At the end of the road

As the electoral votes leaned toward Barack Obama Tuesday night, Chelsea Kane, chairwoman of IU College Republicans, said she had expected more from her fellow Americans.

“It’s very disturbing,” Kane said. “It looks like Obama is going to take the election, unfortunately.”

Kane was watching the election from Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, where Mitch Daniels threw a victory party celebrating his own re-election as the governor of Indiana.
Kane said everyone at the victory party watched in stunned silence as the results rolled in.

“We’re obviously really excited about the governor,” Kane said. “But what’s scary is the amount of seats we have falling in Congress.”

Kane said she is frustrated the American people would elect Obama, citing his lack of experience compared with John McCain. She said she believes the election will lead to a lot of liberal policies that will “cripple”
the country.

Before the final results came in, Kane said she felt voters in Bloomington were ill-informed about Obama’s policies and were voting blindly based on his celebrity reputation.

Junior Jessica Howell, IU campus coordinator for Mike Sodrel for Congress, said part of the reason Obama was so popular in Monroe County was because uninformed straight ticket voters dominated the polls.

“I think that it’s very disheartening that so many young people are going to vote for someone because he’s a celebrity or because he’s an inspirational speaker,” Howell said. “It’s very scary that’s who’s going to run our country tomorrow.”

Despite the media’s predictions about a win for Obama, at 10:30 p.m. Kane and Howell said they expected more results to filter in as the night continued. Howell, who worked the precincts in Monroe County, noted similar trends in 2004 when former Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was expected to win but was overturned late in the election by George W. Bush.

“I think it is interesting that they’re making all these generalizations and assumptions,” Howell said. “Just an hour ago, I was taking in votes from Monroe County still.”

By 11:15 p.m., Obama was officially declared the winner of the election, and sophomore Amy Stansfield said she was at a loss for words.

“Obviously, the youth votes have a lot to do with what happened tonight,” Stansfield said. “Time will tell, and we’ll see what happens in the next four years.”

As Howell watched John McCain concede, she said McCain ran the cleanest campaign possible.

“There’s nothing the Republicans should be ashamed of about the campaign or the leadership he’s shown in the last few months,” she said. “It’s more professional than what I’ve seen come from the Democratic Party.”

Junior Pat Buschman, secretary for IU College Republicans, was in Indianapolis for Daniels’ victory party as well. He said he was disappointed by the results of the presidential race but had a positive outlook for the future.

“The Republicans had their time in the past eight years, so now it’s the Democrats’ time,” Buschman said.

Although he said he was disappointed John McCain was not elected, he wanted the response of the nation to be a positive one.  

“I’m gonna keep a close eye on Barack Obama,” Buschman said. “But politics and policies aside, he’s still an American. I wish Obama the best of luck. He’s our president now.”