Campaign Audio from PRX

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God save the candidate who uses a three syllable word. Reporters will careen satellite trucks through crowded schoolyards to get the scoop on a politician “out of touch” with the voters. Instead office-seekers use a folksier, kitchen table, I’m-one-of-you-vote-for-me kind of speech that appeals to everyone. But as boring as politician speeches can get, they are an incredibly rich source of imagery: cut-n-run, glass pockets, big stick diplomacy, lock boxes, welfare queens, spin-rooms…

As new political terms constantly rain down we turn to linguists to examine them. A Way with Words does just that. In this excerpt, the hosts, author Martha Barnette and dictionary editor Grant Barrett discuss some of these new additions to our political vocabulary.

You can listen to the flash above or license the whole thing here.

Comfortably into the general election now with race and religion having drifted from the headlines. But they are still issues in many battleground states. West Virginia stands out as an example of how difficult it will likely be for Obama’s campaign to deal with this problem in Appalachia. Scott Finn of West Virginia Public Broadcasting filed this report soon after the May state primary, where poll results showed how race and religion affected the outcome.

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You can check out all of  PRX’s election audio on race and religion here.

PRX has partnered with The Conversations Network for our election podcast called ’08 Conversations. The latest one was about the female vote which has always been important, but the 2008 Presidential candidates have found women to be an electoral hot commodity. Given that polls find many to be both independent and undecided, both Obama and McCain are in full court woo to win them over.

Below you can listen to what the candidates are saying about women. Then we have Susan Kottler’s take on the 2008 Presidential Bake-Off Cookies.

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Back in the dark ages–1970something–the pols in Washington thought it would be a grand idea to bring law and order to campaign financing.  The result?  More loopholes for questionable money to slip through to candidates running for office.

In this second installment covering the Center for Public Integrity’s report on campaign spending, Sara Fritz, a veteran journalist who helped pioneer the campaign finance beat, discusses Section 527 groups and other independent organizations, who spend millions of dollars on advertisements and other election activities.

PRX has it ready for air here and more will be coming all summer long.

I wanted to repost a mix of McCain’s speech from the night of the South Dakota and Montana primaries. It was painful and stumbling at best. After being a Rep and Senator of 26 years, this speech shows just how unfamiliar he is with delivering prepared remarks.

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PRX has a lot of speeches like this where odd and uncomfortable moments spotlight the candidates’ personality. For creative producers it’s a gold mine for mash-ups and orchestral compositions of poli-speak. Take a look.

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At last he speaks.

Months went by after John Edwards dropped his bid for president and he said nothing. Clinton wooed, Obama wooed. And still this polymer-smiled populist kept quiet.

For all the anticipation, when Edwards finally endorsed Obama last week in Michigan he omitted the key phrase: “I endorse…”

In fact, Edwards’ endorsement was not so much an endorsement at all but rather a rose ceremony where Edwards spends half the speech praising Senator Clinton despite boos and moans from the audience. Only later does Edwards state matter-of-factly that Obama will be the next president.

In the end, the Obama campaign never issued a press release using the words endorse nor have all of Edwards’ super delegates moved towards Obama.

The loneliest Republican has to be Ron Paul. He has at least a million adoring fans, out fund-raised both McCain and Romney and holds Ronald Regan up like a chalice.

Yet he still can’t get any love from the Republican party.

But in the last week of April during the state caucus in Nevada, Ron Paul supporters came out in droves and overwhelmed what was to be a rubber stamp of John McCain’s delegates. Thanks to Brian Bahouth of Nevada Public Radio we have the audio. First you’ll hear the commotion caused by Ron Paul fans. One of whom, Rob Tyree, then takes over the proceedings. Then Congressman Paul speaks to the crowd.

All this is followed by Bahouth’s interview with Paul about the status of the Republican party.

Here’s the flash:

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If you want more raw audio from the campaign trail check out the full collection.

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Awash in Democrats we are.

They’re everywhere. Running from state to state aggrandizing thier politics. Majority leader Harry Reid locked the Senate doors this week so he can push his Democratic agenda. And well-whipped congressional Republicans have been forced to parry a cavalcade of scandals and financing woes. All of this adds up to a steady hum of left-leaning policy ideas: tax the rich, free trade is killing Main Street, and universal everything for everyone.

But then we have McCain and his economy speech last week in Pittsburgh. Take a listen, it may just shock your ears to hear something other than non-liberal thinking. Said out loud. In public. To applause.

Flash above and you can download and license here.

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NPR just sent audio from Clinton outside a polling station. Flash above, here’s the link: http://www.prx.org/pieces/25340

She talks about getting tough on Iran, going negative in PA, campaign debt, and why Obama can’t “close the deal”.

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News is coming over the wires that Obama is closing the delegate gap in Texas thanks to the confusing post-primary caucus. While Clinton still won the popular vote in Texas she is dangerously close to loosing the delegate count. CQ has a good wrap of this and above we have some choice audio on how this happened and the problems that came with it.

Want more?

Here is a previous post on possible legal action to come. You can license both of these pieces here and here