Today, while off to a relatively slow start, was a definite success. Our first speaker this morning was Ross Baker, a Political Science professor at Rutgers. While very knowledgeable, his discussion was somewhat dry and his answers to questions were a little lengthier than they had to be. Following baker was Dr. Genovese, who covered many topics and finally deviated from the overdone theme of media coverage and the Obama campaign. His discussion mainly focused on Congress, but included many aspects of it. Everything from earmarks to Congress’s relationship to the current and past presidents was covered. He even brought up how Obama’s short career in the Senate may have actually helped him, because critics had less decisions to question him on. He also made an interesting comparison between Bush (43) and Lincoln, saying that they both overstepped they’re Constitutional powers in the same way, but Lincoln submitted his actions for Congress to review and approve of at a later time, whereas Bush claimed his actions were ‘non-reviewable’.
Next, we heard from the Ambassador of Pakistan, who had many insightful comments on a wide range of issues. Not only did he demonstrate his knowledge and experience, he did so with a candor that made himself approachable and made it easy for students to ask questions. He even made his presentation and answers humorous (going so far as to reference an advertisement for condoms). Even with ‘difficult’ or controversial questions he was very diplomatic without coming off as trying to be too politically correct. The presentation was very balanced and engageing, and all this leads me to believe he has been our best speaker yet. I would certainly like to hear him lecture on other topics, or go into more depth on those which were touched on today; such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how Pakistan and the United States handle their relationship, among others.
Finally, Steve Bell gave a quick and rather light presentation on the media coverage and bias shown during the presidential campaign (again). But this lecture came complete with soundbites and video clips, and was decidedly more comedic than at other times. The most outstanding part would have to be the huge contrast between the “interviews” of Mccain and Obama on the talk show “The View”. Looking at the two clips right after one another made the disparity between how the two were treated quite comical, if you find humor in that sort of thing. And no well-rounded discussion of media coverage of the campaign can leave out Sarah Palin and Tina Fey, which we concluded our morning seminar with today.
Today’s site visit was quick and to the point, and consisted a guided tour of the Capitol (the Capitol building, to be more specific). It was like going through airport security-literally-to get into the building, but the police officer guarding the entrance was very pleasant to talk to while we waited to get out of the freezing cold weather to have our bags scanned and go through the metal detector. It really was a beautiful sight inside, which was not all that surprising considering how impressive it is from without. However I’m afraid all the pictures I took of the statues and paintings and architecture do not do the building justice. It really must be seen in person, and is certainly worth seeing again.
This evening we had the added pleasure of attending a performance by Mark Russel, the musical political satirist. He was a wonderful performer and put on a great show. It was great to share a few laughs with the large group of people we are continuing to spend time with and getting to know through the Washington Center. I would see Mark Russel perform again without a doubt. Informed, educated humor. Awesome 
