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BooBoo, thanks for your post. You've hit on one of the editorial questions we ask ourselves all the time: how is this related to our region? What is our interest in this story? How can we take a national or even an international issue and see it through our own lens? Sometimes we get it right, and sometimes we don't, but our hope is that by bringing a Pacific Northwest sensibility to every topic, we get it right more often than not.

This election is so important-- not only to our region, but to the nation as a whole-- that we've committed to extensive political coverage (and yes, resources) about issues that may shape our region for decades to come. The conventions offer a chance to find and question influential people from our region and on the national scene who will be shaping the policies that we have to live with in the future.

I don't know if you caught the show on health care that we did yesterday: it did what we strive to do every day... bring together policy makers like State Rep. Ron Maurer (R-Grants Pass) and Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to explain the competing Republican and Democratic health care plans to two people from Oregon who want change-- a person who has no health insurance, and somebody who feels he's paying too much for the insurance he has. Health care is a national issue, of course, but it's also of great interest and importance to people in our region. Bringing our public officials into contact with people who have to live with the consequences of the policies they make is one of Think Out Loud's highest callings. And it would have been pretty difficult to nab Congressman Blumenauer for an hour during convention week to answer questions if we hadn't been there ourselves.

This is the first time that OPB has sent anybody the conventions, and one reason we've done that this yearis that we have a forum in Think Out Loud where people can discuss what's going on there, and interact with those attending.

Eve Epstein
Executive Producer
Think Out Loud

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
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