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Consider this statement: A politicians lifestyle should reflect his or her political views. Write a unified essay in which you perform the following tasks. Explain what you think the abovestatement means. Describe a specific situation in which a politicians lifestyle might not reflect his or her political views. Discuss what you think determines whether or not a politicians lifestyle should

reflect his or her political views.Essay #1: A politicians lifestyle should reflect his or her political views.When people in a city get ready to vote, they look towards the best political candidatefor the job. A politician must live his life the way he encourages other people to dowhen campaigning to build a better community. For instance, a politician encouragespeople to recycle and to keep the streets very clean by not littering, he too must duethe same thing. Some body in office must not be hypocritical. By recycling and notlittering in his personal life, sets a good example for the other people in his community.

However, there are times when a politicians life style should not reflect his ideasduring specific campaigns. If the issues that he is discussing dose not pertain to himpersonally, why must he live in such a way as though it does. An example of this wouldbe wellfare, he may suport welfare but how can he show his support through his ownpersonal life when he himself is not on government assistance.

In order for a politician political opinions to be part of his personal life is if theypertain to him as well. If a politician has opinions on specific issues that in no wayeffect him or his life, he does not need to incorporate that issue into his life.

SCORE POINT: 2

ANNOTATIONS:This essay shows us a writer with some promise, but problems with language control andunderdeveloped ideas prevent the writer from achieving clarity of ideas. The simple ideas aroundwhich the essay is structured may be relevant and valid, but they arent explained to a degree thatmakes their meaning clear to the reader. Rather, we see only dogmatic assertions that lack any

supporting reasoning. Furthermore, the contrived example in the second paragraph does not allow thewriter to connect the example back out to a larger principle, since the point is unclear and the logicseems confused. Consistent and disruptive breakdowns in syntax make it difficult to establish therelationships between the parts of sentences, and vagueness in word choice compounds this problemwith language control. Underdeveloped, poorly expressed ideas lead to problems with clarity in thisfairly typical 2.

Essay #2: A politicians lifestyle should reflect his or her political views.

A politicians lifestyle should reflect his or her political views is a statement that can

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be complex if we take the time to analyze it. Its meaning is clear, in that people andpoliticians in particular, in order to be effective, must practice what they teach and notfall victim to hypocrisy. A great example of this undoubtedly Ghandi. He was a pacifistand anti-materialist in public, and when examining his personal life, it becomes clearthat the two correspond. Accounts of him being very gentle in person and often timesdenying himself worldly goods, and even fasting, are not uncommon. Another examplethat is of someone who is quite different, but true to himself nonetheless, GenghisKhan preached to his soldiers to be fierce in battle and never run in the face of death.His personal life obviously reflected such sentiments and he created one of the mostpowerful armies the world has ever seen, despite killing his own soldier if he caughtthem running away.

The leaders mentioned were obviously effective at what they do by being true to theirword, but as we shall see, there are others who can achieve the same end without doingso. Bill Clinton, for example, was obviously the leader of the free world and thus mustbe honest and just, but from the Monica Lewinsky scandal, it is known that he lied onthe witness stand about that affair, a trait that is undesirable to say the least.However, few will say that because of the incident, he is not as good of a leader. This iswhere the contradiction between their leaders views and actions are irrelevant.Another good example is that of Benjamin Franklin. He routinely reminded people of thesaying a penny saved is a penny earned, but historical records indicated that he spentfrivolously on whatever he desired. He also taught on the evil of being lazy, but oftenwas accused of being such.

In conclusion, I believe that, although it is preferred that a politician or leader shouldpractice what they preach, it is unnecessary unless their lifestyle or habit poses adanger or creates disaster for his/her people. To paraphrase a great man whose name Icannot recall, It is better for a leader to seem virtuous than for him to actually be so.

SCORE POINT: 4

ANNOTATIONS:This essay achieves adequate clarity of ideas through adequate development of two well-explainedand clear examples in both the first task (explaining the statement) and the second task (providing acounterexample). Unfortunately, the analysis ultimately falls flat, becoming too brief as the writer triesto reconcile the two main ideas in the final paragraph (determining factors). There is a recognition of complexity in the quote in the last sentence (i.e., the idea that appearing virtuous is perhaps moreimportant than actually being so), but this idea is not pursued in the way that a 5-level essay mightincorporate itas an integral part of the analysis that is then further explored and illustrated.Language use shows only a basic command, with inconsistencies: many of the sentence structures are

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simple and clipped, but others show better sentence construction. Some of the diction is nicelyeffective (frivolously and just), but other choices are repetitious (obviously) or trite (practicewhat they preach and the world has ever seen.) Overall, a few inconsistencies in language use,focus, and slightly abbreviated development of ideas are not problematic enough to diminish theessays strengths, and it remains a 4.

Essay#3: A politicians lifestyle should reflect his or her political views.

Voters are often surprisingly tolerant of seemingly major transgressionsleading thecountry into a futile war, or allowing the national debt to soar to unimaginable heights,for instance. However, if there is one thing that voters despise and reject, it is blatanthypocrisy. We expect our elected leaders to model the values they seek to impose ontheir constituency, be they the time-tested virtues of honesty, probity, andforthrightness, or the more mundane virtues of hard-work, attention to detail, andcompassion. Any sort of discordance between a politicians lifestyle and his or herpolitical views is, in general, highly politically inexpedient.

This reality is well depicted in the recent scandal involving former House MajorityLeader Tom Delay. After Delays espousing of a highly conservative ethos, rooted in theteachings of Christianity, the subsequent revelation that Delay was likely involved in asordid bribery and corruption scheme was too much for even the highly conservativeelectorate of Delays Texas district to swallow. With polls showing that Delay faced anextremely difficult reelection campaign, he resigned his seat in the House, a victim ofhis own hypocrisy and his constituencys rejection of such duplicitous manipulation ofthe political system. While surely any politician embroiled in illegal activities would facea tough campaign trail, the fact that this scandal centered on a man with such avowedmoral virtue at the heart of his political appeal made the difficulty doubly so.

However, in ceratin cases, it is impossible for a politicians lifestyle to reflect his or herpolitical views. Under some circumstances, the very nature of political life makes itdifficult for a successful politician to fully practice what they preach. An example ofthis can be seen in the fiscal conservative who advocates reduced government spending,personal frugality, and a dedication to responsible debt management or a debt-freeexistencewhile raising and spending large sums of money to be elected to acompetitive congressional seat. Senator John McCain of Arizona exemplifies this:McCain, an avowed fiscal conservative, spent millions and millions of dollars on suchthings as 30-seconds TV spots, posters, and campaign buttons to be reelected to hisSenate seat.

However, had McCain not spent that inordinate sum of money, he would not still be a

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Senator, most likely; this demonstrates the exception to the general principle thatpoliticians should always live their lives in accordance with the political views they hold.If the political career of a politician is absolutely dependent on a momentarydiscordance between lifestyle and political assertion, then it is acceptable to ultimatelyfavor ones own livelihood over policy dialogue. How can one be expected to makemeaningful change in Washington unless one is around to vote? Perhaps we may not likethe political reality of what it takes to get elected in 21st-century American politics,but we cannot fault the individual participants for an unfortunate system that theythemselves did not put in place. Dont hate the player, hate the game. So in general, wesee that the public looks at hypocrisy with great disfavor, and that a politicianslifestyle should correspond to the lifestyle they lead, but we can also see that anunderstanding public will not unduly punish their leaders when other, compellinginterests force them to transgress their professed beliefs.

SCORE POINT: 6

ANNOTATIONS:This is a highly thoughtful, well-articulated argument that centers around a complex insightthat notall forms of political hypocrisy will be (or even should be) treated the same by the voting public.The writer demonstrates complexity by skillfully describing this subtle distinction between the well-intentioned contradictions that may be necessary to survive politically and the baseless hypocrisyrepresented by the illegal and immoral conduct of corruption. This extensive analysis of the twosupporting examples also demonstrates a good depth of understanding about the political process andhow politicians are elected. A coherent, unified, and focused argument, developed with precision

through a sophisticated command of language (both sentence style/variety and diction), this essay is a6 in all respects.

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