Political Campaigning (Tuesday, January 10, 4th Period)

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

Josh was sipping a cup of coffee and drawing devil's horns on the Washington Post's front page photo of the Speaker of the House when his political campaigning class arrived.

"Welcome to political campaigning. I'm Josh Lyman and up until a few weeks ago I was the deputy chief of staff for President Josiah Bartlet. I was with his campaign pretty much from the beginning and have been in and around politics for almost as long as I can remember. I'm here to tell you that campaigning is probably the most fun you can have while still wearing clothing."

He coughed. "Probably not something I should've said. Moving on. The only way that I know how to teach campaigning is to actually make you run campaigns. Since there are nine of you, you will be divided into three groups of three. These will be the people you will work with all semester long. My TA Donna,"--he pointed at Angel--"and I will be putting those lists together before the next class, so today is your chance to impress me with your knowledge of the current political climate."

He pointed at a huge 295 he had scrawled onto the chalkboard. "That's the number of days left until Election Day 2006. Time is the enemy of all campaigns--you can get more of everything else--people, money--but you can never get more time. No one is going to move the election for you because you're not ready." He smiled a little wickedly. "This is also the last time I'm going to give you the number. Starting next class, I will be randomly picking one of you to tell me how many days there are until E-Day. If you get it wrong, you lose half of your participation credit for that day." He slapped his hand on his desk. "That number, as a political operative, is your life. That number is even scarier than I am.

"I realize that some of you might not be from the United States, or even from, um, this planet. Most of this stuff is pretty universal to apply, but I know US politics, so I'll be using it as examples. If you have any questions about a reference I might toss out, please stop me and tell me to explain."

He pointed to a student at random. "Please tell me your name, your general political philosophy--I'll take Democrat or Republican, for those of you who know what that means, but try to elaborate a bit for people here who might not know what I'm talking about--, and a policy issue you think will be important in this election cycle. The rest of you, same questions. But no overlapping on policy issues--there are going to be at least nine issues that'll be important."

He lifted his hands. "Wow me, guys."

Comments

Sign in (January 10)

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

...

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth signed in.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[fh_jackass]

Logan signed in.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

Jake signed in, gave professor Lyman a quick look, then underlined his name.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory signed in.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Parker signed in.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

Callisto signed in.

She did not snicker at Angel being called Donna.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

And Parker didn't smirk, either.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[lady-jessica-bg.livejournal.com]

Jessica signs in.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

Alanna signed in.

Re: Sign in (January 10)

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel signed in. Though he'd normally be inclined to take a seat near Callisto, this time he took a seat as far from the windows as possible and way in the back. He might've even been one room over if not for that pesky wall that was in the way.

Discussion questions

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

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Re: Discussion questions

[courier-gavin.livejournal.com]

"My name is still Jake, although apparently I will also be answering to Donna." He glanced over at Angel. "That could get confusing. I believe in freedom of information for me, not registering mutants and enabling countries that make coffee to make more."

Re: Discussion questions

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"I'm Elizabeth Weir, and going by political parties, I'm a Democrat. Going on political philosophy, however, my beliefs would be linked to liberalism, because we should all have equal rights and that there should be as much freedom and opportunity for others as possible.

A policy issue? The Federal budget, and the deficit, which is what? Over $300 billion now. That has impacts on the economy, and also on other policies."

Re: Discussion questions

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Um. I'm Rory Gilmore, and I'm a Democrat, because Republicans just really don't make sense to me. And trust me on that, because I've spent my entire life listening to a pair of them bicker. I believe in helping people. Doing what we can for as many as possible." She smiled. "And I'll be a bright and shiny brand-new eighteen by the next election, so yay for that."

"Um. As for a policy issue...health care. It always seems to come up."

Re: Discussion questions

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"I'm Parker, and I don't consider myself affiliated with either national party, really. Too many disagreements with each. My political philosophy would probably be called laissez-faire, smaller government, bigger budgets."

"As for political issues, I'd have to say women's rights, legal protection for children, and the bolstering the economy. We can't keep sending jobs overseas--" even though the Centre does it all the time "-- and expect our economy to thrive."

Re: Discussion questions

[fh_jackass]

"My name's Logan. I guess I'm kind of a Libertarian. I want the government to keep its hands off my money and its nose out of my business." Logan tapped his pen on his open notebook. "And for policy issues - I guess Iraq's a big one, isn't it?"

Re: Discussion questions

[psycho-barbie.livejournal.com]

"I'm Callisto, and I believe in freedom from tyranny, the right to exact my vengeance on Xena, keeping weapons out of the hands of people too stupid to use them properly, and lower vending machine prices."

"As for policy, weapons control, I guess?"

Re: Discussion questions

[lady-jessica-bg.livejournal.com]

I believe in whatever bests prevent stagnation. Where I come from, the Bene Gesserit, as our association is known, do a lot of behind the throne work, all in the interests of serving the human race. Of course, I'm about to join the Bene Gesserit scheme to control breeding--for the sake of the human race, naturally--but that's totally irrelevant.

I think balance of power between central and lesser governments has played a pretty big factor in my life.

Re: Discussion questions

[threeweapons.livejournal.com]

Alanna gulped. "Um, Alanna, and I'm from around the 14th century in a world that has magic so I have a very vague idea of what you're asking of us. I guess I'm kind of liberal for my world, conservative for yours. Women's rights are a big thing for me, but Miss Parker already took that so, um, a better election method?"

Re: Discussion questions

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel kept his eyes down on his paper as everybody else talked. His pen moved, but if anybody looked over his shoulder they would see he was only drawing squares and then filling them in with determined, sharp motions. If he wasn't so pale someone might also notice a white-knuckle grip.

When his turn came he didn't look up, nor did he raise his voice more than absolutely necessary to be heard by other people.

"Angel. Citizenship's kind of a funny thing so I'm pretty much nothing. And, I dunno, winning?"

After class...

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

...

Re: After class...

[notstakedyet.livejournal.com]

Angel was one of the last students to leave. Because for some odd reason his mun thought Prof. Lyman and he might wanna talk, and figured might as well comment to put him there for when that occured.

Re: After class...

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Mr. Lyman." Parker's grin was bright. "Nice to see you again. So: election tips for Fandom High's election. Got any? What should a student rep emphasize?"

OOC

[professor-lyman.livejournal.com]

...