Party on: Students Hang Out, Rib Candidates During Vice Presidential Debate

Students watch the vice presidential debate at a party on campus called the "Sarah Palin Smackdown." (Photo by Newsline's Karen Shih)

Related Links: Special Report: Elections '08 About Gov. Sarah Palin About Sen. Joe Biden University of Maryland College Democrats University of Maryland College Republicans

By Karen Shih
Maryland Newsline
Friday, Oct. 3, 2008

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - In the cozy common room of junior Michael Besser’s campus apartment, about 20 students are gathered on the couches and the floor, all eyes on the small flat-screen television in one corner where the vice presidential debate is just starting. A Rolling Stone poster of Barack Obama adorns one wall, and across from that hangs a rumpled Obama, Mark Warner and Jim Moran campaign poster.

Corn chips and salsa, a box of cookies and opened cans of Lipton Brisk are scattered around the living room table as students munch and chat. The room hushes as the debate starts.

“Did she just wink?” one student asks incredulously, as GOP vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin starts answering the first question.

The debate-watching party is listed as a “Sarah Palin Smackdown” on Facebook.com, open to “guests of guests,” and students trickle in throughout the night, until it becomes standing-room only in the kitchen adjacent to the common room.

It’s an obviously liberal affair, but the students are irreverent and happy to make fun of both sides.

Palin says “Senator O’Biden” by accident (“He’s Irish!” one girl yells); Palin says “nu-cu-lar” and a guy responds, “D---, stop!”

Sen. Joe Biden, the Democratic candidate, gets on a roll: “Let me say it again,” he says. (“Oh god,” a girl groans.) Then, moments later, as Biden mentions, “Home Depot, where I spent a lot of time,” profanity slips from another student’s mouth.

But the loudest roar of outrage comes at the last question. Just as Palin is about to answer, the cable network tests its “emergency alert system” and the screen goes black for around 30 seconds. The room erupts.  Everyone’s upset.  

“Oh, come on,” one guy says.

Soon, though, the debate is over, and everyone gathers to chat. Most said they had made up their minds before the debate, which only served to increase their support of their own party’s candidate.

“I thought Joe Biden did better,” said sophomore government and politics major Rachel Dotter, campus liaison for the College Democrats. But, she noted, “I agree with his policies.

Host Michael Besser and guest Katie Sylvester. (Photos by Newsline's Karen Shih)

“I think [Palin] exceeded a lot of expectations, and a lot of that is a result of her being trained at her [John] McCain boot camp the last couple of days,” Dotter said. “But a lot of it seemed very rehearsed.”

Many other students, Obama supporters who plan to vote in November, echoed a similar sentiment.  

“I’m pretty strong Obama, but I think Sarah Palin did OK,” said host Besser, a government and politics and history double major.  “She definitely performed better than what I expected, [but] her answers again were sound bites.”

Besser was pleased with the turnout, he said. His friends are mostly politically active, he said, despite their varied majors, and several are involved with political organizations on campus, including College Democrats, the Roosevelt Institution, a nonpartisan student think tank, and Clean Energy for UMD.

At least one student at the party was still undecided before the debate. Junior government and politics major Katie Sylvester said she was moderate but leaned Republican, and hadn’t made up her mind about who to vote for in November.

Afterward, she said, “I think they both had a lot of good points," but “they evaded a lot of  questions.”  Though it was hard to choose, in the end, she said “to me, [Palin] won.” 

At a very different party off-campus, College Republicans President Chris Banerjee, a junior government and politics and history double major, and Jill Barnhill, a senior finance and accounting double major, gathered with members of the Republican Central Committee from Prince George’s County at a Comfort Inn in Bowie.

It's standing-room only as students, including sophomore Rachel Dotter in the middle, watch the vice presidential debate at a campus party. (Photo by Newsline's Karen Shih)

“I think Sarah Palin came out on top,” Banerjee said afterward by telephone. “Her response to all of the questions seemed really informed …  and her answers were very passionate, whereas unfortunately Senator Biden’s answers seemed kind of empty and canned.”

Barnhill, a member of both College Republicans and Republican Women at Maryland, agreed.

“I’ve always heard that she’s a really great debater in past elections back home,” she said of the Alaskan governor. “In a debate you have a lot more control over what you get to say … that worked to her advantage, and she was able to be herself.”

Barnhill and Banerjee, like many of the students from the campus party, said they helped with voter registration on campus and have actively worked to increase the young vote. Most of their friends plan to vote, they said, making them anomalies in a sea of apathetic youth.  

At the Republican viewing party, “I think they were just glad that there were young people there,” Barnhill said.

Copyright © 2008 University of Maryland Philip Merrill College of Journalism

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