It has all the drama, scandals, and suspense of a reality show. But instead of playing out on MTV, this never-ending episode can be found in newspapers and on the nightly news.
Welcome to the reality that is many students’ first time voting in a Presidential election.
Chuck Todd, an influential political analyst for NBC News, compared the race for the White House to reality television while sharing his opinions of the upcoming Presidential election. He spoke to a packed audience at the first Open Visions Forum event of the year on Tuesday.
It’s hard to believe that the campaign season has started again, with the election of President Obama still a recent memory. However, several Republicans’ campaigns are in full swing to gain the party’s nomination, and already the serious contenders have been narrowed down and the stage is set for what Todd believes will be a very negative campaign.
While negativity and mudslinging constitutes countless hours of The Real Housewives franchise, how does political bickering affect voters? According to Todd, the voter turnout among young adults decreases as the political tension increases. Petty arguments and name-calling are commonplace on television; this demographic doesn’t need to look to the Presidential candidates for their daily dose of controversy.
Todd’s credentials make him more than qualified to gauge the state of our nation’s politics. A Chief White House Correspondent for NBC News, co-host of “The Daily Rundown,” and a political analyst for “NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams,” “Today,” and “Meet the Press,” Todd is considered one of the 50 most influential journalists in the United States. His hope is to educate and be accessible to the average American in order to create informed citizens.
With homework, clubs, and the new season of our favorite television shows, who has time to read the newspaper or tune in to political debates? And isn’t the election still months away? Todd simplified these answers and his opinions by starting with the candidates, in order to inform the average Fairfield student of the current status of the Presidential campaign.
The biggest question of the early stages of the campaign is who will represent the Republican Party and share the ballot with Obama.
While Todd believes that the two major candidates are Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, he does not think the race is confined to the Democratic and Republican nominees. The stage is set for a third party to enter the race with a middle-of-the-road stance, providing the suspense for this political drama. Now all that’s missing is the third party candidate.
The economy is an inevitable topic for discussion in this election, one that Todd believes will be a deciding factor in the way people decide to vote. The recently announced debt plan, the substantial drop in consumer confidence, and the “Buffet rule” regarding more taxes for the wealthy are all issues that the candidates will use to attack each other’s stances, adding drama and tension to this reality nightmare. Todd joked that as a result of our current economic woes, “Obama left for the United Nations, because he finds the Israeli-Palestinian peace process easier to deal with than our national debt.”
Who knew the Presidential campaign could provide as much entertainment as an episode of Jersey Shore? During the 2008 Presidential election, 62 percent of cable television reporting was dedicated to election coverage.
Students better get used to the idea of watching politics as regular entertainment, because there is a lot more coming this way until the ballots are cast in November 2012.
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