Was Obama Really Born in Hawaii?

YES! Presidential hopeful Donald Trump is for some reason still hooked on the idea that President Obama was not born in Hawaii and is therefore not eligible to be President.  As many people have claimed including the State of Hawaii, that Obama's birth certificate which was presented was valid but this is not enough for "The Donald." He has researchers in Hawaii who claim to have found some stuff which we wouldn't believe.  On The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Jon mocked this absurd stunt, but what disturbed me the most was, as Jon reported, that his focus on this has not hurt him in the polls.  Is there something to this theory, do people actually believe Trump?  Until the information, which "we wouldn't believe" is released I don't see it helping Trump or hurting Obama in any significant way.

Was WikiLeaks to Blame for the Upheaval in the Mid-East?

In a lecture on the current state of affairs in the Middle East David Sanger the NY Times Chief Washington Correspondent, made a claim, that one of the reasons for the chaos which began in Tunisia, was started because of information about the lifestyles of the leaders which was leaked on WikiLeaks, and it was the embarrassment of the entire world knowing this which led to the revolution.  Is it really possible that WikiLeaks was actually able to on a somewhat direct level cause so much change?  We will see, as time goes on what, if any, other significant events unfold in response to the information exposed by WikiLeaks.

How Do we Learn the Issues?

During Wednesday's class activity, when discussing the different strategies for a Presidential campaign, something hit me.  I wasn't sure what the best way to publicize one's politics.  When discussing new media, my group focused on a youtube page, a facebook page, a twitter account, and a personal website.  It seemed that we used the facebook, and twitter accounts, more for personal things than the expression of political ideas.  We used youtube and the personal website to express the more political side of the candidate.  I began to think, are the youtube page and website really the best ways to promote the political side of a candidate?  I assume that a candidate's politics are about as important as their image, and if this is true, shouldn't there be equal promotion of the candidate's political image and their personal image?  If this is true, then shouldn't they be broadcast on the same venues?  A possible explanation for the different types of media being used for different aspects of a campaign, is the people being targeted with each type of media.  It could be that the politicians feel that those who use facebook and twitter are more focused on the personal image of the candidate, and those who look at the youtube page, and the personal website are more concerned with the politics of the candidate.