...candidate George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore will forever be remembered in history as one of the most widely debated elections of all time. Not only was it controversial, but it gave great insight as to exactly how a presidential race can be ran and lost as well. The Presidential election of 2000 sets itself apart from any other election because of the controversy surrounding the outcome. Even though Al Gore won the election based on popular vote, George Bush came out on top with winning the electoral vote over Gore, 271 to Gore’s 266. Although both sides fought a good fight, only one came out on top, the Bush campaign. Many were left wondering exactly why Vice President Al Gore lost. Research shows that the reasons as to why Vice President Al Gore lost the presidential election of 2000 to presidential candidate George W. Bush are due to, the inability to During the beginning of the 2000 campaign almost everyone believed that the outcome and win of the election was to lay rest with Vice President Al Gore. Having being Vice President during the successful Clinton administration in the 1990’s, analysts believed that a win was almost inevitable. According to the readings in Pomper, the question was not if Gore was going to win but by how much. The United States at that time had been used to a period of prosperity and had been living in an economy that was doing quite well. The only problem was that people were not entirely convinced that Gore would be able to carry the prosperity...
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...1. List two reasons why Hamilton felt a small number of persons would be better suited to choose the President of the United States. The first purpose was to create a buffer between population and the selection of a President. He and other founding fathers were afraid of direct election to the Presidency. He feared a tyrant could manipulate public opinion and come to power; basically the common men were not smart enough to make a correct selection or a select few elite “most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station.” The second reason; as part of the structure of the government that gave extra power to the smaller states. The Electoral College is also part of compromises made at the convention to satisfy the small states. The slave holding states did not want a direct election for president because slaves were not counted as population until 1783 then at only 5/8 of a person. A direct election for president did not sit well with most delegates from the slave states, which had large populations but far fewer eligible voters. Under the system of the Electoral College each state had the same number of electoral votes as they have representative in Congress, thus no state could have less then 3...
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...Democracy: Alive in America? Everyone is nervously awaiting the final decision of the year 2000 Presidential election with George W. Bush and Al A. Gore running closely side by side. There was debate in the legitimacy of the electoral votes cast in Florida earlier in time, so the suspense rising in America’s final decision is enormous. Looks like Gore holds this trophy for popular votes with a close 543,895 votes winning over Bush. According to previous elections, Gore has this competition conquered, the results come in; George W. Bush is our new president! With a slim win by 5 electoral votes, Bush is our new president. Wait a second, popular vote is that not the votes of qualified voters of the population? In America today, political decisions are decided democratically by its residents. Although Al Gore won the popular vote, George Bush is still the decided president. Then what is democracy, where did it come from, is our current democratic society a progression or is it a regression of democracy’s evolution? America has a government decided by the population of America; at least that is of the idea of a democratic society. Let us then compare American democracy to where democracy was created. The reason why everyone votes is to make a unanimous decision of who will become the leaders of a country. Democracy is just that, a government where the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation...
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...by which we elect the President. They do not understand how the Electoral College works. Bill Stern (Andrews, 1996) said, “Our elections are free, it's in the results where eventually we pay.” Oftentimes, people vote based on public opinion or information obtained by the media. Voters should inform themselves on how the Electoral College works in order to make good decisions when voting for the president. Electoral College delegates elect the President. Voters elect Electoral College delegates. The Electoral College was created as a compromise between election by Congress or popular vote for the presidential election process. At the time, some politicians believed an election by popular vote was not good for the country, and others did not want to give that much power to the Congress. Although the Electoral College has had critics and controversy since its beginning, it has delivered a President and a Vice President in 54 elections. Our founding fathers formed the Electoral College in Article II, Section I, of the United States Constitution, it states, “each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of Senators and Representatives to which the state may be entitled in the Congress (U.S. Constitution, 1787)”. The Constitution does not state the name ‘Electoral College’, the term started in the 1800’s. The Electoral College has proven to be durable and adaptable under the Constitution...
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...Voter turnout for the 2014 midterm election was the lowest since World War II in 1942. Only 36.4% of eligible voters casted their votes this election (DelReal). Voter participation has been a problem the early twentieth century. America won the revolution and broke its ties with Britain’s monarchical ways for very specific reasons. Reasons clearly stated in the Declaration of Independence (Jefferson 259-267). The American people wanted a government that protected their rights and gave them the ability to select someone who represented them best to lead them. The ability to vote on our representatives and add or changes laws is what America started for. Low voter turnout is preventing any sort of change in our government system. Voter turnout can be split into two problems- attitude and accessibility. Voting is a key part in the democratic system and it is important to address and attempt to reform the system to benefit the citizens of the United States. When the Constitution was ratified in 1787, the voting policies and presidential regulations were set. According to section two of Article two of the Constitution, in order to be a president her or she must be over 35, a natural born U.S. citizen, and must have lived in the United States for at least fourteen years ("The Constitution of the United States " 85). If the president meets the requirements, he or she is allowed to run for office. The first thing a candidate usually does is develop a political action committee to help...
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...There is no fair representation in any election. It also maintains a dishonest government, because of corruption, bribes, and so much more. The Electoral College began as a way to help the citizens of America because citizens used to be uneducated, but now it is only hurting them. This is a vital issue with today’s society because people in large states with unequal representation do not always get certain problems heard and taken care of. The only way to fix the issue is to eliminate the issue, which in this case is the electoral college. This is why America as a whole should get rid of the Electoral College, and instead replace it with direct voting from the population. The Electoral College is unjust and full of controlled votes, leading the candidates to a false pretense of winning an election when they have no chance...
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...They did their time, paid their fines, and stood in voter registration lines only to be denied. These American citizens, who are also felons, are being denied the right to vote due to disenfranchisement laws. In the United States, “Two states, Vermont and Maine, allow convicted felons to vote while in prison. Nine states permanently restrict certain felons from voting (until and if granted the state governor's pardon) even if those people have served their prison sentence, parole, probation, and paid all fines. The remaining 36 states fall somewhere in between,” (ProCon.org, 2009). Felons should have the right to vote, as they have paid or are paying their debt to society, and the millions of missing felony votes impact all of us. How many times have you voted in a close race and your candidate did not win? Imagine if just a fraction of the felons that share your views were allowed to vote just like they are allowed to pay taxes. Millions of Americans in our republic are not represented at every election due to non-felony voting, which can be said to be undemocratic, and as such, felons should be allowed to vote in all states. “The legislature has sent a clear message that voting is a fundamental right that should not be stripped away from people who are working, paying taxes and contributing to their communities, “said Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island. According to the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, the right of citizens of the...
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...Case study notes This case has been updated to include the Apple iPad. Principally this is case explores the issue of licensing and how successful firms can become unsuccessful. It is not a case about Apple and why it has become successful. This case study explores the rise of the Apple Corporation. The Apple iPod is one of the most successful new product launches in recent years, transforming the way the public listens to music, with huge ramifications for major record labels. More than 50 million MP3 players are expected to be sold in 2005; over a third more than last year. Mobile phones have long been regarded as the most credible challengers to MP3 players and iPods. The launch of digital download services via mobile phones illustrates the dramatic speed of convergence between the telecom and media industries, which many observers expect to usher in a new era of growth for mobile phones. Users are willing to pay more for additional services and many analysts predict that mobile phone handsets will eventually emerge as the dominant technology of the age, combining personal organisers, digital music players and games consoles in a single device. Indeed, Microsoft founder Bill Gates has predicted that mobile phones will supersede the iPod as the favoured way of listening to digital music. The launch of the Apple ipad in 2010 makes this case even more topical. This should form the basis of supplementary questions at the end of the case: How will the iPhone succeed? What about...
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...also have values that guided them towards a desire to abolish the electoral college. By removing the electoral college, such people believe they are supporting the cause of the majority, which can be overstepped by the electoral college. While the electoral college empowers the smaller states like it was designed to do, it is evident that it disregards most of the people of the United States in some elections. Edwards and Oppenheimer discussed the feelings of those who have been disregarded when they said, “Every time that a candidate wins the popular vote but fails to win the presidency…it has caused the people to question whether the system is broken and the wrong person became president.” In 2000, President George Bush defeated his opponent Al Gore only by the electoral college. He lost the popular vote but won the electoral college. More recently, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton but did not win the popular vote. Most people did not want...
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...SECRET LANGUAGE of • HOW LEADERS INSPIRE ACTION THROUGH NARRATIVE The LEADERSHIP STEPHEN DENNING John Wiley & Sons, Inc. More Praise for The Secret Language of Leadership “Out of the morass of strategies leaders are given to transform organizations, Denning plucks a powerful one—storytelling— and shows how and why it works.” —Dorothy Leonard, William J. Abernathy Professor of Business, Emerita, Harvard Business School, and author, Deep Smarts: How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom “The Secret Language of Leadership shows why narrative intelligence is central to transformational leadership and how to harness its power.” —Carol Pearson, director, James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, and coauthor, The Hero and the Outlaw “The Secret Language of Leadership is not only the best analysis I have seen of how and why leaders succeed or fail, it’s highly readable, as well as downright practical. It should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in engaging a company with big ideas who understands that leaders live and die by the quality of what they say.” —Richard Stone, story analytics master, i.d.e.a.s “A primary role of leaders is to create and maintain meaning for their organizations. Denning clearly demonstrates that meaningmaking comes from stories well told.” —Thomas Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of I.T. and Management, Babson College, and author, The Attention Economy “Steve...
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...November 25, 2008 WHY HAS THE UNITED STATES NOT HAD A WOMAN PRESIDENT? Women have held top political positions in many countries around the world. Some of these countries such as Sri Lanka, Turkey and Pakistan are not necessarily considered “pro-woman” or politically progressive. The United States considers itself the most progressive democracy in the world, yet no woman has ever held the top political position of president or vice president Looking at the current climate of women’s issues with politics, it is just a matter of time before a woman will hold the position of president or vice-president in the United States. This is a relatively young country founded on social values passed down from traditional Western European schools of thought where women have been primarily positioned as a wife and mother instead of a respected player in business and politics. While women stayed at home and cared for children, men were developing contacts and gaining political know-how. Moreover, traditional women’s occupations such as teacher and nurse did not introduce women to politically active individuals. Media plays a valuable role in presenting candidates to the American voting public. A media bias against women exists in the United States. The first woman to run for president was Victoria Woodhull in 1872. Since that time, fifteen other women have been nominated by their respective parties. Most of these women remained relatively unknown, and did not receive any substantial...
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...party with the fewest House members since 1946. As Democrats head into their final two years with their "lame duck" leader, they look more like a beaten and battered army who has lost its general, reminiscent of the last two years of the Clinton administration as he held on for dear life with an impeachment trial for a life preserver. With Obama's gun control legislation seemingly shot out of the water, the argument of liberal gun-control advocates may be an argument that conservatives can finally win. In retrospect, Democrats shouldn’t be too upset about how things went. They did get the Supreme Court to say that gay marriage is allowed in all 50 states and that’s a huge victory for them. One would be inclined to believe that victories in health care reform and same-sex marriages would be enough to send them packing with a smile on their faces. However, there’s a sadness coming out of the West Wing and the far-left that I haven’t seen since George Bush stole the election for Al Gore. It seems that despite enjoying eight years of unencumbered power, there’s still one more thing on their agenda that they are shooting for. It seems Obama is trying to resuscitate a 2013 executive order that would essentially eliminate gun show firearms sales and require stricter background checks for all citizens. However, without the votes in the House or the Senate, the likelihood of such a bill passing isn’t vey probable. The liberal argument in all its contentious fodder was never based on reality...
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...Bill Maher’s book, “When you ride alone you ride with Bin Laden”, is written to inform American citizens of the things they can do to help win the war on terrorism. In this book Maher criticizes our government for their failure to do so. Maher questions why we are not using methods that have been used in past wars to enlighten our citizenry. Things like posters to conserve our natural resources, providing the media with information for Americans to rally around, turning off lights that are not being used and the need for car-pooling or creating a more energy efficient form of public transportation. Some where I read that it takes eleven gallons of oil to burn a 75 watt light bulb for a year, now that is food for thought! Maher thinks the token support that Americans are engaged in is of little value; displaying flags, wearing support badges and hats, and the “shop until you drop” theme have little value. Maybe we should be doing more, but this is a totally new kind of war, not one where we are fighting another nation, but an ideology, that is supported by radical Islamists. What should our posters say “ Don’t Trust Muslims?”. Should our media televise pictures of Muslims in their Mosques preaching “kill all infidels”? I concur with Maher that we are not doing enough and that our government could do much more, but we must acknowledge the good with the bad or we are just arm chair quarterbacks that want to point fingers. Give our government credit that we haven’t had...
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...The president of the United States is chosen through a careful process that has many flaws and benefits called the Electoral College. The process of the electoral college is complex and has many components to how it works. The only power the people have over the electoral college is the ability to appoint our electors through the popular vote; however, the electors have free reign, without needing consent from the people, over who is in charge every four years. Within the Electoral College is a rich history, pros and cons, how electors are chosen, how the difference of the popular vote cause Serbian states to be swing states, and why past elections have brought up questions about if the electoral college should be amended. The original philosophy behind the electoral college is what has caused the rich history of the electoral college. Everything began in 1789 when the idea of the electoral college came to elect our very first president. The Electoral College is a system of selecting the next president by electors who vote based on the popular vote of America (U.S. Electoral College). Alexander Hamilton created the original form of the...
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...Omar Sharif Should the Electoral College be abolished? The invention and approval of the electoral college by the Constitutional Committee in 1787 resulted in an electoral system whereby the election of the president, every 4 years, is determined by members of the electoral college and not the popular vote. Each state receives a number of electoral college votes (number of state congress members) and this is amended every 10 years to reflect changes in state populations. However, there is a growing movement to abolish and replace the current Presidential electoral system with a more democratic system that more accurately reflects the popular vote. Firstly, to understand why the electoral college became the chosen system, it is important to understand the issues faced by the Constitutional committee. James Madison wrote at the time "There was one difficulty however of a serious nature attending an immediate choice by the people. The right of suffrage was much more diffusive in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes. The substitution of electors obviated this difficulty and seemed on the whole to be liable to the fewest objections." Therefore, whilst many members acknowledged that a nationwide popular vote would be ideal, state conflict over the rights of slaves, which divided the nation, was the ultimate deciding factor in the choice of electoral system. However, there were other highly influential...
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