Vice Presidential Debate Watch

As the general election this year draws ever nearer, BC students continue to be encouraged to become part of the political process and register to vote to continue their influence at the polls. On Thursday, October 3rd, student were invited to a viewing of the Vice Presidential Debate, between Democrat Senator Joseph Biden and Republican Governor Sarah Palin, hosted by BC VOTES. As explained in a recent email: "BC VOTES is a collaborative effort between the UGBC, Americans for Informed Democracy (AID), the College Democrats, the College Republicans, student leaders, various university offices, and the Student Programs Office at Boston College." BC VOTES events are held frequently around campus, some to help students register to vote, some to engage students in mock debates on issues, some to watch debates and election results as a group, and all to influence students to be informed and involved with current politics in the US. This particular debate watch was well attended, with more than 100 students turning out for the event.

The debate itself was an interesting event, especially considering the circumstances - there was a notably heavy media presence waiting in the wings to analyze the "winner" at the end of the night, and the debate itself was taking place while the House of Representatives considered the financial bailout bill that had just passed through the Senate. The debate actually started with a question about the bill, which resulted in some creative working of words by both VP-candidates in the attempt to differentiate between them, as both of their running mates voted "yes" to the bill. It became clear early on that both sides had a similar tactic of pointing out differences between their opponent and his or her running mater; the attempt to drive a wedge between vice-presidential and respective presidential opinion was threaded throughout the night. Senator Biden countered such attempts by talking about his support for Senator Obama, while Governor Palin explained that her differences with Senator John McCain were what made their pairing the "maverick" ticket.

Relating to the method of answering the debate questions, Senator Biden tended to bring ip what he deemed relevant facts and figures to attempt a full answer, while Governor Palin often picked up on one aspect of the question's topic to discuss at length. Both strategies could be seen as good choices for the potential VPs - Senator Biden's kept him from becoming overly emotional about the topics; Governor Palin's kept her from seeming uninformed about the topics. As far as strengths in the debate, Senator Biden seemed to be relatively consisten in doing his best to fully answer the questions and drawing a link between McCain/Palin's policies and President Bush's policies throughout; Governor Palin made an effort to answer the questions on her own terms and stress issues such as energy policy and the Iraq was where she could bring up more personal examples.

The students who attended this BC VOTES event seemed to take a lot from the debate and the opinions presented by the vice-presidential candidates. On the whole, this audience was very respectful of the debate-viewing, mostly refraining from any distracting responses to what the senator and governor said (there were a few instances of almost universal laughter at some of Senator Biden's grins and Governor Palin's references to Joe-Six-Pack). In the end, the debate watch was a success in inspiring attendees to think more critically about the candidates - leaving the debate watch, almost everyone was engaged in a discussion over the candidates' positions on the issues and the question of whom had won the debate.