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in.this.ISSUE sOUND bITES
SCHALLER:
To do betterthan 50.1 percent, the Dem-ocrats are going to have tomobilize some previouslyunder-or-under mobilizedgroups. And there are a ofdifferent possibilities in thatregard.
MITCHELL:
Which groupswould you suggest?
SCHALLER:
Latinos are ob-viously part of it. They in-creasingly tend to vote forDemocrats, and they also areincreasing as a proportionof the electorate—a doublewhammy. Unmarried adultslikely will soon outnumbermarried adults, and theydon’t seem to like Republi-cans that much. … One outof thirteen new marriages isan interracial marriage, forinstance, and that proportionwill continue to grow.
University of Maryland political scienceprofessor Thomas Schaller and
Harper’s Magazine
Senior Editor Luke Mitchellas quoted in a July 2008 article entitled“High Noon for the Republican Party:Why the GOP Must Die”
 
Brothers From Another Mother
He’s handsome. He talks pretty.He dreams big dreams. He maynot be entirely qualified to be pres-ident. He has something of a cultfollowing. His eyes are “dreamy.”No, we’re not talking aboutBarack Obama. Well, not justObama. John F. Kennedy was theoriginal, and here, we take a closerlook at what the two men have incommon:Consider that JFK was America’slast senator elected president.Obama, too, is a senator. Howev-er, Kennedy had served two termsin the Senate where Obama servedless than one. Kennedy also servedin Congress.But it doesn’t stop there. Ken-nedy frequently spoke to enrap-tured crowds about bringing “anew spirit to government.” Soundfamiliar? If it makes you think ofObama’s claim to be a “new kindof politician,” you might be ontosomething.Both candidates also seem to beenergized by speaking to inordi-nately large crowds. At the Demo-crat convention, Obama will notspeak at the Pepsi Center, whereall the other speeches were held.Instead he will declare his cani-dacy at at Ivesco Field, a footballstadium that holds many morepeople. Kennedy pulled a similarstunt when he moved his DNCspeech to LA’s Memorial Stadi-um.Obama and Kennedy also havea winsome way with the press.However, it’s safe to say that Ken-nedy was better on his feet thanObama is. Kennedy could comeup with an answer easily, even ifthe answer was not particularlyinformative. Obama is great froma script, but stutters in Bushianfashion when faced with an openforum.These two candidates have alsoseen their heritage come underscrutiny. Kennedy faced an uphillbattle with anti-Catholic senti-ment. Obama has seen his Africanheritage, Muslim education, andeven his American citizenshipchallenged and questioned. ButKennedy challenged these trou-bles effectively where Obama hasfloundered.Kennedy and Obama are alsoknown for their visual appeal.Kennedy, at 43, is America’syoungest president. Obama wouldbe the second youngest at 47. Theyare both seen as a departure fromusual presidents.These two are Harvard-educated.Harvard University now has the John F Kennedy School of Govern-ment and Obama was editor of theHarvard Law Review.If Obama is elected, he will comeinto a foreign policy situation sim-ilar to Kennedy’s. Once again theworld is polarized between twoextreme ideologies and America’snext president will have to dealwith it.And lest we forget, the granddad-dy of all the similarities: the Berlinspeech. Kennedy and Obama haveboth stood at the Berlin Wall andgiven speeches to the Germanpeople. However, Kennedy gavea speech that lifted up America’scapitalist system and called outthe flaws of communism. Obamastood in front of 200,000 peoplewho can’t vote for him and pro-ceeded to trash his country.
HF
CHRISTINA MILLER
STAFF WRITER
the.Hillsdale.Forum
 VOlume IX, Issue IAugust 2008
the Ultimate Guide toHillsdale College
PAGES 6-7
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Summer MovieReviews
PAGE 10
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Break Out YourLeather Pants (andSave Money Doing It!)
PAGE 8
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“Real Hillsdaliansof Genius”
PAGE 8
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news
August 2008
2
Summer Experiences Shape Students
JULIE rOBISON
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
For most, getting away fromhome seems to be imperative,which is why most feel it neces-sary to go to school in a pseudo- Narnia environment (it’s alwayswinter but never Christmas inHillsdale, MI). This may be whymost jump for joy at the chanceto return home for the summer months, where they can re-co-operate from the harsh academ-ic months in their bed or by the pool side. Others, unable to en- joy such luxury due to a hatredof boredom or sufficient lack of funds, get jobs to fill the hoursand their bank accounts. Oth-ers, however, enjoy the road lesstaken: unpaid activities that ac-tually leave them with less pe-cuniary funds than before, butopen up worlds of opportunityand experience for them.Trevor Shunk ‘10 is one of thosesuch people. As a Health PolicyStudies intern at the HeritageFoundation this past summer,Shunk has been ableto get aninside look of the “nutsand boltsof modern politics.”He metmany influ-ential pub-lic figures,had exclu-sive toursin the WhiteHouse, Pen-tagon, Cap-itol build-ing, andMt. Vernon,and was in-volved inlectures, aconservative book club, and a“rigorous op-ed writing classtaught by one of the top editorsin the country.” For Shunk, theinternship was life-changing,and has made him eager to re-turn to campus. He reported that“our professors are very highly-respected in D.C.” and that “theexperience has given me an evendeeper appreciation for the lib-eral arts education that Hillsdale provides.”Cara Burke ‘10 took summer courses thissummer, butnot to fulfillclass require-ments for thecollege at a lo-cal universityin her area,as many HCstudents do.Rather, she partook in theOxford StudyAbroad Pro-gram, whichshe heardabout throughDr. Calvert.She decided tospend 8 weeksin the UK because “at HillsdaleI learned about studying for itsown sake, and decided to applyit to the summer as well as theschool term.” Shehad an excellentexperience, andenjoyed havingclose relation-ships with her tutors. “Personalrelationshipshelps you learnmore, and to re-spect your teach-ers,” said Burke.She hope to beable to study inOxford again,and considers theexperience “defi-nitely worth do-ing.” Her chief advice for thoseconsidering the program is to“work hard anddon’t be shy.”After working for most of thesummer at home, Spiotta decid-ed to take two weeks off to go ona mission trip to Honduras withthe Missioners of Christ. Sheheard about the trip through Ka-tie O’Donnell ‘09, former presi-
photo courtsey of Burke
Cara Burke enjoying the beautifulsights of Oxford.
dent of Catholic Society, andsigned up thinking she would beimproving her Spanish skills aswell as her spirituality, but littledid she know the impact the tripwould have on her life. She wentin with a self-sufficient mindset,the kind that starts each sentencewith “I” instead of relying solelyon Christ’s strength. Spiotta andthe other college students on thetrip stayed at Casa Guadaloupewith the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal a few days prior tothe mission, but for the actualmission, they lived with fami-lies deep in the mountains. Her group stayed in Majadas, AguaBlanca, where she interactedwith people “who endure somuch suffering on a day-to-day basis, who have so little to offer and yet willingly give more thanthey can afford, whose lives arean unending cycle of uncertain-ty, hardship, and pain, yet theyhave the strongest faith I haveever seen.” The experience wasextremely rewarding for Spi-otta personally, but she believesone does not have to go on amission trip to experience it.“Christ is knocking on the door of your heart anywhere and ev-erywhere,” said Spiotta, “wait-ing for you to let him in.” KatieO’Donnell ‘09, Jaimie Conley‘11, and Anne Morath ‘12 joinedSpiotta in Honduras.
HF
photo by Katie O’Donnell
Two weeks in Honduras not only allowed Julia Spiottato brush up on her Spanish, but helped her to makesome amazing memories as well.
The world has done an ex-cellent job of raising aware-ness about Darfur and thegenocide and other humaninjustices happening there.However, when the UN’sInternational Crime Court(ICC) approached SudanesePresident Omar al-Bashir re-garding the crimes againsthumanity occurring underhim, he and his governmentnot only were outraged at theallegations, but emphaticallydenied them. Perhaps over300,000 bodies isn’t enough toconvince him, but it certainlyhas impacted their fellow citi-zens of the world. al-Bashirhas also recently rejected thedeployment of UN troops tothe Darfur region.Though he attends a Method-ist church in Texas and Epis-copal services when in Wash-ington D.C., President Bush isreportedly considering con-verting to Catholicism whenhe leaves office in January.Universal Music has justawarded a group of Cister-cian Monks a recording con-tract after a YouTube video ofthe group singing a Gregorianchant “blew record producersaway.”Famed Olympian Mark Spitzclaims that in his prime, hewould have “tied” modernswimming sensation MichaelPhelps.Despite promises to pull outof Georgia, Russian troopsshow little proof that theyintend to, indeed, leave thecountry.LeRoi Moore, long-time saxo-phonist for the Dave Mat-thews Band, died August19th after complications froman ATV accident in June.American Airlines became thefirst airline to offer in-flightinternet and e-mail serviceson its longer flights; service isavailable for $12.95.The French equivalent of theFCC banned channels frommarketing programs to thosethree years of age or youngerin order to shield them fromthe “developmental risks”attributed to young childrenwatching television.A recent study finds that theAmish population has morethan doubled over the courseof the last 16 years, and ex-pansion of over 130% in somestates.Rudy Giuliani will be the key-note speaker for the Republi-can National Convention inMinnapolis/Saint Paul. Oth-er guests include First LadyLaura Bush, Joe Lieberman,and Mitt Romney.They finally made her go torehab, and she said no no no...Amy Winehouse is back inrehab. Again.New York City Mayor Mi-chael Bloomberg proposedAugust 19th to develop wind-turbines to fit atop manyof NYCs famous skyscrap-ers and bridges, a plan thatwould supply the city with upto 10% of its energy needs.The new Blackberry Bold isset to hit shelves in the UnitedStates in early September. John McCain has announcedthat he will reveal his runningmate at an Ohio rally on Au-gust 29th, his seventy-secondbirthday.Using his granddaughter’spink Barbie fishing rod, Da-vid Hayes caught a record 21pound catfish on August 5.The United States and Iraqhave reportedly drawn up adetailed security agreementthat has American troops re-turning stateside as early as June 30, 2009—it still requiresacceptance by Iraqi leaders,however.
 
 
nEWS
August 2008
3
Emilia Huneke-Bergquist
 Julie Robison
 
EditOrs in Chief
Dave Wasmer
 
AssOciate EditOr
Heather Shell
 
COpy EditOr
Nate AndersonMatt ColeCalvin FreiburgerMartin Kraegel IIINathan LichtmanChristina Miller James NesbittScott Rozell
 
Staff Writers
Kate Martin
 
DC COrrespOndent
Dr. Larry ArnnRachel ElliottLizzy Shell
 
CONTRIBUTERs
theHillsdale Forum
staff
Guided by theprincipals of liberty,freedom, and justice,
The.Hillsdale.Forum
is a monthly student-run publication ofHillsdale Collegestriving to inform andeducate its readersabout today’s ever-changing Conservativepolitical climate.
CONTACT US:
HILLSDALEFORUM@GMAIL.COM
With fewer American troops dyingeach month and insurgent deathsspeculated to be 19,000-25,000,the deployment of an additional20,000 troops to Iraq has proven to be quite successful. Naturally Republicans are quite pleased with the way things aregoing, but surprisingly, so areDemocrats. While time tables andtroop withdrawals are still beingdemanded, such demands have been reduced to almost realisticlevels.Most notably, Sen. Barack Obama,who maintains he has never alteredhis firm anti-war stance, has calledfor extended time tables for troopwithdrawal in light of recentevents, and attempted to downplayhis initial disapproval of the troopsurge.Many have argued recentDemocratic behavior is simply party politics, and despite beingraised to prominence with the aidof the far Left, Obama and hisfellow Democrats plan to ride thewave of moderate America to theWhite House.So stances have been changed because Obama wants to maintainhis moderate voting base andDemocrats are just happy Americais winning…right? Or perhapsit is the millions of dollars thatDemocrats are now making.Originally Democrats madesuch a big issue about how longAmerica has been in Iraq becauseevery year part of the $500 billionspent on the war has found its wayinto Republican pockets.Republican members of Congresshave been making money since thestart of the war due to their heavyinvestment in companies such asHalliburton which has had almostexclusive rights in building thenew oil refineries, pipelines, andchemical plants of Iraq. Suchcompanies were granted substantialmilitary contracts from RepublicanCongressmen.As operations in Iraq move fromcombat to security, the reason for recent Democrat enthusiasm has become more apparent. Despitedenouncing the war, over the
MATT COLE
STAFF WRITER
THE IRAQ WAR:
CONGRESS’ PLAN FOR EARLY RETIREMENT?
This monthlyseries will high-light the activ-ity taking placeat your statecapitol. Stategovernmentis frequentlyoverlooked for the bigger piein Washington, but actions hereoften times havegreater influence on the lives of Michigan residents. Therefore, weturn our eye from the east and di-rect it to the north, bringing you thesilly, the pointless, and the criticaldirectly from Lansing. To begin our series, here are some eye-openingnumbers of your state government:
 
State Spending
Total Budget for FY 2008:$28,361,609,500Increase from Prior FY Budget:$361,609,500
Governor
8 — Number of line item vetoes by Governor, 200724 — Number of members inGovernor’s cabinet
Terms
4 — Number of Years/Term2 — Terms/Governor Allowed byLaw2010 — Next GubernatorialElection
Compensation & Benefits
$177,000 — Governor’s AnnualCompensation3
rd
— State Rank for Highest-PaidGovernors in 2007(Behind CA & NY)$60,000 — Governor’s AnnualExpense Allowance
(Housing and automobile/airline transportation provided by the State)
Staffing 
84.2 — Number of Full-TimeEquated Positions78 — Number of Office Staff 
Budget 
$5,317,300 — Appropriations tothe Governor’s Office
Legislature
4 — # of States with full-time, professional Legislatures(CA, NY, PA, and MI)38 — Members of the Senate21—Republicans17—Democrats19 — Number of StandingCommittees
Legislature (CONTINUED)
$61,359 — Office Budget per Senator 132 — # of Days Spent in SessionDuring 2007 (Senate)110 — Members of the House58—Democrats52—Republicans24 — # of Standing Committees134 — # of days spent in sessionduring 2007 (House)
Terms
31 — # of Membership Changesin Most Recent Election2 — Number of Years/Term3 — Total Number of Terms/Representative Allowed8 — # of Membership Changes inMost Recent Election4 — Number of Years/Term2 — # of Terms/Senator Allowed by Law
Compensation & Benefits
$79,650—Legislator’s AnnualCompensation$12,000 — Legislator’s YearlyExpense Allowance2nd — State Rank for HighestPaid State Legislators
Staffing 
5—Staff per Majority Senator 3—Staff per Minority Senator 2—Staff Members/Representative
Legislation
2,706 — Number of (House) Billsintroduced in last session1,521 — Number of (Senate)Bills introduced in lastlegislative session221 — Number of Public Acts passed in 2007
 Budget 
$114,504,000 — Appropriation tothe Legislature for FY2008$50,759,900 — HouseAppropriations$34,895,200 — SenateAppropriations$24,315,000 — Other LegislativeAppropriations
STATEHOUSE
   E   Y   E   O   N   T   H   E
James nesbitt
staff writer
CONTINUED ON PAGE 5
Hillsdale senior Craig Kreinbihl only recently returnedfrom the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China where hespent over a week as a guest of Coca-Cola Corporation.Here he stands in front of the famed Tiananmen Square.
 
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