A Long Day at the Debate

In the Spin Room of the National Constitution Center, I had the opportunity to ask Philadelphia Mayor Nutter a question about Philadelphia youth, being that I can easily identify with that category and am seriously concerned with the quality of life of younger Pennsylvanians, especially in
Philadelphia. I asked him if he thought the debate would reach the youth of
Philadelphia, to which he said, “well hopefully they were watching.” Mayor Nutter also said to the youth of Philadelphia “all you have to do is pay attention. “

And I paid attention during the debate and as a youth, I’m not so sure it was worth it.

Hopefully, of course Mayor Nutter is wrong and the youth of Philadelphia were captivated by the happening going on in their very own city
without questioning their motivation—or lack thereof. As President and CEO of
the National Constitution Center Joseph Torsella said to me, “it’s a different
kind of venue,” and ultimately we would hope that this difference alone would
draw young voters in. Torsella also noted the number of bloggers attending the
event as credentialed press persons.

But the amount of young press personnel is not as important as the amount of young, motivated voters. In fact, I would go as far as saying
that I was rather disappointed in the Democratic debate held last night. Little
was said on the issues that were supposed to be addressed on this night. Many
expectations for clarifications on actual political platforms and hot-spot
issues were not met or even addressed. Instead, the debate focused on
backtracking on misunderstandings, miscommunications, and mistakes.

One of the first issues addressed to both candidates was whether or not either would consider the other as a Vice President. Sen. Obama
answered first after a spurt of laughter from both candidates, he said, “I
think it's premature at this point for us to talk about who vice presidential
candidates will be, because we're still trying to determine who the nominee
will be.”

Similarly, Clinton said in response to having Sen. Obama as her running mate, “I'm going to do everything I possibly can to make sure that
one of us takes the oath of office next January. I think that has to be the
overriding goal, whatever we have to do.”

But each candidate truly failed to clearly answer “yes” or “no.”

Very little was said about the goals and hopes of both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama; the furthest either candidate looked into the future dealt
with troop withdraw from Iraq and a brief discussion of tax cuts.

Sen. Obama seemed to struggle, surprisingly, with the
scandals of his candidacy as they continued to be pushed by moderators George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson of ABC News. Specifically, Sen. Obama was
drilled about the comments he made about Pennsylvanians clinging to religion,
the Reverend Wright scandal, and, of course, the flag pin—which Sen. Obama
called a “manufactured issue.”

After speaking extensively about the Rev. Wright issue, the
debate tackled another controversial figure somehow associated with Sen. Obama, a man named William Ayers who had been a part of the Weather Underground. Ayers and others involved bombed buildings like the Pentagon and were not, to say the
least, apologetic about their actions. Obama’s campaign called Ayers and Sen.
Obama “friendly.” But the senator’s response to attacks against his patrioticism was almost identical to what he had been saying the whole night. “So this kind of game in which anybody who I know, regardless of how flimsy the relationship is, that somehow their ideas could be
attributed to me, I think the American people are smarter than that,” Sen.
Obama said.

Much of Sen. Clinton’s responses dealt with what would
potentially happen in November, believing that Sen. Obama’s issues created too
much that could possibly be drawn from by the Republicans in the
elections. Concerning herself and her
experience both in the political arena, but also as an object of constant
personal scrutiny, she said “I will be able to withstand whatever the
Republicans send our way.”

And so once again the debate’s conversations returned to
issues of character and not of policy and the increasingly important political
issues that are dividing this nation: abortion, gay rights, war, gas prices,
etc.

Most surprising element of the night was perhaps the energy of the debate. It appeared that Sen. Obama does not translate his ability to
generate excitement on camera, and the opposite seemed to be true of Sen.
Clinton when she said, “I wish the Republicans would apologize for the disaster
of the Bush-Cheney years and not run anybody.” The audience did not hold its
applause until the end of the debate at this moment.

“ People are frustrated” Sen. Obama said during the debate. Me too, Senator.