The Permanent Campaign

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'The Permanent Campaign'; was written by Norman J. Ornstein and Amy S. Mitchell. This article appeared first in The World & I, in January 1997.
Norman Ornstein is regarded as one of our nation's foremost experts on Congress. Mr. Ornstein received a Ph.D.. from the University of Michigan, he writes for the NewYork Times, USA Today, Washington Post, and he has a regular column in Roll Call newspaper called 'Congress Inside Out';. Mr. Ornstein is also an election analyst for CBS and appears frequently on television shows including the Today Show, Nightline and the Mac Neil/Lehre News Hour where he has been a consultant and contributor for fifteen years.
Mr. Ornstein is a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and is also an advisor and member of the Free TV for Straight Talk coalition. The coalition is a group of 80 leaders from the worlds of politics, corporations, broadcast journalism, the entertainment industry and public interest groups. They support giving political candidates free air time on TV to promote their political views without the media's input. He has authored or co-authored recent books such as How We Can Get Out of It, Debt and Taxes: How America Got Into Its Budget Mess, and
Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy.
Amy Mitchell is a journalist whom graduated from Georgetown University, she has written may articles concerning government and the media and was a congressional associate at the American Enterprise Institute for four years. She is now the staff director of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. The CCJ is an organization of editors, producers, reporters, and producers whom are concerned with the future of the media. They believe that right now is a crucial moment in American journalism and it is time to sit down and talk about the core principles and function of journalism.
The Article 'The Permanent Campaign'; takes a look at the way the American political system has evolved over the years. When George Washington was president he did not campaign any before he was put in office. When he was in office he only made a few public appearances and when he did he didn't speak a word. During Washington's era political campaigning was considered undignified.
Now the whole philosophy has changed. Before the 1992 election was even over the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report ran a story on the possible Republican hopefuls for the 1996 campaign. We have gone from a country who denounced campaigning to one in which candidates start campaigning for seats that haven't even been decided in the current elections.

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