CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES

Activity II: Who is That Man?

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Learning Goal

Students will be able to explain the personality differences between the 1996 candidates and thereby assess their overall fitness for public office.

Instructions

1. Create a "matching test" that asks the class to identify who is being described in certain revealing statements paraphrased from the film. When preparing the test, jumble the following statements and hide the correct answers:

About Dole

• "He recognizes that people who babble too much aren't trustworthy."
• "This is a man who knows how important it is to do a job exactly right."
• "He remembers every political deal that has ever been struck."

About Clinton

• "When I first saw his face, there was an intensity and a sincerity."
• "'Keep your options open' is the watchword of his success."
• "He makes you feel like he's never had a better friend."

About Both Candidates

• "The politics of the Nixon era changed him forever."
• "There is no politician in my lifetime who has been more politically expedient."
• "I think what's really fundamental to him is his lack of an agenda."

2. Ask the students to take the "test" and then have them grade their own papers.

3. Which statements were easiest to identify? Which were hardest? How different are Clinton and Dole from one another? From other politicians?