McCain, Obama face off tonight

For the third and final time, Democratic nominee Barack Obama and Republican nominee John McCain will face off tonight.

But this time it might take some convincing for the candidates to gain the interest of IU students.

Students who have been following the long presidential race agreed they were tired of the senators playing it safe and not truly addressing each other in the previous two debates.

“I think they’ve been a bit disappointing,” said senior Liz Retana. “This is a historic election, and it really feels like the wow factor has been left out of the debates.”

Retana said she feels neither party has been happy with the debates, and instead of “a good clean fight,” there have been generic explanations and negativity between the candidates.

Students like junior Ryan Bertl and freshman Olivia DeLaCruz agreed the debates have been boring and predictable.

“It’s just those two giving their stump speeches without much interaction,” Bertl said. Because of previous debates where a candidate has stumbled and paid the price in media coverage, Bertl said he believes both are making every effort to play it safe.

“I feel like it’s almost teleprompted,” he said. “It’s planned in advance.”
DeLaCruz agreed that the candidates need to be more open and not play it so safe.

“Sometimes they just make me mad. They’re just trying to say what we want to hear,” she said. “I do feel like I’ve heard it all before.”

Chelsea Kane, chairwoman of the IU College Republicans, said despite what some voters think, debates are “not meant to be off-the-cuff.”

“The perception of a debate is supposed to be this very open dialogue: ‘We’ve never heard the questions before; we’re just responding as we would any other time,’” she said. “But that’s not true. ... Every candidate has a packaged, prepared response.”

In the second presidential debate, McCain and Obama frequently accused each other of voting against issues they claimed to support as well as showcasing statistics. Spouting off numbers does nothing to help voters understand the issues, said sophomore Lauren Wilkins.

“Mainly they just talk about personal policies instead of what’s relevant to me,” Wilkins said. “Translate it to my terms.”

The biggest challenge, Kane said, is for McCain and Obama to find a balance between preparing answers and being sincere with voters.

“Somebody has to pull a visible change in this debate to differentiate themselves so it doesn’t end in another tie,” Kane said. “If someone comes out rigid and the other comes out strong and confident, that’ll be the difference.”  

But Rose Byrne, president of  IU Students for Barack Obama, said with the country in such a serious economic crisis, it was hard to find any of the debates dull. The second debate especially allowed for the candidates to interact with everyday people, she said.

“I have a hard time thinking what they’re saying is boring since they’re talking about the future of our economy,” she said. “We’re talking about getting young people our age out of Iraq – people our age and our friends.”

The debate, scheduled for 9 p.m. tonight, will take place at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.