The upstairs of Westwood Brewing Company, a bar that is a popular destination for UCLA students on Thursday nights, was the site of a different sort of party on Thursday afternoon.
The Hillary Clinton presidential campaign held a debate-watching party attended by about 45 students and members of the campaign and the community to watch the first Democratic debate of the election season.
The debate featured eight Democratic prospects, including presumed front-runners Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and former North Carolina senator John Edwards. The debate came nine months before the Iowa caucuses, which traditionally mark the beginning of the presidential race, and more than 10 months before the California primaries, which were moved to be earlier than in previous years.
The beginning of the debate focused on the Iraq war, with no candidate expressing satisfaction with the current management of the war.
“I take responsibility for my vote,” Clinton said, referring to her vote in support of sending troops to Iraq. “If I knew then what I now know, I wouldn’t have voted that way.”
Clinton’s words were met by applause by viewers at Brew Co., and she was not the only one to speak out against current Iraq policy.
“The first day I would get us out of Iraq by diplomacy,” said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
Clinton, Obama and Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., had all voted earlier in the day in the Senate for a troop-funding bill that requires the commencement of troop withdrawal by Oct. 1.
The debate also touched on health care plans, foreign policy outside of Iraq, and the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding a ban on partial-birth abortions.
When asked about the greatest threat to the United States, Biden responded that North Korea was more of a threat than Iran, and American foreign policy needs fundamental changes.
“We have to jettison this notion of preemption as a doctrine, and we have to jettison the notion of regime change,” he said.
The debate format limited answers to 60 seconds, with no follow-up questions or opening and closing statements, and not every candidate had a chance to answer each question. The candidates at times were simply asked to raise their hands to respond to a question.
Following discussion on gun control law, for instance, the candidates were asked who had ever owned a gun ““ former Sen. Mike Gravel, D-Alaska, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, Biden, Dodd and Richardson raised their hands.
Some of the lesser-known candidates were as vocal as the rest.
Gravel offered a direct way of leaving Iraq.
“You pass the law, not a resolution, a law making it a felony to stay there,” he said.
Clinton’s campaign manager and long-time aide Patti Solis Doyle was present at the debate-watching party. Doyle started working for the Clintons 16 year ago, she said.
“I felt like I really affected this county,” she said of her past participation in Bill Clinton’s campaign.
Doyle asked for the youth supporters present to get involved.
“Participate … volunteer, knock on doors, vote,” she said.
Clinton plans to speak in San Diego this weekend for the California Democratic Convention.
Gabe Rose, president of the Bruin Democrats, who attended the event, said the campus organization has not yet chosen which candidate to sponsor, but plans on inviting Clinton and other Democratic candidates to speak on campus.
The Republican candidates will be participating in a similar debate next week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley.
With reports from Bruin wire services.