Quad City Times: First Vote

Raised in a family where individualism is favored over conformity, my parents have always had polar opposite views when it comes to elections. In the same breadth however, they have both tried to help mold my own viewpoints by exposing me to political events.
John Edwards first caught my eye in the 2004 election. My mother was a die-hard fan of Howard Dean while my father still favored George W. Bush. Even though at the time I could not vote, my mom made sure that I got involved at headquarters for Howard Dean  and while there, I was able to hear about other candidates and how they were doing in the polls.
When John Edwards started campaigning in 2007, my mother first started developing an interest and told me about his policies. While her interests moved her on to Barack Obama, after seeing John Edwards in the health-care debate at the Adler, I knew that John Edwards would truly help unite our country.
Now that caucus is coming up, John Edwards still holds my vote and my interest. I hope to see him go on to win the democratic nomination and also go on to be our 44th president of the United States.

Meredith Price
Pleasant Valley High School

Starting off completely neutral, I was given an unbiased opportunity to listen to viewpoints from both the Republicans and Democrats. I agree with some issues on both sides, yet I can’t call myself one or the other. However, when I think of what the country needs now, some change is needed. I think the views and plans on the Democratic side could provide that.
The hard part was then picking a candidate.
Health care for all, getting the troops out of Iraq, and reworking the educational
system are all issues that the top-tier Democrats will address in a relatively similar way.
Having the chance to meet and greet several candidates, I have to say Barack Obama came off to me as being the most interested, compassionate, and genuine to talk with. Briefly talking about my school and mundane daily things, it felt as if he cared instead of making me feel like I’m just another vote.
U.S. Sen. Obama could provide solutions to issues while also having the edge of providing that sense of enthusiasm, care, and compassion for not only the country, but individuals as well.

Mark Schwenker
Davenport West High School

What separates the Democratic candidates? Even though they all share ideals, Clinton differs by pushing her experience, Edwards separates himself with his ability to fight, and Obama sends the message of change through unity. As the time to vote draws nearer, a person has to choose which direction to take to achieve the goals of democratic America.
Barack Obama’s path inspires me. He’ll reinstate the bond among Americans by paying attention to his entire constituency. In a democracy, the majority might rule but the minority has the right to address what’s wrong. I believe the senator won’t ignore any fraction of America’s problems, thus bringing back camaraderie.
Obama’s ability to serve the minority is highlighted in his immigration policy. He appeals to the majority of Americans by promising to crack down on employers of illegal aliens. Yet he addresses the minority by promising to make legal immigration easier, thus cutting down on illegal immigrants.
I feel Obama will bring America’s majorities and minorities together, enacting change for the general good. I’ve asked conservatives what Democratic candidate they respect the most; the answer is predominantly Barack Obama. I think this happens because of his appeal to every American, not just liberals. The idea of unity is why I’m supporting the best campaign for our country, the Obama campaign.

Amelia Schoeneman
Rock Island High School

The Democrats have such an amazing array of candidates that actually making a choice is difficult. I have decided to support the senator from Illinois, Barack Obama. Obama is a candidate who will unite the heavily divided country and bring the country back to our former glory.
When I see Obama on commercials and at public appearances, he shows that he cares for the people of this country and that he will do everything in his power to fight corruption.
Obama is a strong candidate who attracts the crowds of people and makes us all feel warm and offers a sense that we all can make a difference in the government.
When people question his experience level, all I have to say is: What has experience given us in Washington? With Obama, Clinton and Edwards in a close battle that can go any way, Obama seems to bring a sense of hope to us all which we all want.

David Ballard
Moline High School

By Kevin Trahan

First Vote

For me, it is very hard to pick one candidate because I support different candidates on different issues. So I decided to write what I believe on each issue and then pick the candidate that most shares my opinion on that issue. In the end, I did pick a candidate that I support the most, but it wasn’t easy.

Immigration:

Illegal immigration into the US has gotten out of hand. Half a million people come into our country illegally each year. We have the personnel and the technology to prevent illegal immigration, but we have not done much to solve the problem. Our next President needs to build a touch-sensitive fence that will notify an immigration authority and have the border patrol there within minutes, even seconds. We need to take just a handful of the US army troops in Iraq and station them at the border. This way, we will catch many more illegal immigrants. It will also discourage others from coming across the border. We also need amnesty for the immigrants who are already here. If they can speak English somewhat well, have no criminal record, and prove they can support themselves and their family, they should be able to stay. They would not receive health care under a universal plan, but could receive it if they applied for citizenship.

Obama and Clinton: Both want amnesty for illegal immigrants. They also want to toughen border security, but in different ways. Obama wants to use more technology and Clinton wants to use more personnel. Both plans together would be great.

Health Care:

There has been speculation that a universal health care system would not work. Many people think that it would reduce the quality of health care. This is a big problem that should not be overlooked. Universal health care will also be a big blow to health insurers. I believe that all employers should be forced to have health insurance for their workers and their workers’ families. Other people would be the ones to be under a universal system. This way there is not a big blow to health insurers. Also, the working people would have better health coverage so the quality of their health care would not be changed.

Obama and Edwards: No candidate has my exact views on health care, but these two are the closest. Edwards will require by law that all Americans have health insurance. Obama wants to give health care to people who can’t afford it and to people who don’t have it provided for them by their workplace.

Iraq War:

The War in Iraq was a huge mistake in the first place. Saddam Hussein was never an imminent threat to the US and Iraq never had weapons of mass destruction. We need to end this insensible war. Some Democratic candidates call for complete and immediate withdrawal of US troops. This would be a disaster. The country would erupt and the last troops to leave would be in danger of an attack. We need a gradual plan to have troops out by the end of 2009 (a year after the next President takes office because we all know that Bush will do nothing to end the war). We do need to keep the Army Corps of Engineers there to help rebuild the country and we will need just a few troops to protect them.

Biden: Biden is the only candidate that supports a gradual withdrawal because he believes the same as me; Iraq will be chaos with immediate withdrawal. The only problem with his plan is that he wants to decentralize Iraq’s government and divide up the rival groups to prevent another civil war. Because of this, Biden was a tough choice for me, but I love his gradual troop removal plan.

Education:

Education is very important but it seems to have taken a back seat to many other issues. The Bush Administration has handled education very poorly and America is in need of a change. We need to start in middle school by having an honors level, general level, and introduction level in each subject. In high school, and AP class should be added above the honors level. Also we need to stop basing a school’s performance on standardized tests. Schools need to be judged on a case-by-case basis, and not be placed on a watch list just because of their standardized test scores. Also, all teachers should receive a 45% increase in pay. I would also teach parents how to better prepare their kids for school and would strongly encourage that all children go to preschool.

Clinton: Hillary has a great stance on education and is talking about the issue more than any other candidate. To me, she is a great choice because she wants to stop judging everything on standardized tests and start judging schools on a case-by-case basis.

Energy:

Because of “The Inconvenient Truth” and Al Gore, global warming, energy, and the environment have become hot topics and major issues in the US. The first thing that we need to do is to raise fuel economy standards. Fuel economy standards will be required to go up 5%. We also need to end drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We should require that all oil companies offer E85 Ethanol and should develop thousands more wind farms and support more research in solar power. We also need to end the Bush tax cuts for oil companies and use that money to research and develop alternative energy sources.

Biden and Dodd: Dodd plans to stop drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He also wants to take aggressive measures to increase fuel standards to 50 mpg by 2017 (maybe a bit unreasonable, but still a great goal to shoot for). Biden is really stressing developing alternative energy sources such as wind and solar power.

Economy:

The biggest thing that can help the economy is dropping unemployment rates. We need to greatly emphasize the Job Corps and help young people who have made mistakes with their education get good job training and a job that can support them and their family. We also need to provide money for entrepreneurs to help them start up their own businesses. We need to raise the minimum wage to help the low-income workers who are living right on the poverty line.

Obama: Most of the Democratic candidates had about the same views, but Obama talked about providing money to help out entrepreneurs, which I feel is a very important part in making our economy flourish.

The Candidate I support:

This was a very tough decision. It was a close three-way race between Obama, Clinton, and Biden. The problem with Biden is his plan to decentralize Iraq’s government. I feel that this will make the civil war there even worse. I feel that Clinton is a good candidate and she is probably my second favorite candidate. I just don’t like her Iraq War plan. Pulling troops out as quickly as she wants to could create even more chaos in Iraq and be a disaster for the US. I love her education plan though, but I feel Obama is catching up on the education issue and has the potential to put together an education plan that is just as good. He just isn’t there yet. With that said, I support Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election. I feel that he is a great leader with charisma and determination. He doesn’t use attack ads to gain votes and has great views on the economy. Although he doesn’t agree with me exactly on every issue, he comes pretty close on most. I also feel that all of the other candidates have at least one view that, if implemented badly, could take our country in the wrong direction. Obama is the only candidate without one of these views. All in all, after going through all of the issues, I think Barack Obama is the best choice for America. As his bumper stickers say, he is the best hope for a brighter future for America.

I am caucusing for Rudy Giuliani. I support Mayor Giuliani because he is the candidate who is strong on immigration, strong on terrorism and someone I believe is genuine in his beliefs and direction. I have had the unique privilege of being with the mayor on at least six public speaking occasions and spending several hours of private time with him.
Giuliani consistently invigorates the crowd with his positive and realistic ideas for the future. Giuliani’s actions during the Sept. 11 attacks show he has the leadership needed to lead the country and set things back on track. The mayor has traveled around the world and has the ability to speak frankly and decisively to world leaders. He is no different in private, because his principles are deeply held. With Mayor Giuliani, what you see is what you get. That strength of character will be needed in the tough times facing the next president.

David Whalen
Davenport Central High School

Choosing a candidate to vote for in the caucus was not easy. There were many candidates who I could have chosen, but above them all I chose Barack Obama. The first part of narrowing my search for a candidate was choosing a Democrat or Republican. I chose to go with the Democrats because of the last two bad terms the Republicans had.
Then after that was determining the Democratic candidate I would caucus for. Out of all of them, Obama stuck out to me. I liked how he basically said that it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black, blue or even red. We all have to stick together as a nation to better our country and our world. Obama is black and to me if people from different races and political parties can vote for him, then Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s. dream is coming true.
So when I caucus for Obama, I think of a future of people of different colors holding hands to better America in all aspects.

Gabe Hearn
Davenport Central
High School

By Kevin Trahan
First Vote
Education is a very important issue, yet it seems like many candidates have overlooked it. Hillary Clinton is the only candidate who has really gone full force at attacking No Child Left Behind. Her editorial board meeting at the Times was no different.
No Child Left Behind had good intentions, but was a huge failure. It helps kids who learn at a slower pace, but hurts everyone else in the classroom. The teachers need to teach slowly or else the school will be placed on a watch list.
Some of my friends have told me they are bored to death in some of their classes because they are ready to move on, but the teacher can’t because of the few students who aren’t ready.
I asked Sen. Clinton what she would do about No Child.
“We’ll never know whether the original idea could have worked because it has been so poorly implemented and has not been funded by the federal government the way it had been promised. I think we have to start over,” Clinton said.
Sen. Clinton wants to stop basing everything on standardized testing. Clinton wants to judge things on a case by case basis and give more incentives for good teachers to go to the schools that actually need help.
“I’d like to see us move toward individualized instruction. We’re moving that way in every part of our lives. … Yet our schools are being subject to a kind of one-size-fits-all standard. It doesn’t work for learning and its very demoralizing for teaching.”
She also wants to teach parents how to prepare their kids for school and wants to enroll as many children in pre-school as possible. Studies have shown that kids who go to pre-school perform better in later grades.
In my opinion, Hillary Clinton has the best stance on education, a very important issue. Educating America’s youth is like building a foundation. We are the foundation and the future leaders of America and the World. Education is as important to our future as stopping global warming.

Kevin Trahan is a student at Bettendorf High School.

By Mark Schwenker
First Vote
Sen. Barack Obama was drilled on questions pertaining to his leadership experience and foreign policy objectives. When my turn came to ask him a question, I thought I’d go easy on him.
“As my friends and I are talking about what career fields we might go into, I was wondering, what did you want to be when you were in high school?” I asked, breaking the serious tension in the room as the Senator looked me in the eye while drinking out of an unmarked water bottle.
The senator, chuckling to himself, replied “in kindergarten I wanted to be President, then I went through wanting to be an astronaut and basketball player.“
“By the time I was in high school, I actually thought I wanted to be an architect,” he said. “I thought the idea of designing buildings would be fascinating.”
I find it very interesting that Sen. Obama wanted to be an architect. As an architect, one most likely wants to leave their mark on the world by having a lasting impact with their designs. Although the senator isn’t an architect, he is still leaving a lasting impact on the landscape of America today.
“How I became a lawyer instead is a sad tale,” Sen. Obama, said.
I also dabbled on the thought of being an architect, but new interests and opportunities came up as time went on, which Sen. Obama experienced as well.
Who knows, maybe I’m going down a similar path as the senator. How does “Mark Schwenker in 2048” sound?

Mark Schwenker is a student at Davenport West High School.

By Amelia Schoeneman
First Vote
When opponents of Barack Obama criticize the senator, they start with his apparent lack of experience. But, at the Quad-City Times Editorial Board meeting, it was clear his wisdom with politics was not an issue. Obama knows he’s new to Washington D.C., but he’s also aware that being elected president is “not a question of longevity in Washington.“
Obama’s judgments on foreign policy are not just beginners’ luck. In the senate he voted against the war in Iraq realizing more attention needed to be paid to Afghanistan. Today the call for more troops in Afghanistan is being made. He was also wary of the fact that there wasn’t an exit strategy for Iraq. Now, every candidate has written one. As the senator said himself, it’s not luck after a certain point.
Experience also ties into knowledge of policies, not just voting for the correct ones. I asked Obama about what he would do to keep arts alive in public schools. He said that No Child Left Behind is the reason money is taken from the arts.
“Part of the reason that you’re seeing pressure on arts programs and music programs … is that No Child Left Behind is structured where the success of the school is measured entirely in terms by what happens on those high stakes standardize tests.”
Those tests are helpful, but schools need to be assessed on other things, too.
“Right now, if a child comes in and they’re three years behind, and at the end of the year they’re only one year behind, that school’s actually done a very good job. But it wouldn’t show up on No Child Left Behind. They would be still labeled, potentially, as a failure.”
He would modify the act when in office.
“If we can change those assessments then once again we will be emphasizing arts, music, literature, social studies, foreign languages, the things that provide a well-rounded education.”
Sen. Barack Obama clearly has enough experience to discover, understand, and fix problems. As president he’ll bring White House decisions and reports to his constituency. Obama helped to pass “Google for Government” and wants to reinstate fireside chats. He’ll use C-SPAN to involve the public in government decisions. The experience Sen. Barack Obama has is clearly the right kind. He has the perspective to make logical, insightful decisions for America.

Amelia Schoeneman is a student at Rock Island High School.