September 29 - Desperately Seeking The Illusory Center; Hugo Chavez's Succession?; The Film Maker of "Sarah Palin: You Betcha"

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Part 1	Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, I’m Ian Masters and today we will examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We will begin with Stanley Greenberg, a veteran pollster for Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela among other world leader. He believes that the much-sought-after center in American politics is a myth and that the Independent voter is an illusion. Since the Obama administration’s strategy seems to be to continually reach out to the center, this could spell trouble for them.
Part 2	Then we will speak with Dr. Kevin Casas-Zamora who is the former Vice President of Costa Rica and a senior fellow in Foreign Policy in Brookings’ Latin America Initiative. We will discuss the deteriorating health of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and what is expected to be a furious power struggle to succeed him, given the lack of transparency about succession and the highly polarized political battle lines in Venezuela.
Part 3	Then finally we will speak with British documentarian Nick Broomfield whose latest feature documentary “Sarah Palin: You Betcha” opens in theatres tomorrow. He and his co-director Joan Churchill have spent months in Wasilla, Alaska talking to family, friends and former friends and co-workers of the former beauty queen, who in spite of her efforts to deny ugly charges about who she actually is, still might run for president.