Topic: Politics
Hillary Clinton moves to have Barack Obama nominated by acclamation, Jimmy Carter talks about whether he has been ignored by the current party leadership, and some of the protesters on the streets of Denver are profiled in these three vignettes from the Denver Democratic Convention.
In this Voice of America report, producer Heidi Chang interviews family and friends who knew Barack Obama when he was growing up in the Aloha State. They share their insight about the presidential candidate and how Hawaii helped shape his character and some of his values.
Many Chicagoans know Barack Obama's neighborhood of Hyde Park as a special niche in the city, its history, and its politics. In this report, Ben Calhoun of WBEZ, takes a look at one of the first and most basic decisions Obama made to get his start: to move there. In some ways, Hyde Park helped make Barack Obama.
Independence Year is the year between the next two Independence Days. The fireworks began on July 4th, 2008 at iYear.US. Independence Year (iYear) is a new way to interact with your government at every level. It's where you can gather or join a crowd around your concerns. Britt Blaser, Doc Searls, and Jon Udell, join Phil and Scott to discuss the project.
Both Presidential candidates are working to court the Latino vote, but so far neither party has had any real success. Diego Graglia is documenting the lives of Latinos during this presidential election year as he travels from New York City to Mexico City. In this report, he talked to Teresita Jacinto, a spokeswoman for Mexicanos Sin Fronteras-Mexicans Without Borders. They discuss the Prince William County, Virginia crackdown on undocumented immigrants.
Blunt Youth Radio Project is a weekly, youth produced public affairs radio show on WMPG in Portland, Maine, featuring teen broadcasters. William Nelligan, a host and producer for the project, has been a political junkie since he was a preteen. He talks about how the television series, The West Wing, led to his interest in politics and current events.
As new political terms seem to appear constantly, it is no surprise that linguists are examining these words. A Way with Words is a lively hour-long public radio show about language, on the air since 1998. In this excerpt, the hosts, author Martha Barnette and dictionary editor Grant Barrett discuss some of these new additions to our political vocabulary.
Joshua Tauberer is the creator and operator of govtrack.us, a website that helps people track the activities of the U.S. Congress. In this conversation with host Jon Udell he discusses his ongoing efforts to acquire official information from various sources, provide useful tracking and analytical services, and encourage citizen participation.
San Francisco's young and charismatic mayor, Gavin Newsom, has suffered his share of punches for taking bold positions on controversial issues. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored audio lecture, Newsom tells of the courage and persistence it takes to make real social change as a leader. He outlines progressive reforms in areas such as education, health care, and business, and reflects on the personal and professional price paid for supporting one particularly contentious issue: gay marriage.
In the 2008 Presidential election, race has become a major issue in many of the battleground primary states. West Virginia stands out as an example of how difficult it is likely to be for Obama's campaign to deal with this problem in the general election. Scott Finn of West Virginia Public Broadcasting filed this report soon after the May state primary, where poll results showed how race and religion affected the election.
