“The Road to the White House” Vocabulary http://sc94.ameslab.gov/TOUR/whitehouse.html

A candidate is a qualified citizen who runs for political office So what is a candidate? A candidate is a qualified citizen who runs for political office

So what is a political party? An organization of people who share similar ideas about how to govern the nation, state and/or community. http://www.whatcomgop.com/default.asp?target=history http://www.hamlincountydemocrats.org/officers.htm

The person who holds the office for which an election is being held. So what is an incumbent? The person who holds the office for which an election is being held.

The primaries are already over, but what were those for? A primary is an election to choose a political party’s candidate for office.

Now that the primaries are over, we need to decide for whom we should vote, so we need to listen to each candidate’s platform. What is that? The platform is the collection of goals and beliefs of a political party or candidate.

What does it mean if a candidate is a conservative? A conservative is someone who tends to favor existing ways of doing things.

So the opposite of that is a liberal, right? Yes, a liberal is someone who follows a political view which generally favors and accepts new ways of doing things and supports social and economic change.

So what is a moderate? A moderate is someone who tends to take the middle-of-the-road position on issues and avoids the extremes.

So what does GOP have to do with all of this? The GOP is just the nickname for the Republican Party (Grand Old Party).   Return to WebQuest