Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

Column: Paris for president
By Samuel Meador
FSView & Florida Flambeau, Florida State U.
August 18, 2008

While we are now a little under three months away from voting for the next president, the last year or so has revealed a lot about the character and positions of the two candidates. Barack Obama and John McCain are both intriguing, yet there are some things about both that I can't quite grasp. My goal was to find information that would lead me to a decision.

These are my results, my thoughts and my problems.

This summer I have struggled to decide whom I like. I receive e-mails from the College Democrats and those associated with the program, so I get quite a bit of news and updates for Obama; however, trying to find news that doesn't sicken my stomach that pertains to McCain is hard to come by.

I first tried to go to the candidates' Web sites, but really, how can you trust those? They are so skewed that you don't know what to believe when you're done.

The cable news shows are just as hard to find valuable information on. Fox News, for example, is downright comical. They boast themselves as fair and balanced, while they call Obama's "fist bump" terrorist body language. The next hit was Fox News' Liz Trotta deciding to joke about assassinating Obama. Really? Where do these people find their correspondents? Can we please have some professionalism? I am supposed to tune in to your station to learn about the issues, and instead, we make light of killing a U.S. Senator.

To be fair, however, a segment talking about the "fist jab" incident on MSNBC went on to accuse Fox News of wanting their viewers to be afraid of Obama and his wife because they are black. Again, where has news gone? Who cares how a husband and wife say goodbye to each other? Get to the things I want to hear.

What can we do to solve all this? How about a site where nothing but the issues are discussed? Give me a publication that helps me see the views of both candidates side by side. Make it easy to understand, and even put some details in there separately for who ever wants to dive deeper into a particular topic.

After I researched and found some different sites and stories about the candidates, I formed an opinion from information that seems to be "balanced facts."

First, I believe the presidential race is all but won. Barack Obama is taking in so many donations it isn't even fair. I got an e-mail through my College Democrats membership saying that Obama is close to two million supporters, while just six months ago he had one million.

This, according to the e-mail, is unprecedented. No wonder Obama decided not to take public funding. He would lose a huge chunk of money if he did. Am I going to blame him? Not in the least. Everything today seems to be all about the money.

I still think both candidates are a bit sketchy. Obama likes to flip-flop on things like health care, donations and even the current conflict in Georgia. 'We need to act! No, we need to let the politicians work it out!'

I've already guaranteed your win Mr. Obama, so how about not making me look bad? Make a decision and stick to it.

John McCain, on the other hand, sounds like he has taken a "How to speak Republican" class, beginning to use the same jargon as President Bush and his cronies. This really worries me. Nobody seems to want four more years of the same thing.

The overwhelming political topic in my musings, though, is the commercial comparing Obama to Britney Spears and Paris Hilton. Oh the humanity of it all! Can you imagine Barack going out to clubs late at night or shaving his head bald like Britney did?

Paris Hilton actually shot back by putting out her policy positions. In a spoof video on funnyordie.com, she said that since McCain featured her in his ad that she must be running for president. She lays out a plan for the energy crisis and names her running mate, Rihanna, all the while referring to McCain as the "wrinkly, white-haired dude." This commercial is by far the best political ad I have seen this year and will probably ever see.

Her energy plan actually makes a bit of sense to me. Combining the plans of Obama and McCain sounds interesting - environmental oversight on offshore drilling all the while giving tax breaks for building hybrids. Why did it take the world's most famous socialite to make some sense out of it all?

That's it; I have made my decision. On November 4, 2008 I am writing in Paris Hilton's name. No one can stop me either!

Watch the ad on YouTube, and you will join me as a Hilton/Rihanna '08 supporter.

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