1. The Task You will be a political candidate for public office. Name your political party, design/choose your symbol, and create your slog a n. You will be creating a political advertisement for your political party and the office you are seeking in the form of a poster, flyer and video. You will create your own platform and express your views on the following topics below: Education, Defense, Jobs, Foreign Affairs, and Current Events A list of websites will be provided to do research. Once this is created, you will be ready to do a presentation as a political candidate

2. The Process STEP #1 1. You will be assigned to a team or group of 3 - 4 students. 2. Each group will decide who will be the candidate for these offices and will be responsible for gathering the information in parenthesis next to the office of their choic e : President (see below platforms 1-3 ) Vice President (see below platforms 4 and 5) United States House Representative (see below STEP 3 - poster/artwork) United States Senator (only if there are 4 people in your group) (You will be responsible to oversee all 3 areas and help everyone to stay on t ask). 3. Next, you and your group will come up with your party ’ s name, colors, symbol and slogan. 4. Finally, once you have completed the first three steps above you are now ready to move on to the next step.

3. Step 2: CHOOSING YOUR PLATFORM Use the following websites to help gain some ideas from Democrats, Republicans, and some 3r d political parties to help form your opinions and stances on issues you want to address. (There are 5 issues listed below. You must address all 5. ) http://www.politics1.com/parties.htm http://www.libertyhaven.com/politicsandcurrentevents/politicalpartiesoractivism/roleamerpa rty. html www.democrats.org www.gop.org www.gp.org www.politics/. com/parties.htm http://www.historygu y.com/politicalparties.htmlicalparties.html This is probably the best site. Has links, too.

4. Here are some questions to help clear things up for you as you complete the assignment. First, leave nothing unanswered. Check your work and if you can ask why to one of your statements or if it sounds unclear, fix it and explain yourself in full. Try to address the points I will give to you, but also put your own thoughts and spins on the listed topics. 1. Education: A.) What changes, if any, would you make to the educational system? B.) How would you address school safety based on events like Columbine, etc.? C.) Would you base financial aid on need or ability of the student to succeed? D.) How would you help students that want to go to college but could not afford tuition? 2. Defense: A.) What do you think about the military draft? B.) Should we spend more/less on our defense budget? C.) How would you protect the nation in the face of terrorism attacks? D.) How does immigration figure into the equation? E.) Should the Government be allowed to wire tap phone calls coming from suspected areas of the world? F) What should we do with terrorists captured on the field of battle? 3. Jobs and Economy: A.) What are your feelings on the current minimum wage? B.) What are your feelings on the job starting age? C.) Do we need better training for workers or more overall jobs? D.) How do you feel about immigrants/ illegal aliens obtaining jobs? E.) Should taxes be raised or lowered and if so, on who? F) Should the government provide health care for all citizens and if so, who will pay for it? 4. Foreign Affairs: A.) What should our role be in foreign affairs/civil wars (other nations)? B.) How should we deal with the United Nations? C.) Should we commit troops and resources to Iraq, Afghanistan? How do we deal with Iran? D) What is our trade policy with China? 5. Current Events: Address two or more of these points: the death penalty, abortion, same sex marriage, gun control, health care, illegal immigration or the environment

5. Step 3: Create a small poster and video (1-2 mins.) to advertise and help drum up support for your party. You should have the Party ’ s name, colors and symbol on the poster, along with any slogans you might have as well. NOTE: please do not attach your questions/answers to the platform above, on the poster. Your platform will be addressed in the next step. POSTER: Bright, colorful, neatly done, and easy to read. Black and white pictures will not be acceptable, it MUST be in COLOR. VIDEOS: Should only be a brief commercial (1-2mins. in length). You must include your party ’ s name, colors, the symbol, and a slogan in it. Also, make sure you draw, trace, clip and paste, scan, download, etc. a picture of your party ’ s symbol and how it relates to your party ’ s ideas. You can name your party and choose your symbol as you see fit, but remember, this is a school assignment so you must be in compliance with school rules regarding indecency and use of the internet.

6. Step 4: PRESENTATION Introduce your party by presenting your party’s name, colors, symbol and slogan. Present your poster and video. Each group must be prepared to do a political platform presentation. From the 5 issues, 3 must be presented to the class You must name the issue and present your ideas: For example, you can start by saying: I am Mary Jones and I am seeking the office of President. As President I will work on improving the Defense of our country by ………… (explain what you could/would do). After each presentation a question and answer period will follow by the candidates. Each group will be allowed 5 to 7 minutes from start to finish.