Tea Party Website

This is why I can no longer reading the newspaper in paper form.  Today I was reading this article on why Congresswoman Bachmann was not looking at the viewer in her Tea Party retort to the State of the Union and that article led me to this website set up by the Tea Party people. Of course if you missed my earlier post on the Tea Party, I have found some quantitative proof that the movement is more of a media sensation than something that it is going to have real legislative. Having said that the WashPost says that 126 House members were endorsed by FreedomWorks (the group started by Dick Armey which essentially is the Tea Party)

First Presidential Ad of 2012

As far as I can tell this is the first political ad for the 2012 presidential race - in this case - by Tim Pawlenty who used to be the governor of Minnesota.  It goes with his book, Courage to Stand. 

Fact Checker for the State of the Union

Yes, I am home as my county called the day for rain (!), but that means lots of posts.  This one is from PolitiFact which goes through the State of the Union and the Republican response detailing how truthful the major statements are. 

If you have never heard of Wordle.net, take a look at it as it is a quick way to see the key words from text - and in government to look for bias.  For example, the top set of words is from the text of Obama's speech (+ applause!), the middle is from the liberal leaning WashPost and the bottom from the conservative leaning WashTimes.  You can click on each of the images to make them larger. 

Public Opinion

We just started our public opinion unit.  This short video is a great way to talk about "word and message testing" and "instant response" and see what people think about parts of his speech. 

State of the Union Highlights

This is what I will show my students today - knowing that they had to watch it at home, this is a quick way to see the highlights. 

Polls and the State of the Union

For all its hype, 538.com, has a nice graphic and explanation on how the State of the Union speeches help (barely) as much as they hurt presidents in poll numbers. If they are right, that would mean that Obama, who is now at 50% approval will not crack 55%.  

The Key Words of 75 State of the Union Speeches

This is a great graphic that has a graphic for key words from 75 State of the Union addresses.  What a great way to show students how much and how little has change over time. 

A bit of the debate on repealing the health care law.

State of the Union Guests

I like to have my students guess as to who will be in the gallery besides the first lady.  Having "prop people" used as a visual is a device started by Ronald Reagan and discussed in this article from today's WashPost.  The articles doesn't mention that all presidents keep a list of such "prop people" and use them in speeches around the country to highlight their speeches - nor that Obama will soon start a "tour" to promote his main points and go only to states or districts that the White House considers swing votes. Above is a "Qwiki" for perhaps the most famous "prop," Lenny Skutnik, used by Reagan to show his herorism. 

Qwiki State of the Union

Ok, let's try again with Qwiki.  Above is am embedded search on the State of the Union speech.  

SOTU 2010: Fact Checker

The Washington Post has included this analysis of the proposal's from President Obama's 2010 State of the Union Address. Depending on how much on an introduction you want to do in class before Tuesday's address, it could be helpful to include this in your plans as a comparison.

State of Union Bingo

One way to get your students more interested in the State of the Union speech is to play it as a bingo game.  Here, here ., here and here are examples. 

Qwiki

So perhaps this is just the tech nerd side of me as I am not quite sure what to make of this, but nonetheless it is cool.  Now entering the "alpha" phase (meaning you can enter in your e-mail and 24 hours later you can use the site), Qwiki is a new search engine that creates a little movie for you.  Here is what I got on the state of the union address.  You do have to have an account to see my link above (which you can get in 24 hours), but here are some other examples. 

Sunday Talk Shows

Sorry about the lack of updates, but I have been rather sick the last week (yes I did make it to school) and am now back.  Above is a preview of tomorrow's Sunday talk shows.  If you ever want your kids to watch them, you can go to Politico on Fridays and you can see a movie such as what I have above.