Election Eve?

Attention: Rapper AKON has declared that in the event of McCain winning the election, he will denounce his citizenship and move back to Africa.

Uh oh. Look's like this country is in some trouble...

Quite frankly, if everyone truly follows through with these statements, it looks as though we'd be losing 50% of the population.... that half being the liberal half. What I fail to understand is why it is always the free speaking, pro equality and opportunity liberals that are SO critical of anyone who has a viewpoint different from their own? Granted this really refers to my experience with college age far left wing people, but it really makes no sense to me. The excuse coming from most of them is that you would have to be "completely mentally retarded and uneducated" to vote for McCain. But really, is where you place your vote not just a demonstration of HOW you think? Clearly, there are some people in this country who would probably vote otherwise, but the majority of us are not going to vote for some LUNATIC who ultimately has that bad of an agenda, are we?

Personally I choose McCain from the standpoint of a Capitalist, with the ideals that, yes people who truly are in need should receive help from the government, but that idea can only be taken so far without being taken advantage of. For me, that is really what this election comes down to. Before this elected president is out of office, I will have a REAL job, be completely supporting myself, paying taxes, insurance, etc etc. It is my opinion that if I am going to work my ass off to land myself a good job in a decent company where I will continue to work my ass off to make the salary I do, be it big or small, I should not be penalized for this.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I THINK WE ALL THE POOR HAVE CHOSEN THEIR DESTINY, OR THAT WE SHOULD LEAVE THEM TO ROT... Which seems to be what most Obama supporters my age have in their minds. This is not the case at all. I want to make money to, yes, be able to afford a Ferrari (as a lifelong goal), but I want to give back just as much as any other person. As the Beatles so eloquently state, "You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we ALL want to change the world." Just because I don't want to go about doing it in the same way you do, does this make me a bad person? If I want to donate my money to the given charities and causes of my choice, instead of putting it into the hands of a government who clearly has no wonderful reputation for spending, am I a bad person? I am pro gay marriage, pro choice, pro a lot of socially liberal agendas, but right now, what I think really matters, is the economic side of this election. At the same time, I believe McCain is FAR from our economic savior, and do not think that either candidate really has the capabilities of doing anything extravagant or great for the economy in the state it is now.


To wrap this up: I really don't feel like I will be completely relieved OR disappointed when the results from election day hit, but I know it's not going to make me up and move out of the country either way (With the exception single handedly being this floundering economy that came to this without the help of either candidate). As a matter of fact, I'm more or less even curious to see the disappointment on Obama fan's faces when they realize that he might be a great guy with a lot of great ideas, but that he is not the end all to the problems in this country.

Although, I also must say that, if McCain does pull through with this one, I don't know If I'll be able to resist a little smirk at the expense of everyone who wrote him off as Obama's popularity seemed to rise.

The Logistics of Campaigning.

For the past few days, a number has been continuously calling me. I am not one who NORMALLY answers phone calls from strange numbers, or quite honestly even from numbers I do know, and usually expect the caller to leave a voicemail so I know why they are calling and I can then return the call if necessary. This number, however, kept calling me while I was in class, or in the library, or various other places where answering phone calls isn't quite socially acceptable, and never left a voicemail.

So I get home, and I ask my roommates if they recognize the number. I try to text the number back, as it is late, and get the response saying it is not a mobile number. So we CALL the number, and receive an automated message. What does the message say?

"You have reached the Bloomington Office for the Barack Obama Campaign for Change..."

Blah Blah Blah. I hang up at this point.

REALLY!? I mean come on. Let me start off by saying that NEVER throughout this entire election process have I expressed any interest into the Obama campaign, with the exception of hoping he beat Senator Clinton in the primaries. Not ONCE did I sign anything, stop to talk to any campaigners, or do anything to reveal any personal information about myself to these people that would suggest I was interested in receiving phone calls from them.

Let me go on to say that, even if this had been a call from the McCain campaign, I would not be any less irritated! It is beyond my logical reasoning why any person would suddenly change their mind and decide to vote for someone simply because they were being harassed via telephone by that particular campaign. We have also had countless people knock on our door, spout off several minute long speeches about their position with the Obama campaign and trying to register voters and etc etc, ending with the question of whether we know who we are voting for and if we mind if they ask? Our most recent reply "Yes, and NOT Obama, thanks anyways." (A reply which most often shocks them into speechlessness in a town made up of a majority of very liberal college students). Or there are the e-mails they are constantly sending, to which I finally unsubscribed. After navigating my way through the maze of a route to the unsubscription button it asks me why I would no longer like to receive the e-mails. My response to this? "Because I am NOT voting for Obama, have never expressed INTEREST in Obama, and DO NOT KNOW HOW I ENDED UP ON THIS MAILING LIST!" I think they got the point there.

Standing on the street, or inside a building, or anywhere else, stating who you are with, and providing yourself for questioning and the supply of information about your candidate and their policies is great, but when it comes down to people calling me on the telephone whose number they somehow obtained, I find it absolutely ridiculous.

At this point, despite who wins the election, I am completely and utterly ready to rid myself of this nightmare they call campaigning. Is this really how it should feel to have the freedom to vote!?

Crashing Economies and Job Clarification

Ever since I decided to come to the Kelley School of Business, I knew I wanted to do something along the lines of Marketing and more geared toward advertising. I have always been attracted to the creative aspects of life, and while Business as a whole interests me, it is no different. When asked what I want to do with my degree, I'll often joke around and say "Oh, I was thinking I'd like to be Chief Marketing Officer for Absolut Vodka." Why wouldn't this sound like a good idea to any student at one of the best Business Schools in America that also happens to serve as one of the top party schools?

Why would this job be appealing? It has nothing to do with consumption of alcohol by any means. Let's be frank: one would generally get the impression that working for an ALCOHOL company would not be quite as uptight and restricted as many typical "desk jobs" in the business world. The thing that really attracted me to this idea was the presentation of the advertising done by Absolut itself. Anyone who has ever seen a People or Cosmopolitan magazine has seen an ad for Absolut... the sleek black background, a single bottle of the particular flavor of vodka being advertised, and some other element representing the flavor: a long green snake which appears to have swallowed a Pear, Spotlights for the Absolut LA flavor featuring Acai berries, pomegranites, and other fruit. They market themselves as a very sophisticated, sleek, and elegant vodka. Not something that is going to cause an immediate party to burst out around you and send hoards of beautiful women or attractive men home with you that night. Their entire campaign is very tasteful.

Now why would this ACTUALLY make a logical choice for employment? We are currently living in an economy that seems to be crumbling around us. Many people are facing retirement delays, 401k cuts, lay offs, drops in prices of stock, and SO much more. With all of this steps in the concept of elasticity of demand. Your company has a bad year, your bonus is not as big... you may not be able to take that extra vacation to Florida you have been planning for your family, or you may have to cut back on your previously allocated budget for the new family car you had planned to purchase. These things are all largely elastic, things that you can give up when money gets tight. However, plenty of things have an inelastic demand, things that you just can't quite give up, things that may not have available substitutes. Examples? Gasoline, and as history has proven, Liquor and Tobacco. When times get hard, when the economy falls, not only do the sales of these goods not face a reduction, but they may even rise.

So while many people my age, particularly those in the Finance sector, are facing the realization that the job market is inevitably not at its best right now, where do I stand? My prospective career seems to be thriving. Surely a nice thought to get through the day.