Exactly three weeks before the November election, students gathered in different locations the evening of Tuesday, Oct. 16, to watch the second presidential debate.
Aired live from Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., the debates were held in a town meeting format and moderated by CNN’s Candy Crowley.
An official viewing party was not hosted on campus like for last week’s vice presidential debates, but junior Andrew Hasek instead invited several friends over to his house for the affair.
Stocked with pizza, chips and sodas, Hasek said this was his first opportunity to watch any of the debates live this campaign season.
“It was make-or-break for both candidates. They’ve been neck-and-neck for so long,” Hasek said. “I do like the town hall style better because the vice presidential debate allowed a lot of room to attack. This was more personal.”
Sophomore Kate Kollmann also watched the presentation with friends in her off-campus home. Kollmann said she thinks that there was unnecessary bickering, but the candidates brought interesting points to the table.
“Obama picked up his game from the last debate and did a lot better this time,” Kollmann said. “Neither one of them completely answered my questions about the ever increasing national debt and their solutions for it.”
Sophomore David Robey said he thinks most voters have already chosen which candidate to vote for, but the candidates’ presentation interested him the most.
“Even as a strong Romney supporter, I did not think he did as well on this debate,” Robey said. “ I still strongly dislike how Obama laughs and avoids eye contact when Mitt is speaking.”
Although focused on the debate, Kollmann also said she kept her eye on social media during the debate, frequently checking her Facebook and Twitter accounts.
“It was interesting to follow my Twitter feed and see the reactions of my friends,” Kollmann said. “I saw a lot of young people actively engaged in the topics, which I think is so important.”
Now that the presidential candidates have debated twice and the vice presidential candidates once, the final debate will occur on Monday, Oct. 22, and will be held in Boca Raton, Fla., at Lynn University.
Anastasia Straley can be reached at stra0669@stthomas.edu.
I only saw part of the debate last night, but I just want to put my viewpoint out there that the debates are all highly scripted by each party’s campaign managers. Every little decision from what color tie to wear to what to laugh or smirk about is pretty much decided by them. But maybe I have been watching too much West Wing….