Students Assemble Across Campus to Watch Obama and McCain Duke It Out

Students braved the drizzle and gathered in various locations across campus Friday night to watch a presidential debate that almost didn’t happen.

Viewers seemed excited about the opportunity to see the candidates spar, packing various locales to watch the broadcast with their fellow students, and came away with mixed reactions.

“I thought Barack was better in the beginning and McCain was better in the end,” said Jerome M. Tullo ’12, who caught the debate at the Institute of Politics. “Obama was more logical and McCain used lots of one liners, but at the end he was very passionate.”

Many of the gatherings were packed to the door, and at the IOP—where the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum was filled to capacity—students dropping by late were met with locked doors.

Freshmen crowded into the Wigglesworth common room, leaving little room even to stand. Upwards of 100 students gathered at the Student Organization Center at Hilles as part of an event put on by the Black Students Association. And, of course, dorm and House televisions across campus were tuned in.

While this contest will be the first time that most undergraduates can vote in a presidential election, some students said that they have never witnessed a fair election period. Before the candidates took the podiums, a student from Ethiopia, Ammanuel G. Gebeyehu ’12, explained, “I actually want to know how these people handle pressure. I’ve never seen democracy before.”

Even though he won’t be able to vote on Nov. 4, Gebeyehu is serving as the Thayer Hall captain of the Harvard Voter Outreach and Turnout Effort, putting him in charge of making sure the dorm’s residents are registered to vote.

The debate, held at the University of Mississippi, was initially supposed to focus on issues of foreign policy, but the host, Jim Lehrer of PBS, took the first portion of the debate in the direction of economic issues due to the recent financial crisis.

The discussion covered a range of issues of interest to Harvard students. As the debate was beginning, Kimberly N. Foster ’11, who watched at the SOCH, said, “I think the war question is always really interesting. John McCain is always portrayed as a warmonger, so I’m curious about how well he will respond.”

In addition to addressing the war in Iraq, the candidates discussed their proposed policies and attitudes toward North Korea, Iran, and Russia.

Students like Tullo said they were skeptical of some of the debate’s more gimmicky moments, such as the ballpoint pen McCain produced to prove he would cut down the budget and the bracelet show-and-tell both candidates engaged in to demonstrate their support for the troops.

Despite instances like these that provided for comedy show fodder, severanl students said that they learned a little more about the two candidates, and said they looked forward to the two more presidential debates and the upcoming vice-presidential debate on Thursday.