Recreate Obama's Logo

For the recreation of Obama's logo my group decided that we were going to keep the circle with the sun rising and the red and white strips. We like the idea of change that Obama's logo already evokes. Even though we might have to tweek it a little bit for copyright reasons. But other than that it will be staying the basic same way. What my group plans on doing is creating designs that combine and the picture into the future plan that we discussed in Obama's speech. For example, we are using the education plan that Obama has. Our group agreed on doing an apple with a bite out of it, and the bite will be the Obama logo. We also plan on doing this for healthcare and possibly foreign policy. The pictured will be represented on t-shirts, billboards, and on buttons. We wanted to use simple pictures that could get the basic idea of what Obama is addressing in his campaign. So people that are aware of Obama's healthcare, education, and foriegn policy plans could reflect on them after looking at this picture or the pictures could catch the eye of someonewho is not familiar with the plan and it may spark interest in looking up obama's plan. I think our logo transformations would have been useful before the election in sparking interest to look up the information about these topics and after the election to let viewers know that Obama is working on these topics. I am very excited to start really making these come to life!

Grou Approach

discuss why and how your group chose to approach the speech and the candidate’s response... My group decided to approach the speech in a serious manner. We decided this because we felt this would be the best way to really demonstrate the essence of Obama's speech. His speech was very good and out group wanted to attempt to be just as good as he was. Also, we wanted his response to be just as powerful and strong as his when we spoke. So we attempted to keep a majority of the content around the same lines as Obama's was. Once again we did not want to take away anything from the speech. That is once again why my group wanted to make the speech serious and attempt to keep the content the same. We collectively felt that his speech was very good and we wanted to give the rewrite of his speech justice. We approached the speech by first looking at Obama's speech and pulling out the ideas that we defiantly wanted to add in our own speech. We looked at the values that we thought were the most important to us and the people of America in a whole. Then we wrote an outline to organize and make sure that we did manage to get all the points in to the speech. Lastly, Sean, our speech writer, wrote the speech with the outline and with Madison and I's input or ideas of what could go into the speech. Thus making the speech we have to present today. We were all very pleased with Sean's final product.

Obama Logo

For Obama's logo I would not say it re creacted him but it created him. The look of the logo, to me, looks as if it is a sun rising over the American flag. Signifying the dawn of a new America and Obama is going to bring that. That is the message that I got after looking at the logo and I think this is the idea that Obama was going for when he was choosing what he wanted for the logo for his campaign. The logo must be done strategically because this represents them and this is one picture that will be in the people's mind when the canidadte is mentioned. I do believe that Obama's logo matches all the ideals and the change that he wanted to come across. I also love that the sun in the background can be seen as the O for Oba,a once again making an appeal to the logo because he does have multiple things that can be seen in the logo. Also the colors are vibrant and patriotic with the red white and blue also the yellow of the sun. The red white and blue obviously are the patiotic colors and the yellow I feel is an amazing way to try and express the change. good logo in all.

2008 Concession and Victory Speech

For Obama's Victory speech he does an amazing job at really drawing people into the speech with his confidence and the way he presents himself infront of the crowd. The use of diction that he uses to really brnig across the strength of America and how all things are possible in America. At the beginning of the speech he really discusses how the people of America are important and how they were abe to change and bring across unity of America. He empasizes how America is one and not seperated even in an election. Obama does continue to use his slogan change in his speech to make the promise that he made through his campaign still relevent now after being elected. Obama also, thanked his running mate, his wife and all his supporters. Obama talks about how the change that he promised will be hard and he can not gaurantee a sudden change. It will talk time and he really puts it in true life and time perspective. I imagine to save himself if the promises that he made during his campaign do not happen right away. To save himself if they take time to happen and really work for the United sates. Obama also uses famous quotes like "government for the people and by the people" To make it have a strong and powerful punch to it. Also, the use of repetition like in his thank you section where he is talkg about how his supporters "drew strnghth" in his campaign. To show that the people of the united states is his strength and his rock. Also, the use of "yes we can" at the end of the speech really impacts that we as a people of the united states can do everything. We can do everything together. All in all obama did a great speech and through his diction, repetition, and quotes he made the point he wanted to come across come across perfectly.
I like that in McCain's concession speech he is very generous and very respectful. Especially when he is praising Obama and when he says he is recognizing the importance of the election. I also do like the McCain is respectful and askes his supporters to stop booing when Obama's name is mentioned. He does make his speech very respectful again and is a very good sport about not becoming the president. I do appluad him by admitting that there are differences and not sugar coating that he is going ot back everything up that Obama likes but instead he is willing to help and put input in for Obama to listen to. I like that even though you can tell that McCain is upst by his voice, since he sounds like he is going to cry, he stays strong and positive. Out of the three concession speeches I have reviewed latley McCain is the best at being the best sport and really staying positive during his concession speech. McCain does a great job at the end of his speech in using the sentence where we are americans and how we never surrendor. Putting in an illusion to the army and strength, which I feel people knew MCain for. All in all I thought MCain had a very good speech also.

Concession Speech by John Kerry

Kerry's concession speech was a very gracious and thank full speech. Kerry did express his frustration that he will not be the next president in the beginning. Especially, in the ways that the vote is calculated through a legal process and not by the voters. He apologizes to his supporters for not being able to represent his supporters and for not winning. He emphasizes later that his party will continue to "fight" for what they believe in and that he will continue to "fight" for what they believe in. The word choice, fight, that Kerry used at the beginning of every sentence in this section makes the readers and listeners of this speech believe that after this speech even after losing for the president Kerry can be trusted to continue to work on the ideas that he built his campaign off of. This helps Kerry in his career after the elections because if he does decide to run for any other position after his seat in the senate ran out then he could still have a strong democratic base and supporters. He sets himself up with this enlightening and encouraging section to keep up his supporters moral to help him later in his career and to not really burn any bridges. He also sets himself up for success at the beginning when he admits that there was not way that he was going to win based off Ohio but he encourages his party to support Bush and not allow the country to be split due to his loss. Kerry basically tells the American people to support and back Bush because we are America and we are stronger together. He tells them not to hold a grudge because of the loss. This also keeps Kerry from burning any bridges that could hurt him in his career if he so chooses to continue in politics. Kerry is very gracious and positive in all his diction through out this speech keeping an uplifting and positive mood. He did very well not to come off as too disappointed after the beginning section. Kerry was able through diction and how he presented himself in his voice and appearances to make the situation into a positive one. Also, a majority of his speech was focus don thanking his supporters. There was a huge chunk where he named certain supporters that he meet and thanked them by name. Also, he keep mentioning how much much he appreciated everything that they did for him. Once, again trying to continue that strong supporter base that, I believe, was his goal the whole speech. Kerry did do an very good job with his word choices to make his speech come off as gracious and thankful even if he was disappointed and I think that was the angle he was aiming for.

Prospective About the Topic

My prospective about this topic while I have research has actually changed. I started doing this topic about elementary teting in the State of Texas under the No Child Left Behind Act. However, now I feel like I am aiming toward how the No CHild Left Behind Act wants testing to fold out in states like Texas. I have found a lot of articles on the NCLB website discussing how the tgest is soppoused to help the students and the guide lines that the states are meant to follow to make the testing successful. So I am going to start my paper off with the source describing why the testing is going to work and how it will benefit the students. So my main point about the importance of looking at the No Child LEft Behind Act is made at the beginning of the paper. The I am going to trickle my sources in. First I am going to add the state guide lines that I found on the No Child LEft Behind Website so the readers can have an idea of what states must do to meet the standards. Then I plan on adding my article about the superintendent who talks about how the state testing has good intensions, however, it really needs to watch how it labels schools. I also want to find a article that is totally for state testing and some quotes that back it up then I want to find some quotes and articles that say how there is negative points to the state testing. My prospective has totally changed and I am now all about state testing and why it is a "good" thing and how it will benefit the students according to the NCLB Act. I just feel this is a bettter way to show the importance of education and make people pay more attention to how this act affects the United States right now.

Sources Handling My Issue

My sources handle my issue well. I feel like they cover all the points that I want to cover. In my source #1 applies the quotes from the superintendent of Brownsville in Texas. I like this because I have a quote that I can analyze from a upper person in education. However, I do want to get a quote from a teacher and from some students or parents to also analyze in my paper. For my source #2 I have a document from the No Child Left Behind website that tells why the testing will work for the students. It goes into depth about the way that it will help the teachers, parents, and students and how it will follow the progress of the child. This ties in because this is a legitimate document from the No Child Left Behind Law. I can tie it in to analyze what the makers of the Law thought about the No Child Left Behind law and how they believe that it will work. This will make my paper stronger. Source #3 is also off the No Child Left Behind Document. This document is from the Education Secretary and it is explaining what the states should do for the students through the state testing. It basically gives the states an outline on what they expect. I think this will tie into my paper well because I do have my paper narrowed down to state testing in Texas in the elementary level. This is a good tie in so people who read my paper can have an idea of what Texas is supposed to do and what they are expected to do with the students. I like it because it gives the expectations.

Research via Lexis Nexis and Gale

For the research assignment for class I had a hard time finding information to use for this assignment. After talking to Mrs. Patrick I discovered that it would be better for me to look at Education websites compared to political and other database websites. For the Lexis Nexis and Gale sites that we researched here is what I got out of them:
Lexis Nexis Academic- While researching on here I only found VERY limited resources and many of the resources about the No Child Left Behind issue was things that could really be analyzed. They were more things that were already analyzed or they were things that talked about how No Child Left Behind prevents schools from going on field trips now.
Lexis Nexis Congressional Publications- I did not find any information or any type of paper or document that I could use for this assignment and for this paper. Unless I was just looking for the wrong thing but this website provided nothing for me and did not help me in any way. I could came back later when I find more information about this and find more papers to research and look to see if there is any source that I can use from here.
Lexis Nexis Government Periodicals Index- This website also did not help me at all in looking for sources to use in my paper. Every time that I would look up information to look at on the website it continued to tell me there was nothing available for me to view. I might have been searching incorrectly or there just really was not any information for me to use.
Lexis Nexis Statistical- This also did not work for me. I went and typed in the information for the search and every time that I would type in state testing nothing would pull up. However, when I typed in regular testing there was all these sources that came up, however, none were any use to me. They all were testing for odd things like the roads.
Lexis Nexis U.S. Congressional Serial Set- I also did not have any luck in this website. I tried many different search types, determined to get a result, and I only received one source that came up. However, it was not a source that I could use because it was about Funds Allocation. So sadly Lexis Nexis had absolutely nothing that I could use for my research.
Gale Databases- This database though it did contain a lot of information in magazines, scholastic journals, and everything else it failed to again have anything that I can use. Many of the articles that pulled up on state testing pulled up information on things that I could not use. When I types in No Child Left Behind a lot of information also came up, however, the only one I could use was an analysis of a book. So once again my search was not useful.
Gale Virtual Reference Library- I also failed at finding any information on here too. I tried typing in No Child Left Behind and I tried state testing, however, nothing worked. I did not have ANY luck at all on this site to look for information and nothing pulled up.
I am sad that I did not find any information on any of the sites, however, as I said I am going to look on education based sites. I am also going to look at the No Child Left Behind Law. I am not trying to say that these websites are bad and I am sure that many of my classmates managed to find tons of information, and I have used these resources before in papers and have found a ton of information. I am also just a really bad researcher. I am awful at google and the failure at finding anything on these sites may reflect my searching abilities.

Paper #2 Topic

For my broad topic i am doing Education because that is my major and what i want to do with the rest of my life. I am then narrowing it down to No Child Left Behind and i know that is probably almost as broad as education since SO much is involved in it so then I am narrowing it down to state testing. I am now going to narrow it down to Texas State testing to make it as narrow as can get. Now you can see what my thought process was to get down to my idea. I picked state testing because both candidates have different views about it and this is something that is effecting schools, students, teachers, and many more all year.
Everyone who is in school or is connected to school like having a child attending school is impacted by school testing. The school board who has to look at the schools who are struggling and the ones who are doing well to try and make all the school do well. The principals who have to worry if their school will do well or not and who have to make sure the teachers are doing their job correctly. The teachers who have to worry how well their students do on the test and who have to worry if they taught everything well enough. The parents who have to worry if their child passes because in certain grades some children will not pass to the next grade. Then their are the children who are the most important, and they have to actually take the test. Every one of the people I listed are talking about how this impacts them, and now the presidential candidates are talking about it. Also, you can look at the No Child Left Behind Act in general if you would like to read and see exactly what is happening.
Primary sources would be talking to students who have taken this test. The parents who have to deal with the test results, teachers who give the test, principals, members of the school board. Anyone who takes the test or anyone who I listed that are effected by the test would be a perfect primary source. Also, the actual Act and section itself that talks about No Child Left Behind would be good to look at.

Arguements in my Papers

For the ethos in my papers I would say tends to vary. In my letter to the editor has the most ethos because I am basing my argument off the fact that the author of the piece I read targets woman too much in his paper. Basically, making him a hypocrite of what he was saying to Obama in his article. For my op-ed I do believe that I have some ethos because I am discussing women and the election. I am discussing how women should be looked at for who they are and I even go into detail about a woman’s characteristic that gives her the ability to be a capable president. Also, in my humor piece has a little bit of ethos just by showing how men can look at a woman based off how she looks and how women can base off a woman’s character and ability to be president by just being a woman and nothing else.
For logos I do not believe that I have much of this in my papers. This is definitely my weakest point in my papers, which I really did not notice until I was re reading all my papers. For my letter to the editor my facts would be everything that I brought into my paper from the actual article itself. For example the quotes that I used against the author and the little outside facts like how Obama was getting a lot of pressure due to the fact he lacks as much experience as McCain.. For my op-ed piece, honestly, I did not use really any logos at all. I do not see that as a bad thing because this is supposed to be an emotional driven paper. The only thing that is factual is when I discuss Hillary Clinton and her role in the election. For my humor piece I do not believe that there was really any place to incorporate facts into it.
Pathos is my strongest point in all my papers. My op-ed and my comic have the most pathos within them, especially the comic. The comic was based off this concept because pictures just appeal more to the heart and it was more based on the fact that women may not be viewed seriously for what they stand for based on what my little characters were saying. In my op-ed piece I focus on targeting women and making them “angry” with the way women are looked at in politics. For my letter to the editor frustration was really the only thing that I tried to do with pathos and make readers who read my letter be just as frustrated and see everything that I felt was wrong with the article.

humor piece

for my humor piece i am going to do a cartoon and it will have palin on the stage with two guys and a woman standing under her. Palin will just be talking and her speech will go off into a blah blah blah type of thing. With the two men are talkinga bout how hot they think that Palin is and that is the only reason why they are going to vote for her. While the woman will be yelling out woman power. The title of the piece will be A woman's power, and this is because I believe that even though being a woman in the election can be a bad thing it does have its benefits. If guys do think you are hot this may be a way to win a couple of votes from male voters, however, this can also show that males may not take a woman serious and just concentrate on their looks other then their brains or what they have to say. For the woman power I added that because having a woman campaign with you is one of the best things that you can do because it will get a lot of woman votes.

humor

For my humor in an arguement piece i am using an Saturday Night Live skit that is talking about Palin and Hillary. I thought that it was a perfect skit for me to show because it goes along with my theme of women in the election. It goes along with humor because it is basically making fun of both Palin and Hillary. Just by there personalities and what the media says about them. But they also point out things in the election that has to deal with them and how women in the election continues to get bigger. There is humor in it because they play off a lot of the stuff that the media says about them like they start talking about looks and the election. When it came to Hillary they used things like Hillary was manly and everythig made her come off as very masculine. While when they were talking about Palin everything came off as very feminine and they played with the media talking about how attractive she is. I thought it was a very good skit because they got so many aspects of the election in it and they choose the best people to play the roles.
Here is the link to watch it: http://www.nbc.com/Saturday_Night_Live/video/clips/palin-hillary-open/656281/

Op-Ed

It’s a Man’s Job
“Not ready for that type of change.”
So what is different about the election this year? If we would like to start a list we could start with how Barack Obama is the first black man running for president, John McCain is one of the oldest men to run for president, and the amount of women that have been involved in this election process. The amount of women is something that I have continually heard about all through the year starting with Hillary running to Palin running with McCain for vice president. It amazes me that this has been such a big deal to this election from the controversy about lipstick on a pig to the running of the country.
One reason, out of many, that I have been told for why women can not run the country is because “it’s a man’s job.” I find this very odd in this day in age because both women and men are “bringing home the bacon.” I know that is a clique but there are plenty of women that are bringing in just as big of an income as their husbands, boyfriends or whoever. There are plenty of women that are handling their own lives, even possibly better then men. Showing that women do have responsibility and control of their lives and they do not all depend on men to run their lives for them. But if a woman did make it to office that would be a huge change like having to say Madame President instead of Mr. President and instead of a first lady we would have a first gentleman. So obviously America has to think can they handle these types of changes? I have spoken to people who really think that “America is not ready for that type of change.” Or maybe the idea of no longer having testosterone running the country and instead having estrogen in charge is what makes people a little uneasy. This would be a huge change because with estrogen comes the worry of 48 months out of the presidency.
So yes, ladies and gentlemen, suddenly the way that women’s bodies work are being used against them. One of the best explanations for why women can not handle the country is because “once a month a woman will be liable to kill us or start a war if she is PMSing enough.” I love that this has become a legitimate reason for some people to use against women who are running for president. So suddenly how women’s bodies work has become a personal flaw. So if a female president has a bad day or becomes angry about something at least the country can have a reason for her actions or what she says. Everyone can just blame it on the PMS. Sounds like a good deal to me. What does the United States have to say if a man becomes angry or does something totally uncalled for?
But seriously for personality reasons what do women have that is different. Women are motherly, which has been looked down on in business. Possibly this characteristic could make women have poor judgment, or make them soft or weak while making decisions. But being motherly is not a negative quality in the slightest. It does not make you soft or weak in judgment or in decision making, in fact, I see it more as it being a way for women to look on both sides of a situation. Allowing her to be a bit more opened minded in a situation or at least be able to sympathize with one side or the other; this is not going to stop her from making a decision that is best for the country. I highly doubt that, be it male or female, the president is going to make a decision that will seriously hurt the country in any way. So why would being “motherly” be a bad quality for a woman to have. If anything it would make her more protective. Just as many women are over their children. The country would in a sense become like her child since the president is basically helping and watching it grow. Yes, everyone makes mistakes and wrong paths are chosen, however, isn’t that just human nature. Making mistakes is not something that can be blamed on a woman or a male. If you have testosterone or estrogen, if you are motherly or not.
So I personally do not see a flaw about a woman becoming president. I do not see the situation as a woman would not be able to handle a country because it is a “man’s job.” For president I would rather have someone with good character that I could trust handling our country. So I say a solution to these presidential elections is to stop focusing on the idea that there are women in the races, since news flash there are capable in the world, and start actually looking at the content of the character and the capabilities of the people that are running for the president. I believe in having a good leader and not one based off gender who may not be a good representative and leader for the United States because they do become the face of the U.S.
By: Breann Hager




Ok, so just a heads up about my paper and for a refresher. The audience I am going for is women and my article is going to be in a Cosmopolitan or Vogue. I thought this would be a good place to put this because I think this is the best place to reach a lot of women. Ok, for my topic it is women in the presidential race and the personal flaws that tend to be associated with women and those flaws that are used against them for not being able to run the country. I feel like I am kind of all over the place and need to find a new way to organize my thoughts. If you could give me any suggestions or thoughts that would be wonderful. Thank you for reading my paper

sample argument of definition

Is downlaoding music hurting the singers and bands by taking money in their pocket or is it a way to help them put money in their pocket by exposing their music to other people? I think that this is a good definition because you can make a claim to this statement like downloading music does not hurt the singers or bands or downloading music does hurt the singers or bands. You can make a reason with this information like it noes not hurt them because it instead spreads their music to people who possibly would never listen to them, which then can make people want more and they can buy cds and go to the concert. Or they can say that It does not help them because it does not force people to go out and buy the cd. For the warrent it can be somthing like bands usually gain more money and popularity by allowing people to download their music and the same for the other side.

Audience and venue for op-ed

For my op-ed piece i have decided on the audience and the venue that i am going to use. For my audience i am going trying to direct my op-ed toward women. My topic is about gender in this election. Primarily being a women in this election because this is being has become such a huge deal and is being talked about all the time. Also, people are twisting words and trying to use them against the candidates for being offensive toward women. This includes both the democrates and the republicans. Then for the venue i am going to use cosmopolitan or vogue. In my group we debated this because who would take my article serious in these magazines. However, there are always wonderful articles in these magazines and I am sure that more women probably read these more then the new york times and such things as that. Also, I may even reach women that may not have had an interest the election. I do believe that this is a good place to put this information because in an election a huge part of the voters are people who are new or just do not think about voting. Hopefully, reading things like this will prob make women want to start woting or thinking about voting in the election.

Arguments on Fact

For my argument of fact I am going to bring a Vaseline total moisture body lotion. I am bringing this because after realizing pretty much anything can be an argument of fact if it tells you that something is going to happen if you use a product. For this product it states that if you use it everyday it can replenish 100% of the moisture that you lose in your skin. I have never really thought about this possibly being a lie and I really took it as a fact when I bought it because I figured that it had to be true or why would it be on the bottle. However, how do you know if it really does replenish all of your moisture and vitamins in your skin every time that you put it on. It is weird that things that we think of as a fact can be misunderstood. Like the example about the car seat in the book where they compared the safety of children in a car seat to children in a car unrestrained. Things that people look at like a fact can be misconstrued and people can be mislead if the "fact" is not looked into completely.

Paper #1

Feeling a Challenge, Obama Sharpens His Silver Tongue
By: Jeff Zeleny
In this piece I can see where Obama is “sharpening his tongue.” I agreed with you about the comments that he was making like the statements about how Obama has always been for change and now McCain is also attempting to spread that message just in another way. Yet, I did find it unnecessary for the comment about “put lipstick on a pig and it is still a pig” is being used as an example to this piece of Obama sharpening his tongue. Even you stated that “Mr. Obama was employing an age-old phrase.” So my question to you is why did you feel like you should mention the controversy only around this phrase?
I do realize that gender in the election is a big deal during this election compared to many elections before, however, was it necessary for you to go into detail about the lipstick controversy compared to the other statements that you stated Obama was making. For example, change and experience. I know that Obama is getting heat for those statements from the press and McCain and both have to do with Palin and the sudden shift of topics. The sudden shift from hearing how Obama does not have the experience and change to suddenly nothing is said about it because Palin is in the same shoe as Obama. She went from hardly being known to a national figure. Yet, nothing about this was stated in your article when you mentioned these points; you felt the need to elaborate on the lip stick on a pig deal. I ended up reading this article more focused on the fact that Palin might have been called a pig rather then the actual content that was intended for me to take away.
Within the last statement you mention that he, Obama, is trying to be careful in this gender based election, and once again I do not see how this paper has really anything to do with a gender based election since it was meant to focus on his sharpened tongue or the rhetoric he is attempting to step up, and not the fact that McCain and his campaign managers took the statement as a direct stab at Palin because she is female and just because there is a mention of lipstick suddenly it has become related to women. This bothers me because if this was any other election and this statement was made it would have been over looked basically. Just like the second half of that statement, “You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.” I thought that was interesting that the second half of this statement was not targeted yet the first half was. I can continue about the way that I thought this statement was taken the wrong way and how I do not necessarily agree with how people are making it into a bigger deal then it is, but I am going to stop. This is because I know that there is a better time and place for statements regarding this topic only. Possibly another article that only regards that problem that is being faced, and not during an article that is of a totally different story.
My only complaint then about this is that reason. If you are going to elaborate on one “sharp tongued” remark then make sure to elaborate on all of them. Especially, do not elaborate on the woman factor statement if you are talking about how Obama needs to watch what he is saying. I say follow your own advice too.





Breann Hager
September 16, 2008

I just wanted to say that I did have a little bit of trouble with writing this because I did not know exactly how to structure this or how to necessarily organize my thoughts on the paper. I know I repeat a lot but if you can tell me where I can improve on that it would be awesome. Also, anything else that you can tell me to help me improve because I, honestly, need a lot of help. I did not think that writing this would be that hard for me, but II was proven wrong. Thank you for your help.

Article for my Letter to the Editor

Feeling a Challenge, Obama Sharpens His Silver Tongue
By JEFF ZELENY
LEBANON, Va. — A new character is making a debut at Senator Barack Obama’s campaign rallies: His name is John McCain.
It began quietly on Monday in Michigan, but grew in volume as Mr. Obama made his way from Flint to Farmington Hills, carrying over to a speech on Tuesday morning in Ohio. By the time he arrived for an evening stop in the southwestern tip of Virginia, Mr. Obama’s sales pitch contained nearly as many references to Senator McCain as to himself, suggesting how the McCain campaign has been driving the recent dialogue of the presidential race.
“John McCain says he’s about change, too — except for economic policy, health care policy, tax policy, education policy, foreign policy and Karl Rove-style politics,” Mr. Obama told his supporters here. “That’s just calling the same thing something different.”
With a laugh, he added: “You can put lipstick on a pig; it’s still a pig. You can wrap an old fish in a piece of paper called change; it’s still going to stink after eight years.”
In the latest sign of the campaign’s heightened intensity, Mr. McCain’s surrogates responded within minutes and called on Mr. Obama to apologize to Gov. Sarah Palin for the lipstick remark. But to those in the audience, it was clear that Mr. Obama was employing an age-old phrase — lipstick on a pig — and referring to Mr. McCain’s policies. He had not yet mentioned Ms. Palin at that point of his speech.
The exchange came as Mr. Obama has been stepping up his own rhetoric as he has sought to draw attention back to himself after a week in which Ms. Palin has dominated the stage.
For all the discussion about polls this week, perhaps the best barometer of the state of the campaign can be found by simply taking a listen to Mr. Obama as Election Day rushes up on him.
With just 57 days remaining in this long presidential race, Mr. Obama is going after Mr. McCain more aggressively than at any other point in the campaign, with a professorial tone giving way to one of prosecution. These days, he sounds more like those sharp-tongued commercials seen on television.
“Do you really believe John McCain is going to make a difference now?” Mr. Obama said, mentioning his rival’s name twice in the same breath, a pattern he repeated again and again. “John McCain doesn’t get it.”
His advisers said that combative edge was essential to blunt any progress Mr. McCain was making as he sought to encroach on Mr. Obama’s trademark message of change. Or perhaps it is in response to cries of alarm from Democrats who believe he is being too mild-mannered.
But Mr. Obama’s remarks are curiously reminiscent — right down to that mocking tone — to words he spoke nearly a year ago when Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton suddenly tried to swipe the mantle of change and Mr. Obama demonstrated a fight that many Democrats had doubted he could muster.
Mr. Obama has been in this place before: finding the proper temperature to aggressively critique — or attack — his rival without tarnishing his own image of trying to remain above traditional politics. As he enters the final eight weeks of the race, advisers said, the lessons from the Democratic primaries are alive in his head.
Mr. McCain and his running mate, Ms. Palin, seem to be there, too.
“A month ago, they were all saying, ‘Oh, it’s experience, experience, experience,’ ” Mr. Obama said, speaking over booming applause the other night in a high school gymnasium. “Then they chose Palin and they started talking about change, change, change. What happened? What happened? What happened?”
For one of the few times in his presidential candidacy, Mr. Obama is suddenly not the freshest and most telegenic figure on the ballot. While he seems to have settled on a line of attack against Mr. McCain, his campaign appearances in the past 12 days make clear that he is still grappling with his approach to Ms. Palin.
He has declared her family off limits. He has praised her biography, telling an audience, “Mother, governor, moose shooter — that’s cool.” But he has taken sharp aim at her record as Alaska governor, vigorously questioning her evolving stance on the state’s so-called bridge to nowhere.
“She was for it until everybody started raising a fuss about it and she started running for governor and then suddenly she was against it,” Mr. Obama said, speaking over an applauding crowd in Michigan. “I mean, you can’t just make stuff up. You can’t just recreate yourself. You can’t just reinvent yourself. The American people aren’t stupid.”
There were plentiful signs in recent days that the voters turning out to see Mr. Obama liked his forceful tone, with several audiences chanting along with him, “Eight is Enough! Eight is Enough!” which has become a rallying cry for changing Washington.
Newly invigorated, his presence and energy on stage resembled how he began to act last fall as his extended primary battle with Mrs. Clinton became fully engaged.
But as in that contest, Mr. Obama’s aggressive posture comes with possible pitfalls — real or created by the opposition — as he again navigates the tricky terrain of gender politics.
As Mr. Obama’s motorcade passed through the Appalachian countryside on Tuesday night, aides inside his campaign headquarters back in Chicago were fighting back criticism over the lipstick-on-a-pig remark, assertively trying to steer the conversation back to attacking Mr. McCain.

Topic #1

For my topic I am going to talk about the gender role of women that is being used in this election. I have been interested in this ever since I this election has started. Beginning with the fact that Hillary Clinton was going to run. I originally was all for Hillary to campaign and win this election. However, I changed my mind after realizing the only real reason I liked her was because she was a woman... I did not necessarily agree with all of her opinions. During the time that I was cheering her on and hoping that she would win I always received the comment "You only like her because she is a woman." Yet, on the flip side when I changed my mind about her I received many comments like "You do not like her because she is a woman." Which, personally did not make since because due to the fact I am a woman wouldn't that mean I would like her more. Further more, I never heard during any time of this election someone going up to a male and telling them that they were voting for McCain or Obama because they were a man or the only reason you do not like then is because they are a man. I find it interesting that people around the country are making such a huge deal out of the fact there are women running. Not only that but everything now that politicians and others say are looked at even closer.
Now with that is why I have chosen my article. I found it in the New York Times and it is discussing the speech that Obama made when he said "You can put lipstick on a pig; it's still a pig." In any other election that has gone on in the history of the United States this comment would not be looked at twice. If it did it would have been seen as a stab at the opponents views. However, due to the fact that McCain has a woman running with him it suddenly became tied to Ms. Palin. All I have to say to that is just because Obama says that a pig is wearing lipstick does not mean that he is talking about a woman. This age old phrase became twisted into something more then it was meant to be. This and other things like that are what interests me about the women in the race. Now McCain and Obama have to watch everything they say in hopes that they do not say anything that can be tied back to a rude comment about a woman. I say just run this race like any other. Why should the whole gender thing matter?

Presidential Election

In the presidential election there are MANY issues that are going around, and I find a couple of them important. This is the first presidential election that 1. have been able to actually be involved in and vote and 2. I have actually been interested in. I have been following up on this election since my government class last year that opened my eyes to how big of a deal a presidential election really is.
I have sat and studied some of the aspects that is making up this election and I feel that I tend to look toward things like education and teachers. This matters a lot to me because I am an education major and do plan on becoming a teacher as soon as I graduate. This is going to impact me a lot and I also feel education is a HUGE thing for American to look at. Especially since statistics show that we are beginning to fall behind China and India. However, I will get off that topic because I could talk about it forever.
Also, I do believe that the war is a big deal to Americans also. I think more what is going to become of it. I personally, believe no matter who becomes the president is going to pull anyone out of Iraq. So I am looking more toward what the candidates plan on doing at all. Some I have to look harder then others but I really want to know everything I can about this topic.
Health care is the last thing I really look at. This is very important because, once again, this involves everyone in the United States. I am very interested in the plans to make it universal or not. I am interested in this topic, however, I have not looked into it yet as much as I wish I have.
These are the top three things I look for and I am going to continue to look for other things that interest me, but for now this is about it.