Stephanie+H's+Election+Activity

Vice Presidential Debate:
To be perfectly honest, it was very difficult for me to find a new source that did not have some sort of political bias. I first consulted MSNBC because I felt as though Biden didn't take the debate as serious as Ryan so I wanted to see what the Liberal news network had to say about his performance. They chose to note his political background and experience as to why he seemed so relaxed during the debate. They also noted that Ryan did not seem as prepared for the debate even though he gave strong responses, which he backed up with information. It was clear that even though both candidates did a fair job, they leaned more towards Biden because of their affiliation.

I next went to Fox News which is know as a conservative news source. Fox news noted that Biden seemed to be a little rude during the debate, not giving Ryan the chance to really answer the questions. Many reporters on the network said that this behavior really would not help the Obama campaign. Fox news did take the time to sing Ryan's praises saying that he had a firm grasp on foreign policy and really proved to the American people that he did have the information necessary to accurately answer the moderators questions.

I then went to PBS or UNC TV whichever your cable calls it to note their debate coverage. I have found that PBS tends to be politically neutral and they reported that while both candidates made a strong stance in the debate, Ryan simply did not have the policy experience that Biden has and that hurt him in the debate. They did comment that Biden seemed a little too relax but they did not believe that this performance would really effect the campaign.

Presidential Debate (October 22nd):
I found this debate very informative and I really thought that both candidates did a good job in presenting their platform on foreign policy. I was really interested in how Obama would do after coming off of a "win" in the Town Hall debate. After watching the full debate, I chose to go to Fox News first because I wanted to see what they said about Governor Romney's views on Iran and his statement that Iran is the biggest foreign policy issue facing the nation. Of course Fox News supported Governor Romney's belief that the United States focus should shift from Iraq and Afganistan to Iran. They also felt that he fielded the questions about whether or not he supports keeping troops in Iraq and Afganistan well. They did not really focus on what President Obama stated about the drone attacks, rather they focused on Romney's similar statement showing his support for drone attacks verus having ground troops.

I then turned to MSNBC to see if they felt that President Obama won the debate or if they too felt that it was a draw. They felt as though the President continued to have more of an advantage on topics of foreign policy because he is the sitting President of the United States. They supported his decision to reduce troops in Iraq and Afganistan and they commented on how Governor Romney agreed with the President on reducing troops in these areas but ramping up troops in other areas like Pakistan and Syria. At the end of the reports both news networks called a draw on the debate.