Following the presidential debate about foreign policy, a new Pew Research poll indicates that Americans wants the U.S to limit its involvement in foreign affairs. Also, a California court has ruled selling medical marijuana is legal. Plus, as the Lakers get ready for a new season, Time Warner Cable finds itself on the defense as it scrambles to find distributors for its new Lakers channel. As we close in on the final stretch of the presidential race, both Mitt Romney and Barack Obama strive to win votes in the swing state of Nevada. And how free are college campuses when it comes to free speech? On today's AirTalk.
POLL: Survey says Americans are feeling foreign policy fatigue
Presidential candidates Barack Obama and Mitt Romney rattled sabers over foreign policy last week on the assumption that it’s a big issue for voters. But is it?
A recent national survey by the Pew Research Center shows that, despite differing diplomacy styles, the two candidates are evenly matched in voters’ opinions on who would do the better job overseas.
But the poll also found that Americans are far less interested in the doings of other countries than in what goes on within their own borders. As in the periods following World War I, Vietnam and the Cold War, long-ranging conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken their toll, and foreign policy fatigue has set in.
Nearly 60 percent of Americans don’t feel that the Arab Spring uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya have led to lasting improvement for those living in the Middle East, and roughly the same percentage feel a growing disillusionment with our own nation-building efforts in that region.
Similarly, many Americans feel we should be less involved in the ongoing struggle between the Israelis and Palestinians and the violence in Syria. In fact, two-thirds of Americans say that a stable government of any kind in those regions is more important than establishing democracy — a long-standing goal of each administration.
These numbers belie our supposed faith in our role as a world leader and a spreader of democracy. So while Obama and Romney spar over whether it’s better to catch flies with honey or vinegar, and how many ships, submarines or bayonets we should be funding, voters, it would seem, could not care less.
Do the candidates’ differing approaches matter? Is foreign policy really a deal-breaker in this election? Should the U.S. continue to press its agenda in the Middle East and other parts of the world, or should we become a more isolationist nation?
Guests:
Robert C. O’Brien, Senior advisor to Mitt Romney on foreign affairs and national security; Former U.S. representative to the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration; Attorney & Partner, Arent Fox international law firm
Nina Hachigian, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank; former senior political scientist, RAND; Staffer, White House National Security Council, 1998-1999
Christopher A. Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute and the author of three books including The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous and Less Free (Cornell University Press, 2009)
Pot wars: court decision recognizes the legal sale of medical marijuana
The California Fourth District Court overturned their 2010 conviction of San Diego medical marijuana provider Jovan Jackson, recognizing the right of nonprofit dispensaries to provide medical cannabis to those with prescriptions.
The decision coincides with the repeal of a ban on Los Angeles dispensaries, which began in July. Medical marijuana advocates acted quickly to collect enough signatures to put a repeal referendum on the March 2013 ballot, but L.A. Council members decided to repeal the bill themselves in a more recent vote.
The California Supreme Court may take up a medical marijuana case next year, but until then, medical cannabis will be available at California dispensaries. Should medical marijuana be legal? What kind of regulations should control California dispensaries?
Guest:
Frank Stoltze, KPCC reporter
PPIC and USC Dornslife polls on CA ballot measures
Can’t wait until election day to find out how people feel about California Propositions and ballot initiatives? No problem. There are two new surveys out today from USC and the Public Policy Institute of California. The latest polling on California’s ballot measures indicates withering support for Propositions 31, 32, and 38 and an increasingly level split on Governor Jerry Brown’s educational funding measure, Proposition 30. Prop 31, a two year budget program, has been consistently unpopular. Support for Prop. 32, which would prohibit unions, corporations, and government contractors from using payroll deductions for political purposes, has dropped off since September. Molly Munger’s tax measure to fund education, Prop. 38, has also lost ground, despite a funding push.
What do changes in poll results indicate? Do surveys and polls affect your decisions about how to vote? Which propositions on the November 6 ballot are most important to you?
Guests:
Mark Baldassare, president and CEO of Public Policy Institute of California
Dave Kanevsky, Research Director with the Republican polling firm American Viewpoint, which conducts the USC/LA Times Poll with Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner
Lakers new Time Warner deal is still leaving fans in the dark
The 2012-13 NBA Basketball season is quickly approaching for the retooled and star studded Los Angeles Lakers. With the offseason acquisitions of two time MVP Steve Nash and the best center in the game Dwight Howard, Kobe and the Lakers are considered the team to beat in the Western Conference.
The Lakers also reached a 20 year, $3 billion deal with Time Warner Cable last year for broadcasting rights to over 70 Laker games a year. New team, new broadcasting deal, everyone should be happy in Laker-land. That is to say everyone except the fans.
Despite the new agreement, Time Warner has yet to strike a deal with local cable and satellite providers to broadcast actual games. Cable companies point to the exuberant amount Time Warner is asking for. At $4.00 a month for the TWC Sportsnet channel, it ranks as one of the highest number amounts for a subscription channel. This off the court storyline has left the Laker fan base upset and very putout. Time Warner insists a deal will be made with cable and satellite providers before the NBA season starts.
Will this situation change the way you watch the Lakers? With the start of the regular season a week away, do you think a deal can be reached in time?
Guests:
Andrew Zimbalist, sports economist; professor of economics, Smith College in Massachusetts
Amy Maclean, editor in chief, CableFAX - a cable industry trade publication
In 2012 the Silver State is still blue-ish, but Republicans are gaining ground in Nevada
Nevada’s population has tripled since 1980 and over two-thirds of the state’s current 2.7 million residents live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. This is good news for Democrats, who have been registering nearly twice as many voters than Republicans on a monthly basis since January, and although Las Vegas isn’t the capital, Sin City is safely Democrat territory.
In 2008, Barack Obama won handily Nevada’s then-five electoral votes by a margin of over 120,000 votes. Fast forward to 2012 and the incumbent Democrat president is leading by a slimmer margin for Nevada’s six electoral votes – currently averaging a roughly three and a half point lead. But Republican challenger Mitt Romney has been making important inroads in the Silver State, hinging on Nevada’s staunchly conservative rural areas – and a lot of Nevada is very sparsely populated – as well as the state’s small but vocal Mormon population.
Romney’s message of fiscal responsibility resonates in Nevada, one of the states hardest hit by the Great Recession. With less than two weeks until Election Day, Nevada’s housing market is still struggling and unemployment is still the highest in the nation at 11.8 percent. Will Democrats be able to hold onto their shrinking lead in Nevada? How will Nevada voters cast their votes in 2012 and beyond?
Guest:
Steve Sebelius, political columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and blogger at slashpolitics.com
The free speech debate rages on: College is where you go to expand your mind, right?
The free speech debate rages on: College is where you go to expand your mind, right? At least, that’s what the free speech revolution of the sixties taught us. But in the years since those heady days of sit-ins, protests and flag-burnings, barriers to that basic right have been creeping up at campuses all over the country. Indeed, a series of isolated incidents, taken as a whole, might point to an all-out assault on the principal of free speech: a theater professor disciplined for posting a TV show poster on his door.
Students at Yale banned from putting an F. Scott Fitzgerald quote on a T-shirt. “Free speech zones” enforced on campuses. Even at the bastion of the free speech movement, the University of California at Berkeley, officials have recommended a “no hate speech” policy that some say borders on censorship.
Should institutions of higher learning be policing extreme religious views, hate speech and unpopular politics? Are we sending students the wrong message about speaking their minds? Could a culture of censorship in America’s colleges and universities bleed into rest of society? How do you respond to views you disagree with?
Guests:
Greg Lukianoff, author of “Unlearning Liberty: Campus Censorship and the End of American Debate” (Perseus Books); attorney and president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.