Monday, Nov. 3, will wrap up a week's worth of candidate interviews on Charlando con la Gringa, El Paso Media Group's weekday, drive-time radio show on 750 AM. The format has involved two candidates (Republican and Democrat only) and myself, sitting down for an hour on live radio with a hotline for callers and discussion about each candidates' campaigns and why the voters should choose one over the other other. This format has put me in front of politicians I would not have otherwise met unless I hosted a radio show and for this access, I am grateful while filled with deep regret.
What the candidate interviews made me realize is that if voters had the chance to meet the candidates for each race in a speed dating environment (30 minute conversation with issue-based questions), they would be armed with what they really needed to know before voting, and that is a sense of the person running. Having a sense of the person running is more valuable for a voter than just having information on the candidate’s party affiliation, resume and hopes. No matter how skilled a politician is, if he or she can't connect with humans, they have very little currency.
I had already voted before meeting all the candidates on Charlando, and had I met some of them before I voted, I would have voted differently. (Try hiding that realization from your face when interviewing a candidate.) And this made me think of how I wasn't going to meet anyone other than candidates running for local elections unless I found myself working for a major media outlet or was perceived as viable enough to have conversation with them. What sense of the person would I get from Barack Obama, Joe Biden, John McCain and Sarah Palin? Would I like Palin? Everyone says she's so charming, funny and smart. Would I like Biden? Everyone has says he flies off the handle? Would I like to meet the individual who was about to run my country and subsequently my life for the next four years? You betcha.
Unfortunately, I can only rely on the everyones, celebrities, talk show hosts, pundits, columnists out there that get access to the big candidates, and I've got to trust that they are giving me their true sense of the individuals they are meeting on the campaign trail. There's a lot of trust during election time, but I just wish there were time for speed dating. Maybe I can entice some of the national candidates to have a conversation with me on Charlando on Monday. Surely a show catering to Americans living on an international border with Mexico would have some pull. Surely voters in this region are important enough to have conversation with. I'll let you if I'm able to book any interviews.
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Attached below is the PDF of the Voter Guide 11.08
Related Documents:
F J. Jackson
November 2, 2008
I would like to thank the Newspaper Tree(El Paso Media Group) for a great job bringing candidate information forward for the El Paso Public to use.(I Hope)
With the Voter Guide that you put togeather,your Election news@ analysis on Newspaper Tree and your Radio program-Charlando have done the Best Job for El Paso Media on giving information to us.Keep up the great work going forward.
Helen Marshall
November 4, 2008
Lisa, I'm surprised by your comment on Palin that "Everyone says she's so charming, funny and smart." Smart? someone who can be completely taken in for SIX minutes by a Canadian imposter pretending to be the French president? Someone who acknowledged having no idea what the vice president did all day? Charming? Maybe if you are a right-wing Republican, but if you have just been charged as a Democrat with "thinking that the terrorists are the good guys" you might not see it that way. Funny? If I thought that her remark that she had foreign policy experience because you can see Russia from Alaska was a joke I might agree...but until I know that she won't be in line to be president I will not be laughing.