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Lonely Candidate
by Jon Brooks
Fri, October 05, 2007, 2:00 am PDT

It's amazing how all the guys and gals running for office this election season are special. But don't take our word for it. Verification is amply available at Lonely Candidate, where they're tracking each and every time a candidate or proxy claims to possess a unique quality, resume item, or political position by starting a sentence with the words "I'm the only..." Examples:

  • Rudy Giuliani: "I'm the only Republican candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton."
  • Bill Richardson: "I am the only candidate for a constitutional amendment to balance the budget."
  • Dennis Kucinich: "...I'm the only candidate willing and eager to challenge the insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies."
  • John McCain: "I'm the only candidate in this race prepared to be Commander-in-Chief from day one and dedicated to continuing the fight against Islamic fundamentalists."

OK, save your "whoop-dee-doos" and "well la dee das" until you've browsed a few more. Like how about this one from Minnesota Democratic candidate for senator Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer: "I'm the only candidate in this race who has a hyphenated last name."

Talk about a shoo-in.

Visit Lonely Candidate

Filed under: Politics, Political Humor, U.S. Elections

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Washingtonpost.com: Issue Coverage Tracker
by Molly McCall
Mon, September 17, 2007, 3:00 am PDT

After Howard Dean astonished the politerati by, gasp, using the Web in 2004, no candidate was going to get caught without an extensive online presence this time around. Neither was any news portal going to withstand the campaign season without launching at least one flashy interactive tool. Among some of the latest online endeavors, we like the Candidate Mashup from our own Yahoo! News (currently Democrats-only) and the Issue Coverage Tracker at Washingtonpost.com.

Drawing from online sources that include news organizations, bloggers, and interest groups, the Post's tracker pulls in commentary and coverage of the presidential race, and then presents the "mentions" in a way that shows graphically who's taking the most heat on what. Scroll over John McCain, for example, and see what issues are most associated with his name in online chatter (immigration, Iraq). Or look at hot button topics like abortion (Giuliani, Thompson) or Iraq (Clinton, Obama) for the candidates who are kicking up the most buzz. Click further and the tracker will dispatch you to the original sources. This is a snazzy piece of web design—and a refreshing way to see how the candidates are being assessed and critiqued online.

Visit Washingtonpost.com: Issue Coverage Tracker

Filed under: Politics, News, Media, U.S. Elections

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Frontline: The Choice 2004
Mon, November 01, 2004, 2:00 am PST

In this tight election year, you've probably heard more than you want about both candidates for U.S. president. But PBS' Frontline puts a fresh spin on the topic by grounding their analyses of Bush and Kerry in historical introspection. With the help of countless presidential scholars, Frontline looks at the job specs for the commander in chief and what qualities help a person succeed in the Oval Office. Historians even rate all the presidents from Washington to Clinton. Who would have thought Polk rated so high? Of course, if you're still rating the two contenders for 2004, check out the interviews with their childhood friends, speechwriters, and various journalists to get the inside scoop. And someday, pundits and scholars will add this year's winner to their rankings.
Visit Frontline: The Choice 2004

Filed under: U.S. Elections

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Why Vote?
Thu, September 02, 2004, 3:00 am PDT

Pundits predict that whoever claims the Oval Office come November 2 will do so by a nose. And whether the Chief we'll hail is the incumbent GOP or a decorated Vietnam vet, he'll have eked out a win by a handful of battleground states and eleventh-hour flip-floppers. So what gives with the state of our Union? Why does half the U.S. vigorously defend our political process, while the other half goes to the car wash on Election Day? PBS asks for your point of view, whichever side of the fence you're on. As political cartoonists skewer our notorious complacency in spite of hard-won suffrage battles and the struggles in other countries -- only you can say if "two Americas" is a bad thing, or just democracy in action.
Visit Why Vote?

Filed under: U.S. Elections

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Vote: The Machinery of Democracy
Tue, August 10, 2004, 3:00 am PDT

Once a vote is cast -- by traditional ballot, electronically, or absentee form -- we expect it to be tallied and credited to our candidates of choice. However, any voting system has chinks, as was apparent in November 2000 amid Florida's infamous dangling chad and butterfly ballot fiasco. America's voting system is a mind-numbing patchwork of e-voting, punch cards, gears and levers, and other rudimentary tools -- a logistical nightmare at risk for failure. Historically, votes were cast on elaborate paper ballots, aka "party tickets," which were fair game for confusion and fraud. As the nation and the electorate grew, vote tampering and ballot reform were always front of mind. In the wake of 2000, America's voting experience has given industrial designers new challenges. Maybe the designs of the future won't leave us -- or the chads -- hanging.
Visit Vote: The Machinery of Democracy

Filed under: U.S. Elections

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