BSA Event Rings in Historic Debate

Scores of students traveled to the Quad on a damp Friday night to watch the much anticipated first presidential debate of the 2008 election season at an event co-sponsored by the Black Students Association and the Student Organization Center at Hilles.

“I’m glad we have such a diverse crowd here,” said George J. J. Hayward ’11, the political action chair for the BSA. Hayward said that the issues that are being discussed in this election appeal to a wide cross-section of demographics and political affiliations.

“I think its surprising there are so many people here on a Friday night,” said Matthew K. Clair ’09 who is the president of the Black Pre-Law Association. It shows that people are intrigued not just because of the historical significance.”

The debate was the first to include a black candidate of a major political party, and took place at the University of Mississippi, which nearly 46 years ago to the day was the site of a contentious struggle for desegregation.

On Sept. 30, 1962, one black student, James Meredith, was escorted through a sea of angry students by Federal Marshals as he walked through campus to register at the law school. Today a statue of Meredith stands prominently on the main campus to commemorate the civil rights struggle.

But on Friday, the historic moment passed unmentioned as Senators John McCain and Barack Obama eased their way into a debate that pundits termed competitive but unlikely to be game-changing.

The scheduled topic was foreign policy and national security, but for more than a third of the event the candidates argued over the issue of the day: the crisis on Wall Street and the broader issue of the economy.

The debate’s moderator, Jim Lehrer of PBS, forcefully prodded the presidential hopefuls to embrace the free flowing debate format that would allow them to spar directly with one another.

The Penthouse at Hilles murmured anxiously when the candidates were asked about the $700 billion bailout plan currently being debated on Capitol Hill.

Students criticized both candidates for avoiding answering questions directly.

“He never answers the question, he always bypasses it,” Amarachi C. Eseonu ’11 said of McCain.

A few minutes later, when Obama was asked what he would be willing to give up on his presidential agenda due to the cost of the bailout, Keara D. Cormier ’11 commented: “I wish he would actually say what he was going to give up.”

The audience was largely subdued, as a consistent buzz of conversation was punctuated by outbursts of laughter. Highlights included Obama’s mistaken reference to McCain as “Tom,” and McCain’s quip that Obama must find it “hard to reach across the aisle from that far to the left.”

When asked who they thought won the debate, Adrienne K. Rosenberg ’11 was slow to offer a definitive answer.

Rosenberg said that it seemed like Obama connected better with independent voters based on CNN’s tracking tool that graphed the positive and negative reactions of a focus group as the candidates spoke.

By most accounts, both candidates gave their strongest debate performances of this election, setting the stage for next week’s vice presidential debate and the final two presidential debates, which will take place on Oct. 7 and 15.

“There were a lot of people saying ‘I haven’t decided yet,’” Rosenberg said of undecided voters on her canvassing trip to the New Hampshire last week. “The debates do matter—the way that [the candidates] respond matters.”

—Staff writer Katherine A. Petti can be reached at kpetti@fas.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Abby D. Phillip can be reached at adphill@fas.harvard.edu.