As was done for the Catholic Forensic League (CFL) national tournament, Extemp Central provides you with this topic area analysis for the United States extemp portion of next week’s NFL national tournament in Kansas City, Missouri.
In the first of our four-part series, we explore three of the thirteen topic areas at the 2010 NFL National Tournament in United States Extemp.
Topic Area #1: The 2010 and 2012 Elections
Topic Area #2: The American Economy: Economic Theory and Core Economic Policymaking
Topic Area #3: American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Questions and Ongoing Foreign Engagements
Keep reading to explore these areas in further depth.
Topic Area #1: The 2010 and 2012 Elections
This is a generic “domestic politics” topic area that domestic extempers have been hitting all year at local and national circuit tournaments. Although there are two domestic politics topic areas in the tournament (the other one discusses local and state political issues) this one is more national in focus, with an emphasis on the 2010 midterm and 2012 presidential elections. In this round extempers will have to play the role of a political strategist and/or political scientist and explain why certain candidates are better suited to win elections, why certain candidates will lose elections, and what actions can be taken by the Republican and Democratic parties in order to shift the political climate in their favor. It would be smart for extempers to look at articles from the Political Science Review or articles printed by Republican or Democratic strategists like Karl Rove to get an insight into the actions of both parties. Furthermore, having polling data in your files is a necessity for these rounds in order to convince skeptical audiences. An easy resource to get this polling data is realclearpolitics.com, which breaks down midterm elections races and has polling data for the 2008 and 2012 presidential contests. Polling agencies Gallup and Rasmussen also have free reports on their websites. Finally, for the 2012 part of the topic it is important that extempers know some history of presidential primary contests. With talk that President Obama might face a primary challenge in 2012, it brings to mind Ted Kennedy’s challenge to incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Ronald Reagan’s insurgent campaign against incumbent Gerald Ford in 1976. If you have a good grasp of history and a good understanding of the nation’s political climate this is one of the easier topic areas in the tournament.
Issues you might confront in this topic area include:
- Who will challenge Obama in 2012? Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, Tim Pawlenty, or someone else?
- The potential for Hillary Clinton or Evan Bayh to challenge Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2012
- How many seats the Republicans will gain in 2010 and how many the Democrats will lose
- The impact of the tea party movement on the 2010 elections
- What the biggest issue of the 2010 elections will be
- The impact of health care reform, the Gulf oil spill, etc. on the 2010 and 2012 contests
- What the biggest Senate race will be in 2010
- The impact of the Internet on the 2010 and 2012 elections
- Explaining if Obama is an asset or a detriment to Democratic candidates in 2010 and why his 2008 magic hasn’t rubbed off on other candidates so far
Topic Area #2: The American Economy: Economic Theory and Core Economic Policymaking
This is the first of two economic rounds in this year’s tournament and my prediction is that this one will center more on macroeconomic policymaking by the federal government while the “banking crisis and American business” topic area will be about microeconomic issues in the economy (i.e. those dealing with one particular sector like the automotive industry). The first thing that I would recommend extempers do for this round is to acquire an economic textbook from your high school, read a few chapters about basic economic theories of supply and demand, Keynesian economics, laissez faire, comparative advantage, etc. Then, I would recommend that extempers take that textbook and put it in your files for the tournament. Since the textbook is a published source you are allowed to have it in the prep room but I would not recommend that you cite it in a round because one of my extempers got in trouble for citing a textbook in the CFL final round in 2007 (Jason Warren I’m looking at you). All kidding aside, having this resource available might ease some of your anxiety about this round. As with all economic rounds, make sure that you have statistics available on these major economic indicators: the current growth rate of the U.S. economy, the growth rate of previous quarters during this season, the current unemployment rate, and the current interest rate level. You will likely need to cite one or more of these in a speech during this round so it’s best that you commit them to memory. A final recommendation for this round is that if you have to explain an economic theory make sure that you allocate sufficient time to get it across to your audience. Audiences hate speakers that talk over their heads so when you explain these theories if you have an example that illustrates your theory then you will be better off. Also, when citing statistics, make sure you provide some analysis to go with those statistics. Saying that the unemployment rate is 9.7% and providing no analysis as to how that impacts the economic system won’t gain you any points among judges.
Issues you might face in this round include:
- If Obama will raise taxes in the next few years
- If a VAT tax would be good or bad for the U.S. economy
- If America’s budget deficit is sustainable
- If America’s budget woes will lead to a Greece-type situation in the next decade
- How America should conduct its trade relations with China
- If outsourcing has been good or bad for the U.S. economy
- If the U.S. should pass more free trade deals
- How the U.S. government can help lower the unemployment rate
- If the economy needs another stimulus package and if the first one worked or failed
Topic Area #3: American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Questions and Ongoing Foreign Engagements
During Barack Obama’s first term the United States has seen some major shifts in its foreign policy. President Obama has taken a firmer stance towards Israel and has tried to take a more conciliatory path with our allies and enemies in the global community. In this round, extempers will need some of their international files. Don’t make the mistake that I made in 2004 and think that you don’t have to cut international issues because that will come back to haunt you in this round (it put me out of the 2004 NFL national tournament so take it from someone who knows). One thing to keep in mind about U.S. foreign policy, which some policy debaters are already figuring out as they research the 2010-2011 topic, is that American foreign policy is dictated by the bureaucracy as much as it is the White House. The State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency, and other foreign bureaus greatly affect how American foreign policy is implemented. If you don’t understand the dynamics of the State Department (which tends to slant in a liberal foreign policy direction) and its role in foreign policy, your speech will fall short among content judges at the tournament. Keep in mind that the press is doing a much better job than they were in 2000 of covering international issues and that your judges will have at least a basic level of knowledge about major conflict zones like Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea, Mexico, and maybe even Venezuela. This forces you to come up with an interesting slant in your analysis that they may not have heard before. For example, judges know that Afghanistan is a corrupt and poor nation, but do they know that Afghanistan used to be one of the world’s biggest export markets of vegetables before the Soviet invasion in 1979? Thinks tanks and institutions associated that are concerned with American foreign policy are excellent resources for this round. These include the Council on Foreign Relations, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Foreign Policy in Focus, the Cato Institute, and the Heritage Foundation. The popular bi-monthly journal Foreign Affairs is also an excellent resource. Lastly, keep in mind that this round says you might get “theoretical questions.” This implies that some questions will ask you to predict the future and in order to predict the future you need to know about what actions have been taken in the past and the outcome of those actions. You also need to know why the U.S. is currently pursuing the actions that it is right now. You could get a question about whether the U.S. should bomb Iran’s nuclear installations or what might happen if the United States supported Russia’s bid to join the WTO. If you don’t know why the U.S. hasn’t attacked Iran yet or why we don’t support Russia’s WTO bid, there is very little analysis that you can bring to the table in answering your question. Oh, and those tricky foreign names? Check out the Voice of America’s online pronunciation guide to get them down.
Issues you might face in this round include:
- If Obama’s engagement with Israel has been beneficial or hurtful for America’s efforts in the Middle East
- How the United States can improve relations with the Muslim world
- If the U.S. relationship with Turkey is deteriorating
- How the U.S. should restrain Venezuela’s influence in Latin America
- How America should interact with international institutions like the United Nations
- How the U.S. can persuade China to take a firmer stance towards North Korea
- If America should let Russia into the WTO
- How America’s withdrawal from Iraq will impact the balance of power in the Middle East