Presidential Election 2008

The Presidential Election is a great opportunity to discuss current events, debate issues that our students are passionate about, and learn about the electoral process. Explore the links below which provide useful information for your own lesson preparation and to share with our students.

The candidates' websites:

http://www.barackobama.com/

http://www.johnmccain.com/

TV Ads

Analyzing televisions commercials is a great way to critically examine issues and candidates by learning how they portray themselves and their opponents.

http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/2008/ Political ads streamed online from the current Presidential Election and archives to previous elections from the Political Communication Lab housed at Stanford University.

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/index.php From the American Museum of the Moving Image, this site offers an impressive archive of past Presidential TV ads going back to 1952.

General Election Information

http://www.votesmart.org/
Information for voters on political leaders, their positions on issues, and campaign finance, and encourages active participation in democratic processes through voting.

http://www.votegopher.com/ VoteGopher, started by a team of college students at Harvard University, is a one-stop, non-partisan election resource, created by young voters to focus on the issues. It contains user friendly information on 25 key election issues.

http://www.ipl.org/div/election/
This site operated by the Internet Public Library contains links to many useful election websites.

http://www.google.com/2008election/ Google tools to follow the election.

http://www.pollingreport.com/ An excellent collection of major poll results. Lets visitors search for various issues and gives information on the public opinion polls taken regarding the issue.

Media Sites

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/vote2008/lessonplans.html Lesson plans about the Election from PBS.

http://www.pbs.org/teachers/vote2008/secondary.html
Curriculum Guide and Web Resources for High School teachers from PBS.

http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/ CNN Election Guide

http://elections.foxnews.com/candidates/ FoxNews Election Guide

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide/2008/election/index.html New York Times Election Guide

Media Watchdog Sites

http://www.factcheck.org/
Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania puts out this website to monitor the factual accuracy of statements made by and advertisements on behalf of major U.S. political figures.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/ Real Clear Politics culls and publishes the best commentary, news, polling data, and links to important resources from all points of the political compass and covering all the important issues of the day.