Overview
It’s time for another domestic briefing. With the general news cycle being slow and the elections going insane, it is time to reexamine the primaries and really go into some of the things that will give extempers an analytical edge in the inevitable “who will win” round. So we are going to briefly recap the March primaries, look to the major issues in the forthcoming states, and add some theoretical reasons to explain why things are as close as they are.
Overview
With 24 states having some variety of primary/convention/caucus, Super Tuesday had the potential to be the deciding day of the primaries. On the Republican side, John McCain used the day to gain a decisive lead. However, the Democratic debates stated closely contested – the difference currently between Clinton and Obama built almost entirely on super delegates. As such this brief will try to address both the why of the vote as well as the effect that this vote will have on the general election.
Who Won Where and the Delegate Count: http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/primaries/results/scorecard/#D
By Logan Scisco
The presidential primary season is fast approaching and by the time next month’s briefs are released the chances are that the Iowa caucuses will have been completed and we will be mere days from the New Hampshire primary. These two contests highlight the beginning of the presidential nomination calendar and despite the movements of primaries in Florida and California, both states have managed to retain their position as being first in the nation when it comes to presidential politics.
The New Hampshire primary is the first presidential primary conducted in the presidential nomination system. Some extempers may say “I thought Iowa was,” but it is important to remember that Iowa operates under a caucus system and not a primary election system. If extempers remain unclear on this issue or wish to explore these differences in more depth I would encourage them to check out the Iowa caucuses brief I wrote for the September edition of Extemp Question Central Extemp Topic Briefs.
This year’s New Hampshire primary date has been set for January 8th, a mere five days after the Iowa caucuses which will occur on January 3rd. This means that the population of both Iowa and New Hampshire will have to endure presidential campaigning during the holiday season. It also means that the losers in Iowa will not have the typical recovery time of several weeks before New Hampshire voters go to the polls. These two contests have been put in such close proximity to each other due to states trying to become a more important part of the presidential nominating calendar. Earlier this year, Florida moved its primary into January and California moved theirs to February despite threats by both major parties that they would lose delegates to their nominating conventions next summer. Due to states moving their primary calendars forward, it has threatened the traditional positioning of Iowa and New Hampshire as the first presidential contests. Therefore, instead of having the Iowa caucuses in late January and the New Hampshire primary in early February, the system has been tweaked to make these contests even earlier.
This brief will follow much of the same format as the Iowa caucuses brief in September. I will discuss the history of the New Hampshire primary, how it works, and where the race for the presidency for each party stands at the current time.
By Logan Scisco
This is a “transition” year for domestic politics questions in extemporaneous speaking. What I mean is that this is the last full season extempers will have to read about the Bush presidency. When the 2008-2009 season begins, extempers will only have to deal with the Bush presidency until the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin at the latest. After that point, all questions about the Bush presidency will become more evaluative in terms of his performance over eight years in the White House and extempers will have to study and learn the names of a new batch of administrative officials, not to mention the ideology and temperament of a new president.
However, the first step in this “transition” year for domestic extempers is to focus on the presidential primaries. This is a unique election season because it is one of the first times in recent memory that a sitting vice-president is not contending for his party’s nomination. As a result, the Republican Party has been thrown into chaos and has been divided in its attempt to fight off a rejuvenated Democratic Party in the 2008 elections.
For many presidential contenders all roads to the White House go through Iowa. Its unique caucus format, which will be explained in this brief, tests the skills of presidential contenders in terms of fundraising, building a solid support team, and their ability to charm voters. Iowa is the first presidential contest on the primary calendar and the candidate who is able to harness a victory in the state has the ability to use that victory to enhance their position in the race. Just look to John Kerry’s reversal of fortune after he won the Iowa caucus in 2004 to get a glimpse of that.
Since the Iowa caucus is the first presidential primary contest it will receive a large amount of media coverage for the first half of the 2007-2008 season. Although the date of the Iowa caucus has not been set, political pundits are forecasting an early January date, if not a date in late December. Extemporaneous speaking questions on the Iowa caucus are bound to arise and even if extempers do not confront a question about the Iowa caucus directly they will need to include an analysis of Iowa in almost every question dealing with presidential contenders and their chances of winning the nomination of their respective party.
Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén
