AFTER reading the Lesson 2 readings this week, which address numerous historical political campaigns, please answer the following question.
What changed, if anything, in the American political culture between 2004 and 2012? This was a period that saw the reelection of two very different presidents, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Be sure not just to describe the issues that were important in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 elections, but analyze whether or not there were differences in the way that the candidates campaigned and in the American electorate.
Feel free to utilize external resources analyzing the 2008 election, such as:
http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/
http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1102
While the 2012 election happened only recently, there are some web sources which you might want to consult:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2012/
http://www.politico.com/2012-election/
Optional (no grade):
Feel free to test your own political orientation (liberal, conservative, libertarian, populist) with this online survey. If so inclined, feel free to report your results in your Forum post and/or include any comments about the survey itself and whether you found it reasonable or biased.
The site is: http://www.politicalcompass.org/
Assignment responses should be no less than 300 words and no more than about 500 words
