and I like that he's "green" as far as politicans go. Beyond making those two comments, I'm not going to write much more. Who cares? (At least, that's how I feel today - I may have to make fun of a Bushism later.) Plus, as a nation, we pretty much detest politicans, policies, government... yet, what do we really do about it? Nothing. Blog about it, but that's it. Ugh.

Moving on to things more important to me at this moment...

So, my first class o the semester went well. Composed of 27 males, which is okay. And all from three disciplines: Rec Engines, Electrical, and Diesel. I covered all I wanted to cover, and then was able to give them about 20-25min to get started/finish their Introductory Memos about themselves. It's a great assignment to start with because they write about themselves, get introduced to the memo format, and when we read 'em aloud tomorrow, they have a piece of paper in front of them and don't have to wing it.

And now for some more prepping for tomorrow's afternoon classes. As well as the redoing of Project 1 in English 105. Allison shows up sometime today; it'll be awesome to see our rockin' workstudy again.

One last thought about liberals & conservatives... it just came to me. As a liberal, I often have to watch what I say around conservatives (or say nothing at all - "Don't say that in front of your grandfather"). Tippy-toe around them. Now, is it the same for them? I'd have to say "No" from my own personal experience.