Purple is the new red in North Carolina.  An article in Newsweek Magazine recently listed N.C. as one of 14 “swing states” that could potentially switch their color in the general election this November.  If you are a North Carolinian, you probably know our state has bled red the last seven presidential elections.  Why then, would North Carolina go blue this year? 

According to the article, “the only way [Senator] Obama wins is through huge turnout from blacks and Research Triangle-area liberals matched by a significant drop in turnout for [Senator] McCain among conservatives.” In fact, the article does not make it sound very likely the state will go blue even though it placed N.C. in the “purple” category.  As Newsweek puts it: we are in a state with large rural communities and two major military bases.   

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Living in Iraq is very difficult today, but being in politics is even more difficult.  Add on the fact that you’re a woman and it must be pretty possible to survive, right?  Wrong.  I spoke with Iraqi City Councilwoman Ramla Hameed, 44, from Kirkuk and found that strong women are making big waves throughout the country. In fact, political equality among women seems stronger in Iraq than it is in the United States.

“One of every three members in the national Council of Representatives is a woman,” Hameed said.

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Something is missing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  As I strolled by the Old Well and through the Pit where I used to hear all my campus and political affairs, I just couldn’t put my finger on what was gone.  Am I reminiscing about class this soon after college graduation?  Am I sad that basketball season is still months away?

I forced myself to put nostalgia and the dread of another bad football season aside, and then it hit me. Where are all the fun, spunky and energized Ron Paul supporters?  They rocked out the vote with shirts and banners, yelling to campus why Ron Paul was the best candidate for president before John McCain ultimately won the Republican Party’s nomination.   I miss them now.  Campus—and the election for that matter—feels different without them.

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Jordanian youth might not know a lot about U.S elections, but almost all of them have an opinion about the race.  I asked twenty-five students from various urban universities to participate in a survey about the upcoming elections.  And while John McCain prides himself on his international experience, the survey showed that most Jordanian youth have not even heard of him.  While 80 percent of those surveyed knew Barack Obama, only 44 percent of youth knew John McCain.   

Jordanian youth also said they liked Obama best.  Forty-four percent said they liked Obama and only 8 percent said they liked McCain.   

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Last Monday Senator Barack Obama celebrated his 47th birthday.  If elected, he will be one of the youngest presidents in United States history after Teddy Roosevelt, John Kennedy, Bill Clinton and Ulysses S. Grant.  Senator John McCain, on the other hand, will turn 72 this month.  If he is chosen, he will be the oldest first-term president in history.  Looking at the numbers alone, these two candidates could not be much farther apart. 

It is easy to hear Americans take the age of the presidential candidates into consideration. When weighing the “pros” and “cons” of the candidates, some Americans make statements such as “Obama is too young” or “McCain in too old to be president.”  But while Americans can argue freely about age, in Jordan the topic is slightly taboo. 

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In America, it’s not odd to see young girls create teams and spend an hour screaming and laughing on a basketball court, but in Jordan, this scene is rarely possible.

“I see that girls want to do the same things as boys, they want to go outside and play, but they feel they can’t,” Mindy Ko, 24, said.

Ko is a Peace Corps volunteer from Utah. She has been volunteering as an English teacher in a small Jordanian town for two years. She said her time in Jordan made her want to advance equality. She and five other Peace Corps volunteers put together the first GLOW Camp in Jordan, which stands for “Girls Leading Our World.”

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