Presidential
Election 2008:
Researching
the Candidates
(The contents of this document were
compiled by Lee McLaird, LWVBG member and Curator of Rare Books at BGSU's
Center for Archival Collections.)
Non-Partisan
Election Sites on the Internet
CNN: America Votes 2008
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/
Information
about the candidates and the election.
Includes links to news
stories
and analysis.
P2008: The 2008 Presidential Campaign
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/P2008.html
Includes
links to candidatesÕ web sites, new sites about the election,
information
about the political parties, analysis of the campaign, etc.
League of
Women Voters
Resource guide for information about voting and
candidates.
LibrariansÕ Index to the Internet:
Links
to a wide variety of Internet sites, including a brief description of
the
type
of information to be found.
Politics1.com: Presidency 2008
http://www.politics1.com/p2008.htm
Links
to a wide variety of Internet sites about the candidates and about the
2008
election, including third-party candidates.
Project Vote
Smart: 2008 Presidential Candidates
http://www.vote-smart.org/election_president.php
Information
about each candidate includes: biographical information,
campaign
finance, issue positions, interest group ratings, voting records,
and
public statements. Not all
information is available for some lesser
known
candidates.
Non-Partisan
Sites: Finding What the Candidates Have Said
Congressional Record (GPO Access)
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/crecord/index.html
A
searchable database of proceedings on the floor of Congress, listing
remarks
both by and about the subject.
Congressional Record (Thomas)
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/r110query.html
A
searchable database of proceedings on the floor of Congress. This page
for
the 110th Congress includes links to earlier congresses.
Lexis Nexis Congressional
For
on-campus and off-campus access, see the University LibrariesÕ
Research Databases page and type ÒLexis NexisÓ and
choose Congressional:
http://maurice.bgsu.edu/search/y
Searchable full text database of many newspapers,
magazines, newswires, etc. Coverage varies for individual titles.
Google News
From
GoogleÕs main page, select News, then News Archive Search
Searchable
full text database of many newspapers and news organization
websites.
Weekly Compilation of Presidential
Documents
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/wcomp/index.html
A
weekly compilation of every public word spoken by the President.
The White House: Presidential News &
Speeches
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/
The
text of Presidential speeches, news conferences, etc.
Non-Partisan Sites: Campaign Finance
Federal Election Commission
The official source of information on campaign
finances. This site does not
have as much detailed data as some of the private
Internet sites.
OpenSecrets.org
Information about campaign finances of candidates
running for federal offices.
PoliticalMoneyLine: Money in Politics
Database
Information about candidatesÕ campaign
finances. Some of the information
on this site is available only to subscribers.
Non-Partisan
Sites: Finding Polls on the Internet
Gallup Organization
The
official site for Gallup, a major polling organization. This site includes
data
from a selected group of their Polls.
Pew Research Center for the People and the
Press
Poll
results for issues, including the election.
PollingReport.com
A
site that includes polling data from a variety of sources.
The Roper Center: Election 2008
http://www.ropercenter.uconn.edu/elections/
Polling
data on the 2008 election.
Political
Party Sites
Republican National
Committee
McCain for President
Ohio Republican Party
Democratic National
Committee
Obama for President
Ohio Democratic Party
Nader/Gonzalez 2008 http://www.votenader.org
Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org
Green Party http://www.gp.org
Non-Partisan
Sites: Facts and Analysis & General Fact-checking
FactCheck.org
Sponsored
by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of
Pennsylvania. It accepts no
funding from business corporations, labor
unions,
political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals.
C-Span.org
C-SPAN
is a private, non-profit company, created by the cable television
industry. It receives no government funding;
operations are funded by fees paid by cable and satellite affiliates who carry
C-SPAN programming.
PolitiFact.com
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/
Sponsored by the St. Petersburg, Florida Times
newspaper and the
Congressional Quarterly, it features analysis of
claims made by candidates and rates them on their level of truth.
Urban Legends Reference Pages
More
than a political site, this is also a good source for checking out
Internet
hoaxes.
Fact-Checker
http://www.voices.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker
Sponsored
by the Washington Post, this site features analysis of
candidate
claims and rates them on truthfulness.