As you are all no doubt aware , at the end of this year , the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November , the Americans will be going to the polls to vote for a new President and this time it's something special . Yes there are two candidates who will be fighting this out ; McCain , as in French fries but in name only , and Obama , as in out of Africa !!!!
I don't want to be disrespectful or anything but think about it for a minute and you will understand ! The Republican , a veteran of Vietnam and an experienced , sure hand versus the Democrat , a former Chicago social worker cum Harvard law scholar . They both have something going for them , but where would your loyalties lie ?
Inorder to answer that question you must know a bit about the men themselves , their programmes and also the American election system . So let's begin with this weeks visit of senator Obama to Europe , especially Berlin . You should log in to
Link
Roll down to American Elections where you'll see some video documents . Click on Obama's photo .
Listen to one of his global citizen speeches . Think of the symbol of this place , one which until the end of the last century was divided by a physical wall , east and west , one which was in the heart of the communist world , one in which thousands of people were killed trying to escape to the ' free' world !!!
Better still what about watching You Tube parts 1, 2 , 3 . Here you will view part 2 but the other parts are well worth watching .
I can not not talk here about the 1963 speech of J F Kennnedy , that other young President who so much wanted to change the world . Watch this video and compare the speeches at the same time you might also compare the men , give and take a good 50 years of political difference of course !
Once you have viewed this go to the document on McCain ( in BBC news ) to see where and how he is popular too at McCain sees / fights Obama media 'bias' . You should also log into JohnMcCain.com to find out more about him .
Now you've been introduced to the two candidates let's find out a bit more about their parties , programmes , the electoral system in the States , as well as past presidents , the consitution and the general American voting experience .
To check how much you know already try to complete this worksheet which I found on the Paris Academy site :
http://lve.scola.ac-paris.fr/anglais/uselectionsTH.php
Having tested your knowledge and perhaps realizing you're not quite up to scratch why not continue with how people are elected but also where it all began with The Declaration of Independence , 4th July , The Bill of Rights ........
Log into :
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/vote/presidential_elections.shtml
http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/government/howthepresidentiselected.htm
Try this videopodcast entitled Elections in plain English . It should help you to understand the American electoral system .
After that if you want to find out more about the candidates themselves , biographies , how they stand on certain issues such as education , the environment , healthcare , jobs and economy , terrorism and national security log in to :
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/election08/
You will even find an Electionary which , as its name suggests , is a dictionary of election words .
Make the most of it !
You will even find information about former presidents there. However, if you want to see other sites which deal with the same subject either in written or video form go to :
ALL the presidents , portrait gallery and biographies http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/presidents/index.html
To finish let's get back to the present with CNN the map changes . The Americans follow their elections like this , as we do in France or in other European countries :
http://edition.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008
To complete this study we must mention the works of Barack Obama , Dreams from my Father : A Story of Race and Inheritance as well as his more political work The Audacity of Hope .
There is nothing to stop you from following up this You Tube video , the first of nine to get the general idea of his first book + .
Enjoy and learn !
To conclude here's a song , try to find out about it !
