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fandomhigh2006-01-10 12:07 pm
professor-lyman.livejournal.com) wrote in fandomhigh2006-01-10 12:07 pm
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Political Campaigning (Tuesday, January 10, 4th Period)
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."
"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."
Re: Discussion questions
Re: Discussion questions
Clearly he doesn't know Josh at all."The elderly," he said, grudgingly, like a kid who was being forced to recite a poem in front of the relatives at a family reunion when what he really wanted to do was, well, anything else in the world. "Plus everybody who's coming up behind them since Social Security's going to screw them over more than it's going to do the current crop of folks who've passed the aerobics instructor and sports car phase of their lives. But that's okay too 'cause Medicare and Medicaid - not like we really need those, right? So at the current rate we'll probably kill off anybody who's counting on that monthly check right now anyway.
"Only nobody's going to notice because we'll be too busy dealing with a Supreme Court that just made it unconstitutional to go to the bathroom because nobody could remember that Roe v. Wade isn't just talking about the rights of the unborn."
Angel looked as though he was about to go on further with that surprising little diatribe, but he shut himself up, shrunk down further in his chair, and looked as though he really, really, really wanted to never talk again now, thanks.
Re: Discussion questions
Re: Discussion questions
Re: Discussion questions