Read Write Speak

Chuck Todd, the MSNBC White House Correspondent and Indianan University political science professor Marjorie Hershey joined students participating from the George Mason University Video Studio alone with Steve Scully, the political editor for the C-Span networks, and students from the University of Denver and Pace University.

Both Chuck Todd and Marjorie Hershey reinforce that the American people are still trying to find their balance within the political spectrum of what they want politically or who they want to represent them.

“I think it’s remarkable,” states Chuck Todd, MSNBC White House Correspondent, “that we could have our third straight change election.”

Neither the Democratic and Republican parties have a secure footing in the upcoming elections. The American people understand that mid-term elections are change elections.

“We know and have known for 70 years that what ever party has won the most recent presidential election is going to lose and sometimes lose pretty substantially the next time around,” explains Marjorie Hershey, Indianan university professor, “and we haven’t seen so far that is going to be anything different.”

The election of a Republican to Ted Kennedy’s seat is a possible preview to what could happen in the elections in November.

“Anybody is vulnerable at this point” explains Chuck Todd.

The possibility of a third party immerging from the economic turmoil and political anger is a possibility as it always has been, but it is not likely to take a majority for a long time.

“It’s that 19 percent of the electorate that is swinging back and forth for the last 20 years,” states Chuck Todd, “And that they’ve been providing the margins of victories sometimes. And sometimes they are populous, sometimes it benefited the Republicans, sometimes it has benefitted the Democrats. But they haven’t sorted themselves out.”

“I agree that the seeds are there, but the ground is inhospitable. There is very little sun and no water” argues Marjorie Hershey a political scientist professor from Indiana University.

“When we talk about third parties we have to be really frank about what it takes for either a third party or an independent candidate to succeed” states Marjorie Hershey, “And the fact that one has not since the Republicans in 1860. We have had a very long dry spell. And there’s a good reason for that, and that’s because the Republicans and Democrats are the ones who make the rules as to how you get on the ballot, and how you raise money, and how you do virtually everything in American politics.”

So the American public is going to have to deal with the Republicans and the Democrats in the upcoming election and the issues that are already on the table. It is as if the public is stuck between a rock and a hard place because there are no good solutions out in the political world right now.

The distance learning course, which is produced by C-SPAN, is a unique opportunity for students to interview guests via video conference. The course airs on C-SPAN3 on Fridays at 5 p.m. and also streams online (http://www.c-span.org/distance_learning/).