BNE Extemp Topic Briefs

1. Have the Obama administration represented the best interest of the U.S. in its response to the Arab Spring?
As with most extemp speeches you'll want to offer some up front analysis of the topic, so answer these questions first: 1. What was the Arab Spring?  2. Why was it important?  3. What's the status of the major countries that were involved?  The high profile countries from the Arab Spring are Egypt and Libya.  Egypt is a success story and Libya is becoming one, but it's taking much longer since Qaddafi hasn't been apprehended as easily as Mubarak was.  From there, you can take a couple of approaches as out-lined below

YES/NO, the Obama administration has represented...as evidenced by these three areas:
1. Oil interests
2. Diplomacy
3. Safety (making sure the countries aren't transitioning from stable govt.s into havens for terrorists)

or you could bundle those interests (oil, diplomacy, safety) and structure your points around three countries:
1. Egypt
2. Libya
3. Syria/Yemen/Tunisia (take your pick, there are several others)

2. Will the bipartisan "Super Committee" strike a deal that is good for the American economy?
Again, start with explaining what the  bipartisan "Super Committee" is (12 member committee from House and Senate comprised of 6 Republicans and 6 Democrats) and what their job is (to create a plan to cut $1.5 trillion from the federal budget over the next decade; plan is due by Nov. 23)  If they fail to come up with a plan, then a plan of $1.2 trillion in cuts kicks in, evenly cutting across all government spending.  The Super Committee has two months to create a plan that might shift those cuts more heavily to other programs.

This questions is asking the speaker to make a prediction.  It's easy to be pessimistic about the economy right now and answer that there won't be a deal that will pass, so here's the easy outline:

NO, the Super Committee won't strike a deal...for these reasons:
1. The cuts would have to come from entitlement programs (welfare, medicare/medicaid) and those are politically unpopular
2. If cutting is going to happen it should just be fair
3. The plan still has to pass through a Republican House, A Democrat Senate (with a Republican filibuster) and then be signed by a politically vulnerable President Obama

The bottom line/overall theme of your speech is that none of these life-long politicians are going to fall on their own sword and advocate for cuts that directly affect their states and communities; they will put their political careers ahead of what might be best for our future.

I'll get the other questions to you later.