Despite dismal weather and the social allures of a Friday night, the second presidential debate between candidates George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry still drew interest on campus.
At Pizanos Pizzeria, a campus eatery frequented by students who live in the residence halls, the debate easily won out over a baseball game that was playing on the restaurant’s big screen television.
“I want to watch them battle each other,” freshman Evan Kleiman said as he switched the channel to the debate.
Kleiman said watching the debates has helped him understand what the candidates stand for.
“It’s like the fate of the next four years of our country,” he said. “I don’t want to be an ignorant voter.”
Kleiman said education and health care are student issues he would like to see the candidates debate. He added that he also views homeland security, Social Security and international relations with allies and Israel as important issues the candidates sometimes neglect.
However, freshman Cameron Kahn said scheduling the
debate for a Friday was not the best way to attract a large number of viewers, “especially for college students.”
“They’re trying to get a lot of 18 to 24-year-olds to vote, and Friday night isn’t really the way to do it,” he said.
Kahn watched about 60 minutes of the 90-minute debate at Pizanos, opting not to stay until the end because “they’re just starting to be really repetitive,” he said.
Freshman Michael Davidson said he did not expect the second debate to get as many viewers because most students have already chosen a candidate.
Davidson said his perception of the debates is colored by his political views, which he said holds true for many viewers.
“I think the Democratic Party nominating John Kerry was a reckless nomination,” he said, adding that he supports Bush regardless of the debates.
Davidson said Bush’s platform is not flawless but “he lies less and he’s not swayed by popular opinion.”
Sophomore Ryne Sell said he supports Kerry regardless of the debates.
“There’s so many issues that I’m already familiar with,” he said.
He said Friday’s debate did not give him any additional insight into either candidate and only strengthened his disdain for Bush.
“Bush was really just focusing on the flip-flopping,” Sell said. “He doesn’t have a lot of good points to go on.”
Charlie Potts, Pizanos Pizzeria supervisor, said the first presidential debate and Tuesday’s vice presidential debate drew huge crowds, “better than Duck games.”
Although Friday’s debate did draw a noticeable crowd, it was nothing compared to the previous two, he said.
“Might be because of the night of the week,” Potts said.
About 20 people also gathered informally in the Carson residence hall lobby to watch the debate.
Freshman Kristen Vogt, who watched at Carson, said the candidates performed differently in the second debate. Vogt said Kerry seemed to stumble and miss his cues.
“I am wondering about Kerry,” she said. “He seemed off tonight.”
She added that Bush’s performance improved.
“Bush actually did make some good points this time around, which did surprise me,” she said, noting that Kerry still has her vote.
She also said the town-hall format of the debate changed its atmosphere.
“It felt a little bit more like a three-ring circus,” she said.
Freshman Doug Bonham said he “couldn’t see how Bush could have won the debate” because of his style of addressing the audience.
“He just sounds very argumentative and it doesn’t sit with me very well at all,” he said.
Bonham said the debate didn’t change his perspective, adding he is still coming in against Bush.
Residential Academy Director Sharon Schuman, who hosted a nonpartisan viewing of the debate at Columbia 150, said attendance was down to 75 people from the nearly 200 who attended a similar showing of the first debate. She said second debates are generally less attended, noting that it was raining, cold and a Friday night, which also may have deterred students.
Schuman said both candidates made at least one particularly strong point.
She said Kerry aptly pointed out if Missouri were to get involved in the war in Iraq, the state’s population would make it one of the largest coalition partners in Iraq, an indication of the size of the current coalition.
She also said Bush scored by saying doctors are currently forced to practice “defensive medicine.”
“I thought this debate was less dramatic in the difference between the two speakers,” Schuman said, adding that the candidates seemed to reiterate old talking points and contributed little new information.
“It was just a question of delivery tonight,” she said.
Schuman said Bush side-stepped the last question from the audience, which asked him to identify three mistakes he had made during his tenure as president.
“That’s pretty revealing about his attitude about his own behavior,” she said.
Schuman added that she wished Kerry had been asked the same question about his record rather than been allowed to criticize Bush as a response to the question.

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