5/6 Election 2008

5/6 Web Links: Election 2008

• Budget Hero
  americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/engage08/budgethero 
  One of the most challenging aspects of the president’s job: managing the federal budget. He or she must decide how to allocate $3.3 trillion dollars fairly—and keep everyone content. This simulation, from American Public Media and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, lets students take the federal budget for a test-drive.

• CNN Student News
  www.cnn.com/studentnews
  News about the candidates leading up to the election changes fast.  CNN Student News, a 10-minute news program, fills the bill with content created specifically for kids and updated every day throughout the academic year. 

• Daryl Cagle's Editorial Cartoons
  cagle.msnbc.com
  The comprehensive set of editorial cartoons, updated daily, is easily searchable by topic.

• eLections
  www.ciconline.org/eLECTIONS
  A free 3-D multimedia online game in which students make tough decisions in their run for the White House. In this engaging simulation, created by Cable in the Classroom in partnership with CNN Student News, C-SPAN, and the History Channel, students can play alone against the computer or run against an opponent.

·         Living Room Candidate
www.livingroomcandidate.org
It wouldn’t be a modern presidential race without an avalanche of political ads on television. This site, created by the Museum of the Moving Image, features a collection of TV campaign ads from 1952 to 2004. Clips are searchable by year, type of commercial, and political issue.

·         Select A Candidate
americanpublicmedia.publicradio.org/engage08/selectacandidate
This Web site from American Public Media asks users to answer some basic questions on key issues using actual quotes from the candidates without connecting the quote to the candidate. A subsequent report matches your answers with the candidate that best fits your views.

·         270 to Win
www.270towin.com
The focal point here is an interactive map predicting the current election’s outcome based on polling data. Students can then modify the map by changing the winner of any state and see the impact on running totals at the bottom of the map. Students could also create an electoral college map from scratch based on their own selections. 

http://www.ontheissues.org  is funded by donations and advertising and their mission is “to provide non-partisan information for voters in the Presidential election, so that votes can be based on issues rather than on personalities and popularity.” [They get] “information daily from newspapers, speeches, press releases, and the Internet…”

http://www.opensecrets.org  is from the Center for Responsive Politics, and their mission is to “(i)nform citizens about how money in politics affects their lives, …(e)mpower voters and activists by providing unbiased information, … (a)dvocate for a transparent and responsive government.” Their goal is to provide a comprehensive resource for information about campaign contributions, lobbying data and analysis.

Public Agenda is another organization that offers a collection of resources that provide various categories of information. This might offer a place for students to cross-check and reconcile information that they get from other non-partisan sites.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/election2008.aspx   The Gallup Polls

PBS Vote 2008  http://www.pbs.org/vote2008/