Folk-poking is when a candidate for office meets people and shakes thier hand's to show themselves as a "real" person. It gives the impression that the candidates are just like anyone else. This effect, in turn, fills the voters with a sense that the candidate is "down-to-earth" in a sense, and the candidate may very well be more likely voted for by the population. Folk-poking is usually associated with a media event, which serves as a way for the candidates to meet voters, and to place an impression on a population. Media events can be helpful in distributing a candidates name to the people, but may also be hazardous to a person running for office. For instance, when Charlie Martin brushed up against a woman voulunteering for his campaign, her father became irate and assaulted him, in front of the cameras. This certainly did not help Martin's campaign.
In this novel, the media played an extremely important role. The media served as a way to distribute issues and ideas to voters. The newspaper, “Register World,” help to bring the issues of Martin’s and Butler’s Senate race locally. Simultaneously, C-Span broadcasted the debates to the national level. Within the novel, candidates and their staff sought to use the media by producing positive public appearances and distributing information about the candidates' position's, and on their issues.
Despite his great background and credentials, Republican Lee Butler defeated Charlie Martin to win the election for Senate. Butler won the election because of a few reasons. First, he is a newcomer to the political scene. He started off unknown by the public and was easy to confide in. Butler was also a very popular man, whose Muffler Man business was well-known and respected for quality service. He maintained a clean "closet" as far as the public was concerned. And, finally, Butler used all Martin’s negatives aspects to his advantage, despite the negative issue of his wife’s abortion. In my opinion, Martin could have approached the election very differently to to avoid defeat. He could have remained in his district and campaigned on a more concentrated public rather than going to New York to chase Nell, the unconventional woman who would have made him choose between love and politics. Martin could have also released information about Butler’s wife earlier, rather than waiting for the media to pick up on the story just before the vote took place.
As an elected offical, Charlie Martin has certain responsibilities to his public. Martin's job is to do whatever it takes to get his public what they desire. He is extremely good at this, and is also very influential. This is mostly due to the fact that Martin is a respected, ethically defined person. He is also a very good speaker and has noted skill in debate. He even goes so far as to try to help an old war buddy become the next Secretary of Defense by becoming part of a military affairs comittee.
Charlie Martin, although a great speaker and an influential politician, cannot run for re-election and win by just his outstanding merits alone. As do all candidates running for any elected office, Martin needs funding. This funding usually comes from any of many Political Action Committees (PACs). These PACs are associated with an interest group of some kind. The Political Action Committee provides funding in the form of hard money to any political candidate or candidates that they choose, and in return, the (hopefully victorious) candidate will take time to listen to what the PAC's interest group's needs are. This relationship is very benificial to all parties involved. The candidate gains the funding that is required to run a successful campaign, and the interest groups may very well get access to some winning decision makers, who create and sign policies that ______the interest group.
The centerpiece of the novel most likely defines the running mate. This person is Nell. Nell is the centerpiece because everything that Charlie Martin does relates to, or correlates to her. One of Martin’s advisers believed that the success of the campaign was dependent on Nell. So when Nell left after the first debate, the campaign left with her. Politics is defined as "Who gets what, when, where, and how." Morality is defined as "A system of ideas of right and wrong conduct." As you can see, there is no relationship between these two ideas.
