From the rants and raves, grunts, mild swear words and frustrated sighs heard from the Break Tuesday night, a bystander would think the people in the room were watching a wrestling match.
Close enough. They were watching the third presidential debate between Texas Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore.
About 25 students and community members from organizations including the College Republicans, OSPIRG, Black Student Union and Coalition Against Environmental Racism (CARE) gathered together in the EMU basement to observe the debate and discuss their differing views on the issues the candidates spoke about.
Many members from different political parties believed that Gore made the strongest overall impression this round, in contrast to the two previous debates.
Ben Zublin, sophomore geology major and Democrat, said Gore’s confidence won him the debate and Bush’s answers weren’t substantial enough to hide his uneasiness about many of the issues.
“Bush was stumbling many times and had a hard time constructing answers,” he said. “Gore did a good job connecting with the people emotionally, particularly on issues such as education. Bush was good at handing out trite generalizations and platitudes, but there wasn’t a lot of substance in what he was saying.”
Casey Singleton, co-chair of the College Republicans, said that Bush was less confident in this debate because the issues discussed weren’t his strongest areas.
“This was Bush’s weakest performance, even though he won the others hands down,” he said. “He still drove home the points he needed to — for example, his belief in giving money back to the people … But in general Gore has more experience in this forum.”
Michelle Averbeck, a freshman journalism major working on the Nader campaign, also said that Bush’s lack of knowledge about specific issues was one of the reasons he lost the debate.
“Bush ducked the issue of affirmative action,” she said. “I believe that’s because he doesn’t even know what the definition of affirmative action is … He isn’t informed enough to be the president and that showed.”
But Averbeck also believed that though Gore appeared cool and collected, some of his answers were insincere, and this was a turnoff to her. She mentioned that Gore used his background of growing up on a tobacco farm to promote himself as an American farmer but later said tobacco companies should be regulated.
“Gore tried to emphasize that he keeps his words and promises,” she said. “But the fact is that he has a history of fraud and denial. He changes his platforms to suit his cause and then denies that he ever felt differently.”
Lynn Teresa Williams, volunteer for CARE and environmental studies major at Lane Community College, was impressed by Gore’s ability to answer questions in a straightforward manner as opposed to Bush’s “roundabout” responses.
“I wish Bush would be more up front about issues such as affirmative action and tax cuts,” she said. “When he’s not, it tells me that he’s not telling me the truth about what he’s going to do. I’m single, and from Gore’s answers about tax cuts, I felt like I would actually get some help.”