Russell Brown ponders Sarah Palin’s performance in recent prime time television interviews and assesses her potential in this weeks vice-presidential debate against Joe Biden. Can comparisons be drawn to the political debates between John Key and Helen Clark and does it matter if the other smaller parties are not there?
Russell Brown is chief blogger at publicaddress.net
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Fresh from feeling chuffed about having a photo with Hollie Smith, John Key suggests the big question for the election campaign might be “what is the name of his family cat?”.
In today’s interview John rejects the suggestion that it was Helen Clark’s idea to hold only head to head debates on television and leave out the smaller parties. He also says that he does not need to be on the same stage as Winston Peters for New Zealanders to know that a deal between the two parties is off the cards. Will he look Helen Clark in the eye during the debates?
John is also determined to have a referendum on MMP by 2011 and personally believes New Zealanders will choose to keep some kind of proportional representation system.
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Why do people have the attitudes they do towards social issues such as welfare, abortion, immigration, gay rights, school prayer and capitol punishment? New research suggests that people’s reactions to gross images may correlate with a voting choice at the polling booth, that is whether a person votes conservative or liberal. Researchers showed volunteers a series of photos that included some threatening images — for example, a picture of a man with a spider on his face or an infected open wound Kevin Smith from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been conducting the research.
