Though some sat on couches and others who couldn’t find a seat stood, over 50 students in the Cooperage lounge watched attentively as presidential candidates Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain faced off in their final presidential debate Wednesday evening.
The event was organized by the Bruin Democrats, and the audience reacted with applause and boos as the debate played out on the big screen.
The big topics on the agenda were the economy, health care, sustainability, abortion and education.
Some students felt that the tone of this presidential debate was more aggressive than the previous two debates.
Jesse Melgar, president of Bruin Democrats, said this debate exemplified the candidates’ positions.
He said he believed McCain chose to go negative while Obama stuck to the issues and clarified his policies.
“At times McCain was really antsy and anxious and disrespectful in his facial expressions,” he said. “At the end of the day, it’s clear who’s done their research, who’s ready to lead the country and who connects with the average American.”
Kennan Cronen, a second-year political science and communication studies student, said he believes McCain was more defensive in this debate.
“I felt like McCain was overly aggressive and unlikable. He’s not someone I want to be making decisions,” he said.
The economy was a hot topic.
Obama emphasized his tax policy plan to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans, while McCain’s resonating theme was his belief that it would be most beneficial to cut government spending.
Andrew Kreitz, president of Bruin Republicans, said Obama is an eloquent speaker though he disagrees with his policies.
“His opinion on free trade, his reduction of global free trade, is a type of isolationism that the Hoover administration did that aggravated the Great Depression,” Kreitz said.
But Fabiola Inzunza, a fifth-year international developmental studies student, said she believed Obama demonstrated great knowledge of issues.
“I think Obama’s points on health care were excellent, and he has a very delineated plan,” she said.
The candidates also discussed issues of negative campaigning, vice presidential picks and the appointment of supreme court justices.
Obama described his vice-presidential pick, Sen. Joe Biden, as well-versed in foreign policy and as a defender of working families.
McCain described vice-presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin as a role model and reformer.
Both candidates agreed that qualification, not ideology, should be the main factor in choosing Supreme Court justices.
The candidates spoke about the environment. They both acknowledged a need to decrease the country’s dependence on foreign oil, but they differed in how they would achieve that.
Many students said this debate is a turning point.
Cronen said the polls show that Obama has the lead and the momentum in the presidential election.
“Unless something drastic happens in the near future, he should hopefully be our next president,” Cronen said.
But Kreitz said the candidates now have less of a bearing on the election than current factors prevailing in the country, such as the economic crisis.
“The election at this point in some regards is out of the candidates’ hands,” he said. “It’s dependent on factors that we can’t really predict.”