(1) By Infrogmation of New Orleans (Photo by Infrogmation) [GFDL 1.2 (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/fdl-1.2.html) Accessed July 31, 2016

What influence does public opinion have on health care policy? Provide a recent (last eight weeks) poll or news article on healthcare policy illustrating the power of public opinion to affect policy.

(2) By Tom Arthur from Orange, CA, United States (vote for better tape Uploaded by Petronas) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Accessed 8/6/2015.

This forum has 2 parts, the first being required and the second being optional.

Required (for grade):

AFTER reading the Lesson 2 readings this week, which address numerous historical political campaigns, please answer the following question.

Using concepts and terms from the readings, compare and contrast the 2004 and 2012 presidential election campaign tactics by reviewing one Democratic ad and one Republican ad from each election (four ads overall).

Remember to analyze the ads. Don’t simply describe them. (Because you will link to your ads, the rest of us can see for ourselves what they looked like). Leave out personal opinions, and stick to facts and concepts in the readings, which also should be cited where appropriate.

Optional: Predictions for 2016?

Here are some web sources which you might want to consult:

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

http://pcl.stanford.edu/campaigns/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/2012-exit-polls/

http://elections.nytimes.com/2012/results/president

Optional (ungraded):

Feel free to test your own political orientation (liberal, conservative, libertarian, populist) with this online survey. If so inclined, feel free to share your results.

The site is: http://www.politicalcompass.org/