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The Daily OrangeElection 2008 | Commentators spar about campaign strategies
By Joe Frandino
Posted: 10/22/08, 4:48 AM EST Section: News
Two national political commentators were on campus Tuesday to discuss the U.S. presidential campaign. Both agreed that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will probably win, but said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) still has enough time to make a comeback.
The roundtable discussion pitted Patricia Williams, a liberal law professor at Columbia University with an editorial page in The Nation, against Fred Barnes, a conservative co-host of Fox News' popular political talk show, "The Beltway Boys," and executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
Arthur Brooks moderated the event. Brooks is a business and government policy professor at Syracuse University. More than 100 students, faculty members and Syracuse residents gathered in Hendricks Chapel to watch the discussion.
Topics included the economy, future tax policies, the war in Iraq and the issue of race in the election.
When asked what McCain needs to do to stand a chance of winning the presidential election, both participants posed starkly different paths to potential victory.
"McCain needs to appeal to the 15-20 percent of American voters who are just now tuning into the presidential campaign," Barnes said. "McCain needs a clear, positive, offensive and concise message that he gives to the electorate.
"If I were to ask a dozen of you what John McCain's message has been this election, I'm sure I'd get a dozen different answers," he added.
Williams gave a quick response to the question, yielding a round of applause and laughter from the audience.
"He needs to drop Sarah Palin," Williams said. "He needs to drop her immediately."
But Barnes defended Palin and said she has integrity, political prowess, courage and intelligence. His comments were met with snickers from the audience.
Barnes also raised concerns about Obama's lack of experience in foreign policy and the possibility of third-world dictators challenging his new authority. He cited Nikita Khrushchev's initial "bullying" of John Kennedy in the early months of 1960, giving way to such political catastrophes as the rise of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The roundtable discussion pitted Patricia Williams, a liberal law professor at Columbia University with an editorial page in The Nation, against Fred Barnes, a conservative co-host of Fox News' popular political talk show, "The Beltway Boys," and executive editor of The Weekly Standard.
Arthur Brooks moderated the event. Brooks is a business and government policy professor at Syracuse University. More than 100 students, faculty members and Syracuse residents gathered in Hendricks Chapel to watch the discussion.
Topics included the economy, future tax policies, the war in Iraq and the issue of race in the election.
When asked what McCain needs to do to stand a chance of winning the presidential election, both participants posed starkly different paths to potential victory.
"McCain needs to appeal to the 15-20 percent of American voters who are just now tuning into the presidential campaign," Barnes said. "McCain needs a clear, positive, offensive and concise message that he gives to the electorate.
"If I were to ask a dozen of you what John McCain's message has been this election, I'm sure I'd get a dozen different answers," he added.
Williams gave a quick response to the question, yielding a round of applause and laughter from the audience.
"He needs to drop Sarah Palin," Williams said. "He needs to drop her immediately."
But Barnes defended Palin and said she has integrity, political prowess, courage and intelligence. His comments were met with snickers from the audience.
Barnes also raised concerns about Obama's lack of experience in foreign policy and the possibility of third-world dictators challenging his new authority. He cited Nikita Khrushchev's initial "bullying" of John Kennedy in the early months of 1960, giving way to such political catastrophes as the rise of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
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Samantha Frandino
posted 10/22/08 @ 6:47 PM EST
Very well written article, but of course i would expect nothing less from Joe.
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