Presidential+Race

by Andrew Carrol, Daniel Byrd, and Blake Giosa 2012: A Presidential Race for the Ages. ..

__ Barack Obama - Democratic Candidate __ //Barack Obama Bio// President Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4th, 1961, to a father from Kenya and a mother from Kansas. Growing up, he was also raised by his grandfather, who served in Patton’s army, and his grandmother, who worked her way up from the secretarial pool to become middle management at a local bank.

After working his way through college with the help of scholarships and student loans, President Obama moved to Chicago, where he worked as an organizer to help rebuild communities devastated by the closure of local steel plants. He went on to Harvard Law School, where he became the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. Upon graduation, he took a job teaching constitutional law at the University of Chicago. He also remained active in his community, leading a drive that registered more than 150,000 voters in Illinois leading up to the 1992 election.

Barack Obama was first elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. During his time in Springfield, he passed the first major ethics reform in 25 years, cut taxes for working families, and expanded health care for children and their parents. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, he reached across the aisle to pass the farthest-reaching lobbyist reform in a generation, lock up the world’s most dangerous weapons, and bring transparency to government by tracking federal spending online.

As President, Barack Obama has dedicated himself to putting Americans back to work and restoring economic security to middle-class families. He’s been driven by the basic values that make our country great: America prospers when we’re all in it together, when hard work pays off and responsibility is rewarded, and when everyone—from Main Street to Wall Street—does their fair share and plays by the same rules. Barack Obama is the **incumbent** candidate.



// Barack Obama on The Issues //
 * Economy
 * Repeal Bush tax cuts for households earning more than $250,000. Lower taxes on manufacturing industry. **Stimulus spending** and tax cuts to grow the economy (short term). Cut spending and raise taxes on wealthy to reduce deficit (long term).
 * Healthcare
 * Signed the 2010 healthcare overhaul bill. Calls for patient protections like allowing coverage for pre-existing conditions, not letting insurers cancel policies when patients get sick, and requiring individuals to buy health insurance or pay a fine.
 * Immigration
 * Supports a path to legalization for illegal immigrants that includes learning English and paying fines; toughen penalties for hiring illegal immigrants; voted for fence along Mexican border.
 * Iraq War
 * Opposed invasion from the beginning; opposed troop increase; ended military operations in Iraq(on previously negotiated Bush timeline). Made no effort to keep promise to exit in 2009. Troops moved to Afghanistan and Iranian border.
 * Global Warming/Environment
 * Supports a mandatory cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions. Opposes **Keystone XL pipeline**.
 * Gay Rights
 * Supports same-sex marriage; pushed Congress to repeal **Don't Ask, Don't Tell**, allowing gays to serve openly in the military
 * Abortion
 * Supports **Roe v. Wade**; criticized Supreme Court decision that upheld ban on partial-birth abortions.

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__**For more information on Barack Obama (D) please visit:**__ []

__Mitt Romney - Republican Candida____te__ // Mitt Romney Bio // Mitt was born in Detroit on March 12, 1947. Mitt's father, George, came from humble origins and never graduated from college. Geroge married Mitt's mother, Lenore. He apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter and sold aluminum paint before beginning a career that brought him to the head of American Motors and then the governorship of Michigan.

After graduating from Brigham Young University in 1971, he earned dual degrees from Harvard Law and Harvard Business School. After working as a business consultant for several years, Mitt founded the investment firm Bain Capital in 1984. Under his leadership, Bain Capital helped to launch or rebuild over one hundred companies, including household names such as Staples, Bright Horizons, and The Sports Authority. As Bain Capital was growing in prominence, Mitt returned to his old consulting firm, Bain & Company, as CEO. In a time of financial turmoil at the company, he led a successful turnaround.

Mitt married his wife, Ann, in 1969. They first met in elementary school when he was a Cub Scout. When they met again years later at a friend's house, he was smitten. Between them, they have five sons and eighteen grandchildren, who are the center of their lives. Ann was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, and more recently fought a battle with breast cancer. Mitt is not a career politician. He has spent most of his life in the private sector, giving him intimate knowledge of how our economy works. But he has also been an outstanding public servant. In one chapter of his distinguished career, he reversed the decline of a state in **recession**. In another chapter, he salvaged the 2002 Winter Olympic Games from certain disaster.

When Mitt was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002, he faced a state legislature dominated by Democrats, Mitt cast more than 800 vetoes as he brought conservative principles to state government. He cut red tape for small businesses, signed into law job-creating incentives, and fought hard to bring new businesses to the state. While Mitt was in office, the state **unemployment rate** fell from 5.6% to 4.7% and the Massachusetts economy added tens of thousands of new jobs.

Mitt Romney is the republican presidential candidate after defeating various foes in the Republican **Primary**.



// Mitt Romney on The Iss //// ues // >> media type="youtube" key="Xd6DxDhq1Hk?feature=player_detailpage" height="360" width="640" __**For more information on Mitt Romney (R) please** visit:__ []
 * Economy
 * Make Bush tax cuts permanent. Lower corporate tax rate across the board to 25%. Cut taxes and regulations to encourage business. Cut "non-security discretionary [government] spending" by 5% to reduce deficit.
 * Healthcare
 * Though he created similar legislation in Massachusetts, promises to repeal Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare overhaul. Would encourage individuals to purchase their own health insurance rather than rely on their employers.
 * Immigration
 * Would make English the official language of the US and "turn off the magnets like tuition breaks or other breaks that draw people into this country illegally"
 * Iraq War
 * Romney says that keeping the U.S. in Iraq is the best option for minimizing casualties and maintaining a democratic government in Iraq.
 * Global Warming/Environment
 * Opposes **cap and trade legislation**. Supports Keystone XL pipeline. Exporting carbon emissions to China hurts US and planet. (Aug 2007), Humans contribute to world getting warmer. (Nov 2011), $20 billion package for energy research & new car technology
 * Civil Rights
 * Opposes same-sex marriage; supports legal unions; supports Don't Ask, Don't Tell but favors gays serving openly in the military(Govwatch 1994), supported ENDA to ban anti-gay employer discrimination
 * Abortion
 * Opposes Roe v. Wade; believes states should be allowed to ban abortions., 1994: Supported abortion rights but personally opposed, No punishment for women who have partial birth abortions, change of heart in 2005 when preparing to run for President

__ Gary Johnson - Third Party Candidate __ // Gary Johnson Bio // For voters who are not particularly enchanted with Romney nor Obama, there is a third option: Former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson. Johnson originally was in the running for the Republican Presidential nomination, but quickly withdrew his candidacy after around eight months. In the 2012 Libertarian National Convention on May 5, he was nominated as their candidate for president; retired California state judge Jim Gray won the vice presidential nomination and is now Johnson's running mate. Johnson was born in 1953 in Minot, North Dakota. to Lorraine B. and Earl W. Johnson. His mother worked for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and his father was a public school teacher. Gary is one-quarter Norwegian, one-quarter Danish, and one-half Russian. He met his wife Denise Simms while he was a student at the University of New Mexico working on his Bachelor's of Science (Miller 2009). In 1976, Johnson started his own mechanical contracting business named Big J Enterprises; he gained the experience for this endeavor working as a handyman in college. Johnson and the business experienced a major spike in revenue all the way up to $38 million when his business received a contract from Intel's expansion in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. By the time he sold Big J Enterprises in 1999, it had grown from a microscopic business with Johnson as its sole employee, to one of New Mexico's leading construction companies with over 1,000 employees. Johnson and Denise divorced in 2005, she died in 2006, survived by her and Gary's daughter, Seah, and son, Erik. The Johnsons are Lutheran, but Gary speaks little about his faith (Haq). He has also scaled Mt. Everest.

Johnson became the governor of New Mexico in 1995 and held that position to 2003, due to **term limits**. During his time in office, he was referred to as the "most fiscally conservative Governor" in the country. Many will recognize Johnson for his extensive use of the **veto power** while in office, he used it over 750 times. Consistent with usual libertarian ideology, Johnson is fiscally conservative, socially liberal, has adopted a philosophy of military noninterventionism and is a proponent of limited government.



// Gary Johnson on the Issues //
 * Economy
 * Opposed stimulus, bank bailouts. Wants to cut federal budget to 43% to bring it into balance. Debt is greatest threat to national security. Uphold commitments to states before other spending. Balance budget by cutting entitlements and defense. Balanced budget by June 2013
 * Healthcare
 * "Obamacare" is unconstitutional, so is Bush's Medicare prescription plan. Turn Medicare, Medicaid into block grant programs. Cut Medicare, Medicaid by 43%.
 * Immigration
 * 2 year grace period to let illegals get work visas. Open the border; flood of Mexicans would become taxpayers. Let some, but not all, illegals stay. Share costs of legal immigration between states and federal government.
 * Foreign Policy
 * Cut all support and aid to Israel. No threat from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, or Iran (currently). Opposed Libyan involvement. Get out of Afghanistan now, war was initially warranted. Opposed Iraq from the beginning.
 * Environment/Global Warming
 * No compromise on clean air, but no cap-and-trade. More state **autonomy** on brownfields and Superfund cleanups. Collaborative, incentive-driven, locally based solutions.
 * Civil Rights
 * Proponent of same-sex marriage. Prostitution is safer when legal and regulated. Supports principles of Equal Rights Amendment. Supported end of Don't Ask Don't Tell.
 * Abortion
 * Don't require insurers to provide birth control. No federal funding for stem cell research. Pro-choice.

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**__For more information on Gary Johnson (I) please visit:__** []

**__ Vocabulary Terms __**
 * Incumbent
 * Currently holding a specified office
 * Stimulus Spending
 * Government spending directed at raising the overall state of a sluggish economy by increasing output and demand, and lowering unemployment.
 * Keystone XL Pipeline
 * The Keystone Pipeline System is a pipeline system to transport synthetic crude oil and diluted bitumen from the Athabasca oil sands region in northeastern Alberta, Canada to multiple destinations in the United States , which include refineries in Illinois , the Cushing oil distribution hub in Oklahoma , and proposed connections to refineries along the Gulf Coast of Texas
 * Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
 * The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian , or bisexual persons from military service.
 * Roe v. Wade
 * A Supreme Court case, which the court ruled that a right to privacy under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment extended to a woman's decision to have an abortion, but that right must be balanced against the state's two legitimate interests in regulating abortions: protecting prenatal life and protecting women's health.
 * Recession
 * A period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, generally identified by a fall in GDP in two successive quarters
 * Unemployment rate
 * The percentage of the work force that is unemployed at any given date
 * Primary
 * A preliminary election to appoint delegates to a party conference or to select the candidates for a principal, especially presidential, election
 * Cap and Trade Legislation
 * Cap and trade is one method for regulating and ultimately reducing the amount of pollution emitted into the atmosphere. It is viewed as a more democratic solution to regulating pollution than a carbon tax as it creates a commodity out of the right to emit carbon and allows the commodity to be traded on the free market.
 * Term Limits
 * A statutory restriction on the number of terms an official or officeholder may serve.
 * Veto Power
 * The power or right vested in one branch of a government to cancel or postpone the decisions of another branch, especially the right of a president, governor, or other chief executive to reject bills passed by the legislature.
 * Autonomy
 * The right or condition of self-government

Questions

1. Who are the three major presidential candidates in this election?

2. What political philosophy does the third party candidate in this election generally abide by?

3. Which candidate is the incumbent in this election?

4. Which candidate opposes //Roe v. Wade//?

5. What is the highest position that the non-incumbent candidates have held?

**__Sources:__** http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/2011/0421/Election-101-Who-is-Gary-Johnson/In-his-own-words http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/20/magazine/he-just-said-no-to-the-drug-war.html http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/state-a-local-politics/143233-prelude-to-a-nervous-breakdown-new-mexicos-gary-johnson-rises http://www.ontheissues.org/gary_johnson.htm http://www.diffen.com/difference/Barack_Obama_vs_Mitt_Romney http://www.mittromney.com http://www.barackobama.com