Tonight, Barack Obama and John McCain square off for the second of three presidential debates in Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.
Debates offer an opportunity for candidates to square off and discuss policy, yet they often avoid any substantive discussion and are filled with sound bytes instead of policy ideas.
Students have plenty of resources at hand, but they need to take a little bit of time to access them. Deadline for voter registration is Oct. 10 and Election Day is four weeks away. The elections and the issues matter. Students can’t procrastinate – get registered to vote, spend an hour researching the candidates’ platforms and cast your ballot.
Unfortunately, election coverage has turned into a game, delivering coverage of the horse race of campaign season. Steven Greene, associate professor in political science, said horse race coverage dominates news coverage due to the difficulty in objectively investigating and covering the issues and proposals for candidates’ policies. The actual policy stories are difficult to research, while analyzing poll numbers and speculating as to which candidate has an advantage is easy.
This deprives students of information they need in order to make an informed decision regarding candidates. And the candidates have made the problem worse – Greene said candidates’ talking points in speeches have decreased from 60 seconds to 10 seconds since 1968.
Students, particularly those voting for the first time, need the information. Whether they are freshmen who are only now old enough to vote or upperclassmen who have stirred from their political apathy for this election, new voters need the facts.
The facts are out there. Greene said voters have unparalleled access to information about candidates’ policies and critiques through the Internet. He said students aren’t limited to getting a few clips off the national television news and some articles from a newspaper, and the Internet offers access to raw information that isn’t processed or spun by a media outlet.
Young voters do not often have long-term commitments that give them a reason to care about the issues. Most students aren’t soccer moms worried about education, business people concerned with fiscal policy or retirees worried about Social Security.
Yet every issue matters. Greene said the concerns of all Americans should be the concerns of college students.
Students ignore the election issues at their peril. There is plenty of information about the candidates and their positions on every issue.
Students cannot delay – with the deadline for voter registration on Friday and the array of information available online, students have a lot to lose if they put off worrying about the election.
