Election+Issue+Debate

toc As the election draws near, we are going to focus on some issues about the economy where McCain and Obama have different positions. The class will present these positions at a debate on Friday, October 31 during class time. Each side will prepare a brief to use both submit and use during the debate. Click for explanation of debate brief and format. Click for grading rubric

Citation & Bibliography
Need a refresher about citations and bibliography? See the APS Bible page on

RSS Feeds for Research
RSS feeds are a way to turn "a morass of disparate information sources into an automatically generated and neatly organized index of the latest articles and postings." (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/technology/circuits/03basi.html) When you click on an RSS feed below (you can tell that it's an RSS feed if it has //rss// in the URL), you will directed to a page with the latest stories on the topic from a given news source (such as //The Economist//, //The New York Times//, or //Newsweek//).

General Election Coverage
[|Real Clear Politics] -- aggregates polls, news stories, and the best of the blogs. The closest thing to one-stop shopping for political junkies.

[|Factcheck.org]- checks for the accuracy of campaign statements

Latest Stories from //The Economist//: http://www.economist.com/rss/US_election_2008_rss.xml

Election coverage in //The New York Times//: http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/index.html

Official Campaign Pages
McCain/Palin - there is no page on the [|official campaign website] dedicated to Social Security

Obama/Biden - seniors and Social Security http://www.barackobama.com/issues/socialsecurity

Policy Center Research
Brookings Institution (a center-left think tank) Social Security content http://www.brookings.edu/topics/social-security.aspx

Heritage Foundation (a right of center think tank) Social Security content http://www.heritage.org/Research/SocialSecurity/

RSS Feeds
Latest stories on social security and the election from ProQuest (includes nearly all major newspapers and magazines) (note that off-campus you will need to have the remote account/pw combination located on [|this Castinet page] to access the feed) http://rss.proquest.com/rss?rss_id=342268

Official Campaign Pages
McCain/Palin - health care plan http://www.johnmccain.com/healthcare/

Obama/Biden - healthcare plan http://www.barackobama.com/issues/healthcare/

Policy Center Research
Center for American Progress (a progressive think tank) health care research http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/domestic/healthcare

Heritage Foundation (a right-of-center think tank) health care reform pages http://www.heritage.org/research/healthcare/healthcarereform/index.cfm

RSS Feeds
Latest stories in ProQuest (includes nearly all major newspapers and magazines) on health care reform and the election (note that off-campus you will need to have the remote account/pw combination located on [|this Castinet page] to access the feed) http://rss.proquest.com/rss?rss_id=342349

Official Campaign Pages
McCain/Palin - taxation issues page http://www.johnmccain.com/Issues/JobsforAmerica/taxes.htm

Obama/Biden - economic Issues page http://www.barackobama.com/issues/economy/

**Policy Center Research**
Heritage Foundation (a right-of-center think tank) taxation research: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/index.cfm

"Tax cut snake oil" from the Economic Policy Institute (a left-of-center think tank): http://www.epi.org/content.cfm/bp221

RSS Feeds
Latest stories in ProQuest (includes nearly all major newspapers and magazines) on tax reform as an election issue (note that off-campus you will need to have the remote account/pw combination located on [|this Castinet page] to access the feed) http://rss.proquest.com/rss?rss_id=342351