Interviewing and Listening to Guests, Essay Example

Congresswoman Patricia Schroeder, presidential candidate

Listening to Patricia Scott Schroeder gives one a feeling of determination and daring spirit. She stands out as the first woman ever to serve in the congress of United States of America. She embarked in active politics in the years 1973, 33 years after her birth in Portland, Oregon. She is largely known for her active opposition of wasteful spending of the government resources in Defense Department. She is also known to have relentlessly championed for the rights of women and children. This extraordinary woman served in Congress throughout until 1997 when she retired. This makes her remain as the longest serving woman in the Congress.

Because she was the first woman from Colorado ever to be elected to the House of Representatives, it was evidently clear that she was predisposed to the negative attitudes propagated against female congresspersons. I found one hilarious thing about her early years in congress. This relates to the manner she responded to questions from colleagues about her ability to handle her children and serve in the congress. Quoting her answer, she said, “I have a brain and a uterus and I use them both.”

As a woman, Schroeder remains an incredible figure in United States politics as far as women active participation in politics is concerned. She exuded confidence while stating her arguments, an attribute that propelled her to greater levels of leadership. In fact, I want to believe that this attribute propelled her to declare the intention of running for the presidency in 1988. Unfortunately, she never lived to her dream as she later on gave up on the pursuit. The situation appeared to be a setback for women’s pursuit for the big office. However, I want to believe she was inspirational to the likes of Hillary Clinton who gathered courage to fight to the bitter end in Democrats presidential nomination against President Barack Obama.

Gov. Michael Dukakis, 1988 Democratic nominee for president

Michael Dukakis is as having been the first American of Greek origin to receive nomination to run for president in the year 1988 under the Democratic Party. Dukakis had a successful run in the Democratic campaigns and was poised to give the then vice president, George H W Bush a spirited campaign for the presidency.

In the presidential campaigns against Bush, Dukakis used his immigrant roots to promote his presidential agenda. He used popular music such as Neil Diamond’s song to the immigrant, America to win the voters. However, the presidential campaigns leading to the general election was not a soft landing for the Democrat candidate. Bush was particularly critical on his liberal stance on a variety of issues. His statement that he was part of the “card carrying American” seemed not to augur well as Bush frequently used it to pin him down.

Dukakis run in the primary were smoother as he was able to beat Jesse Jackson and emerge the Democrats presidential flag bearer. However, his campaign against Bush was not a straightforward path. He was heavily criticized for his liberal policies. He also lost the favor of a majority of the Democrats after failing to pick Jesse Jackson as his running mate although he had emerged second. Further, he was criticized of his inexperience as far as management of foreign policy as well as the military is concerned.

His personality as reserved and stoic depicted him as a disinterested contender for the presidential campaigners. In the first presidential debate against Bush, he performed superbly well. However, the second debate depicted him as a cold president to be. In the end, the hard-fighting democratic presidential candidate lost to Bush.

Congressman Mark Foley

Talk about controversial politician in the history of United States congress and the name of Mark Foley would not fail to appear. This is the only person who was hardly understood in his early political life and even up to date. If facial expression were what to go by, then nobody would have ever believed that the representative of the 16^th District of Florida under Republican Party could be a gay. However, deep secrets reveal that the promising congressman has been a gay ever since his childhood at Palm Beach.

In 2003, the political life of the Foley appeared to be taking a positive turn. In the same year, Bob Graham’s Senate seat would be vacant after his retirement announcement and Foley appeared to be the next probable replacement. Just as his political career was shaping up, rumors about his either bisexual or homosexual relationship cropped up throwing his ambition into jeopardy. His stories began receiving space in local and gay press before finding the way to national newspapers such as New York Press. In a response to counter the rumors that had then become the talk of the nation, Foley was quick to denounce the rumormongers insisting that his sexual orientation was not as valuable as his duty to the congress of the United States of America. However, one notable issue is that he did not distance himself from the information that the rumors carried. A couple of weeks after the onset of the rumors, Foley surprisingly called off his candidacy for the senatorial position citing his father’s sickness to the primary reason for the move.

In his tenure at the congress, Foley is widely remembered of having introduced a bill that sought to ban child pornography. However, the bill did not sail through because its consequences on the film industry would have been detrimental. Sometimes later, he is also remembered voting against a bill that sought to ban the recognition of gays and lesbians in Washington DC. His political career reached tempestuous waters in the year 2006 when he was accused as having sent suggestive messages in gay website. He was forced to relinquish his seat by the Republican Party.

Summary

In summary, the three former congresspersons are greater speakers to listen to them and take up the positive lessons that their history bear. Patricia Scott Schroeder was inspired by the fact that she did not allow her gender be an impediment to her political career as a Colorado congresswoman. In as much as she understood that the society had a negative attitude on women participation in politics, she never let go of her ambitions as a congresswoman. Despite her unexpected quit from the presidential race, she remains an influential figure to women who desire to pursue a political career.

Secondly, Michael Dukakis run for the presidency is also an inspiration story of a person who is daring. Dukakis fought fiercely against Bush, but unfortunately, lost because of the errors in personality that he displayed during both the primaries and the campaign leading to the general election. Despite the fact that no incumbent president was in the run for election in 1988, Dukakis and Bush had an almost equal chance of securing the victory. Eventually, Michael Dukakis accepted the loss and embarked on his teaching career, which he enjoys up to date.

Finally, Congressman Mark Foley had an abnormal sexual orientation that up to date is unacceptable to the American society. It is unfortunate for the case of Mr. Foley as the America society is based on some ideals that must be observed. His childhood senatorial ambitions suffered a blow as the gay scandal forced him to quit his position in public office. His political failure is a lesson that those aspiring to run for public offices should mould their characters first.