2008 Woodie Awards
Dems duke it out in Ohio for last time with Youngstown on their minds
The Jambar Editorial
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Opinion
A week of bashing, a scandalous photo leak of Sen. Barack Obama in Kenyan clothing, and the contested e-mails and mailers from Obama's campaign against Sen. Hillary Clinton's health care plan set the stage for Ohio's final scheduled Democratic debate in Cleveland Tuesday.
Our ears couldn't help but perk at the sound of both candidates citing Youngstown three times throughout the debate.
Since the candidates decided to mention our city so often, we would have liked them to talk more about issues relevant to Youngstown. Without being too selfish, we do acknowledge that these are national debates with a wide range of topics to cover.
Then again, college students' concerns took a backseat to the hot topics of the evening: health care, the war in Iraq and foreign policy.
College affordability, student loans and education reform are important to us. As students who will soon face the job market, the economy a real concern and one that deserves national attention. And if the moderators won't talk about job creation, then it should be the candidates' responsibility to focus on it. The candidates insisted on debating over health care, even though the debate was on a different topic, because it showed how important the issue is to them. We wish they'd done the same on issues college students care about. After all, they were at an Ohio college.
Obama's silence during Clinton's responses could be interpreted by some as a mature and polite gesture. However, his lack of words could also quite possibly stem from the fact that it's a tough job to interrupt the assertive, determined Hillary. Just ask debate moderator and NBC anchor Brian Williams, who made a valiant attempt.
Clinton's aggressiveness Tuesday, topped off with her SNL reference at the debate's opening, could be seen as an attempt to dethrone Obama. However, she could merely be, as she stated, "just having fun." Political campaigns are, by nature, cutthroat. And they should be; these are the people fighting to fix our country's problems.
There's something thrilling about hearing the name of our city in the mouths of potential presidents, and we're ready to vote in Tuesday's Ohio primary for their help. But we could have sworn those Youngstown references added up to more than three.
Our ears couldn't help but perk at the sound of both candidates citing Youngstown three times throughout the debate.
Since the candidates decided to mention our city so often, we would have liked them to talk more about issues relevant to Youngstown. Without being too selfish, we do acknowledge that these are national debates with a wide range of topics to cover.
Then again, college students' concerns took a backseat to the hot topics of the evening: health care, the war in Iraq and foreign policy.
College affordability, student loans and education reform are important to us. As students who will soon face the job market, the economy a real concern and one that deserves national attention. And if the moderators won't talk about job creation, then it should be the candidates' responsibility to focus on it. The candidates insisted on debating over health care, even though the debate was on a different topic, because it showed how important the issue is to them. We wish they'd done the same on issues college students care about. After all, they were at an Ohio college.
Obama's silence during Clinton's responses could be interpreted by some as a mature and polite gesture. However, his lack of words could also quite possibly stem from the fact that it's a tough job to interrupt the assertive, determined Hillary. Just ask debate moderator and NBC anchor Brian Williams, who made a valiant attempt.
Clinton's aggressiveness Tuesday, topped off with her SNL reference at the debate's opening, could be seen as an attempt to dethrone Obama. However, she could merely be, as she stated, "just having fun." Political campaigns are, by nature, cutthroat. And they should be; these are the people fighting to fix our country's problems.
There's something thrilling about hearing the name of our city in the mouths of potential presidents, and we're ready to vote in Tuesday's Ohio primary for their help. But we could have sworn those Youngstown references added up to more than three.
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