Bye, Bye GOP 2012: A Perspective of a Young Voter

I am a 20 year old college student who is registered independent. I was never satisfied with either political party because I feel like all they do is fight and get nothing done for our country. I vote based on the individual and what he or she stands for.

The South Carolina debate on CNN was the first time I ever watched an entire debate. I was amused by the debate, and I was surprised what a theatrical production it was. The beginning introductions, where the candidates walked out, felt like a talk show. “Please welcome Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa.” Regis and Kelly walk out on that cue and wave to the audience. The audience would be on their feet cheering and clapping really loud. The same was true for the beginning of the political debate. The moderator announced each candidate, and then they walked out waving as if they were celebrities. The audience applauded and cheered as the different candidates walked across the stage.

I could not believe that CNN would start a presidential debate by asking Gingrich the question about his ex-wife. I feel they should be more professional and get right down to the issues. Gingrich had the perfect response that shut the host right up. Looking at this debate from a talk show perspective, this is definitely how they would start a show. Jerry Springer would jump on the opportunity to start his show on a personal subject matter like this.

I was turned off by what some of the candidates had to say about Obama Care. Since my health care is covered under my parents until I’m 26, this is an topic that I’m really concerned about. Romney wants a complete repeal of Obama’s entire health care plan. Gingrich told the audience, “Let’s create jobs so they can pay for their own health care. Parents, elect us because your kids will have work and be able to move out of your house.” Up until this issue, I somewhat agreed with what Romney and Gingrich had to say. I will not support them now because of their positions on health care. Regardless of what they say about creating jobs, we know this is not going to happen. When many students graduate from college, they do not find a job. So many times I heard stories about students who had to go back and work at McDonald’s after college because they couldn’t find any other job. When I tell people that I’m a communications major, the first thing they tell me is how hard it is to find a job. One guy told me, “Good luck finding a job. My daughter got a degree in communications and she works at McDonald’s now.” Thousands of jobs for college students are not going to be created over night.

I don’t see the big deal about releasing tax returns. Gingrich said he released his an hour before the debate. Everyone is making a huge deal about Romney not releasing his taxes yet. Regardless if he does or not, that would never determine whether or not I would vote for him.

I really liked Rick Santorum in this particular debate. I think he spoke from his heart throughout and he is the closest to an “average Joe” on the ballot. His passion about pro-life issues was really inspiring. In his closing arguments, he said that they need to elect the best person to fight Obama and that person is the one who has the most contrast with him on the main issues.

Ron Paul seems to be getting a lot of young voters. In all honesty, I have no idea why. I feel he never really answers the questions. He always brings up that he was a doctor. I think he had a significant career, but there is no need to bring it up every five minutes. When asked about releasing tax returns, he said that he never will. He was completely honest, and no one really questioned him about the issue. Young voters probably like him because he is so direct and to the point. I really liked when Paul told Santorum that he is “overly sensitive.” I would never vote for him because he is too old to be President. After this debate, I don’t think I would vote for any of these four candidates.

Dominick Costantino

Communication Studies

Wilkes 2012

Ron Paul Got My Vote: South Carolina GOP Debate

My main conclusion coming out of the South Carolina debate is that I wouldn’t vote for anyone other than Ron Paul. The main reason that I would vote for Ron Paul is because he seems to be the most realistic out of all the rich, white, married men. As I was watching some of the other people answering the questions being posed to them, I was getting very confused how these men could have gotten this far. Some of the things they were saying made me want to take a step back and just say, “Really? You would REALLY do that? Wow.” One of the main things that just confused me was when they were debating how Apple makes their products in China. Santorum, Gingrich, and Romney stood there and said that they would try to bring the jobs over to America and make these American companies use American workers. Then one of the men mentioned how the jobs could even come right to South Carolina, playing to the home crowd I see.

I turned to my mother, who I watched it with, and started going off about how Americans would never work for such a low wage that wouldn’t make the products prices skyrocket. Americans would want to be paid top dollar while Asian workers would work for much cheaper. Then my savoir Ron Paul stated his opinion on the matter. And he was realistic saying that prices would sky rocket if the companies did come to America. I may have actually applauded my television after that. Another thing was when everyone except Paul said that they would repeal Obamacare within the first few months of their presidency. Then Paul came on and again spoke the truth, that removing it immediately and completely is not reasonable and sensible. So he came out on top of the debate for me. He seemed to have at least some grasp on reality.

All four candidates are supposed to represent America which is known as a “melting pot” but did we really see any diversity? They were all mature, rich, white, Christian, married men. They all shared the basic principles and even throughout someone would answer the question first and then someone else would jockey on their idea, “Well I agree with So-and-so, and if I were elected president, I would also do that.” Basically the country has to choose from the French vanilla candidates of the Republican Party or our current flavor of Obama-chip. Neither option is really appealing to me. I think we need another party that could actually get some votes. Having two mediocre parties running against each other is only going to result in a snafu for four years. America needs a major renovation of their political system so someone of merit can get us on the right track.

Kristina Seiger
Communication Studies
Wilkes 2014

2012 South Carolina Debate: Obamacare = Romneycare

Barack Obama was made out to be a villain, a devil and someone to immediately get rid of during the debate Thursday in South Carolina. Heated words did little if anything to help current presidential hopefuls, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul.

All four wannabe presidents slated blows against Obama and his current
administration, which could easily be detoured with common sense.  The debate started off with a bang, when Gingrich responded to a question by John King about his ex wife.

Gingrich said to King, "To take an ex-wife and make it two days before the primary a significant question in a presidential campaign is as close to despicable as anything I can imagine.” This self-pronounced hate for the media is not necessarily a good thing being that most of our country bases their perception through the media. What would this heated anger to do for our country? Gingrich might have merited respect of voters in South Carolina, but do we want an easily irritated president; a president that can’t manage to maintain his composure? It seems that Gingrich has consistently shown this irritability throughout the primaries thus far. His inability to control himself will inevitably hurt him down the road.

Gingrich spoke out against Obamacare and spoke of his experience in that aspect leading the charge against “Hilarycare” in the house.  Then made a jab at Obama by saying, “I'd love to do a three-hour Lincoln-Douglas debate with Obama,” “He can use the teleprompter. I'll just rely on my knowledge." Even though reading a teleprompter speech versus a memorized speech has little to do with anything.

Much of Rick Santorum’s attacks focused on a person from his own party, Mitt Romney. Santorum grilled Romney about his Massachusetts health care legislation bill, calling it “Romneycare.” “When he was governor of Massachusetts, he put forth "Romneycare," which was not a bottom-up, free-market system. It was a government-run health care system that was the basis of "Obamacare." And it has been an abject failure, and he has stood by it,” said Santorum. This nit picky fighting between parties will inevitably divide Republicans and the rest of our nation when it comes to a Republican nomination. It is easy to see that Santorum is just trying to claw back into the race with low blows. This constant fighting between candidates leaves an easy weakness, their lack of loyalty to their party.

Mitt Romney repeatedly used his all too familiar go-to strategy of focusing everything back on Obama. Romney said things like “I know we're going to hit it hard from President Obama, but we're going to stuff it down his throat and point out it is capitalism and freedom that makes America strong.” When asked if there was anything he would have done differently in his campaign he said,  "I wish I took all the time I spent talking about one of these guys on stage and spent it talking about Obama." Romney looked a bit off when trying to relate to American people, he said, "I've lived in the real streets of America." This statement is a bit off-putting because Romney is a multi-millionaire, multi-millionaires don’t live on the real streets of America.

Ron Paul barely had a voice during this debate. At one point the crowd started screaming when John King skipped him on an abortion question. Paul was allowed little say in this debate but when he was given a chance, he shouted out to his military donors.

Overall, the winner of this debate was definitely Newt Gingrich led solely on Gingrich’s ability to react very hostilely toward John King at the very beginning thus creating momentum throughout the debate. Romney was overshadowed by Gingrich’s aggressive behavior and attacks at his own expense regarding similarities between Romney’s “Romneycare” bill and Obama’s “Obamacare” bill.

Bryan Calabro
Communication Studies/Integrated Media
Wilkes 2013