Presidential candidates, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, met one last time at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla, Oct. 22, for the third and final presidential debate. It resulted in mixed reactions from the Western Carolina community because of harsh statements and accusations by both candidates.
The debate involved topics ranging from Syria to America’s role in the world to the “red lines” of Israel and Iran.
“During this debate, I did not see a big enough difference of foreign policy. I feel they differ more on domestic policies than foreign,” said Katie Marshall, sophomore of the Professional Writing program and an early voter. Marshall said that they tended to agree on several of the topics within the foreign policy debate. She felt that this debate did not sway many people’s vote because their differences lie in domestic affairs. In her opinion the race is so close, and a lot of people did not expect a tight one.
“The debate did sway my vote a little. I was very interested in what Romney had to say about foreign policies, but I found his performance lacking. Any interest I had in Romney was obliterated by the debate,” Brandy Carl, WCU junior, said. Carl felt Obama had won the debate and that Romney seemed defensive.
“The debates didn’t change my mind about anything…I didn’t enjoy watching the debates, I suffered them,” said Dr. Mark Couture, Associate Professor of Spanish. “All the coverage of the debates is about how they were received by the public rather than the content of what was said.” Couture also mentioned how boggling it is that there are so many undecided voters.
The fact checkers of Factcheck.org noted both President Obama and Governor Romney were contradicting each other with “incorrect claims.” A couple of examples from Factcheck.org are:
- Romney claimed credit for top scores by Massachusetts’s grade-schoolers while he was governor. But they tested at the top, or near it, before Romney took office.
- President Obama erred when he accused Mitt Romney of saying during the 2008 campaign that “we should ask Pakistan for permission” before going into that country to kill or capture terrorists. What Romney said was that he’d “keep our options quiet.”
According to a CNN poll after the debate, Obama was the winner of the debate. Although, the race is still neck and neck. Real Clear Politics has an up-to-date poll of several outlets used among the American people.
Western’s campus shows a great deal of apathy when it comes to this years’ election. While attempting to interview students on the presidential debate, many had said that they did not watch it because of work, school or lack of time. Students left and right cannot choose between candidates and instead refuse to act. Several said they do not like nor care about politics and did not plan on voting.
The apathetic trend of “not voting” is not just sweeping WCU but the nation as well. Georgetown University offers a short discussion on the indifferent voters.
