PICKING A PRESIDENT

With a little less than two weeks left before Election Day, MU freshman Amy Davis is still undecided.

Davis said after the three debates, she is leaning towards presidential candidate John McCain because she agrees with his views on abortion and his tax plans. However, she describes herself in the middle between presidential candidate Barack Obama and McCain with it comes to the war in Iraq.

Davis explains that this isn’t a decision. She still isn’t sure about whom she will vote for.

One issue that has bothered Keith Clark is the cutoff date for analog television. Congress and the FCC approved a plan that forces analog broadcasting to cease on February 17, 2009, in a move to digital-only. 

That means those who use antennas will have to buy a digital-to-analog converter box and anyone with a TV that doesn’t have the right tuner will either have to buy a new TV or buy the box. For more details, click here.

Keith doesn’t like this forced conversion. He thinks it was a decision made without consent of the people and without warning.

“It’s not the ‘land of the free’ because now we don’t even have decisions on our televions for people who can’t afford things like that,” Keith said. 

The FCC still isn’t sure how much the coverter boxes will cost. They’re expected to cost less than $100 and to help offset the cost, the government is sponsoring a coupon program to help families buy the converter boxes. 

Miguel, who stated his preference for Senator Obama after the second debate, did not waiver in his decision after watching the third.  As before, Miguel focused more on Senator McCain’s shortcomings than Obama’s strengths.  

McCain was too defensive and not clear on his plans for the future, Miguel said. 

“I don’t see anything clear from McCain, really.”

 Although the common soundbite from the third debate was McCain’s statement: “I am not President Bush,” Miguel thinks McCain hasn’t proven that that’s true. 

While it’s not entirely McCain’s fault that he has, so to speak, ”inherited” the Bush administration and its big mistakes, Miguel said, that doesn’t change the truth of it.  

There’s also Sarah Palin.  According to Miguel, she’s not ready to be V.P., much less President, in the event that something should happen to McCain.  

Two weeks to go and Obama has convinced two of our undecided voters that he should be our next President.

Keith Clark has solidified his vote.

“I’m going to go with my gut instinct and I’m going to go for Obama,” Keith said. 

He watched some of Wednesday’s debate and thought McCain already looked defeated. 

“He was trying to put out what Obama was doing wrong instead of telling us what his plan was,” Keith said. 

Keith said McCain looked uptight and like he was on the offensive. He also said McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, further alienated him from McCain. Partially because of stories he’s seen on the Today Show about Palin’s brother-in-law, and also because she’s continued to be the brunt of jokes.

“I don’t want her in office because that would be a straight failure,” Keith said.

Nothing McCain or Palin have said has hit home for him and he thinks Obama is better equipped to handle the economy.

“My button is definitely going to be hit for Obama,” Keith said.

It seems Miguel Lopez is fed up with John McCain.  After watching the second presidential debate on Tuesday, he announced: “I’m not an undecided voter anymore.  I’m gonna vote for Obama.” 

Why?  For a number of reasons. 

A couple months ago, Miguel felt the lure of both candidates: John McCain had experience, and Barack Obama an appealing youthfulness and promise for change.  But McCain’s experience isn’t looking so good on this side of a severe economic crisis that happened during the watch of the Bush administration.  McCain is a part of the government that created this mess, Miguel said, and it has to stop.  

The bad policies of the Bush administration affect the whole party, he said. Read the rest of this entry »

I asked Keith what he thought about third party candidates over McCain or Obama. 

“If he’s got something better to offer, maybe it could be a possibility,” Keith said. “As long as it’s not Ralph Nader, we’re fine.”

Keith doesn’t trust Ralph Nader or his beliefs and described Nader’s thought method as “flawed.” 

He doesn’t know much about third party candidates in general. He said the candidate would need to preach a thorough message about health care and the economy- like he thinks Obama has- to get his attention.

“If somebody said they could change the world, I might listen to them,” Keith said. 

As of now, that message hasn’t reached Keith. 

Miguel Lopez didn’t see the vice-presidential debate.  

The first presidential debate, in Mississippi, was posted on CNN’s website in Spanish, which is where Miguel watched it.  Although Miguel speaks and reads English very well, he understands some of the more complicated political language better in Spanish.  If you want to know what he thought, check out the article in published in the Missourian last week:  Columbia Missourian – Undecided Voters.

Miguel was unable to watch last week Thursday’s debate because CNN didn’t post the video in Spanish.  He did read about it in the papers, but he didn’t have much to say.  It didn’t seem clear that either candidate “won,” since both campaigns almost always claim their candidate won. 

Check back to see what Miguel said about the second presidential debate…

-Elizabeth Lucas

Keith Clark wasn’t sold after the Palin and Biden debate last week, but after Tuesday’s presidential debate he now feels comfortable saying the candidates on the Democratic ticket are the front-runners. 

“Right now it’s Obama and Biden for me and my family,” Keith said, “because it seems like health care’s going to be better, people who don’t have health care, it’s going to be better for them, and hopefully he does something with our economy that’s going to be acceptable to all of our needs.”

Keith said he doesn’t trust McCain anymore. He said he wants someone new, and doesn’t want any “mavericks.”  

“Maverick,” Keith laughed. “He was only in Top Gun.”

Keith doesn’t want a party dissenter in the office. He wants someone who can come up with a plan, and he thinks Obama’s the one to trust. 

“Obama said a lot of things in his statements that hit home for me,” Keith said. “There’s more me swaying toward Obama than McCain.” 

I talked to Keith Clark today about his impressions of the vice presidential debate. Keith didn’t feel a connection to either candidate.

Keith already knew about Sarah Palin’s family, but was looking to get a feel for where she stood on the issues. Did she swing his vote?

“Ms. Palin hardly answered any questions,” Keith said. “She went around them and would say ‘I’m sorry to not answer the question, but I want to address the American people instead.’” 

He thinks she came across as fake when saying things like “Goshdarnit,” “Joe Six-Pack” and “Hockey mom.” He said she seemed confused and had some of her facts wrong. Keith said she miscounted the number of troops in Iraq and didn’t say the right name of the general. 

Keith watched a Today Show story on Monday about Palin that talked about her salary and three homes. 

“She says she’s middle class,” Keith said. “I don’t see it.”

Joe Biden didn’t do much better with Keith’s vote. Keith didn’t like that Biden spoke in terms of being president. 

“One person’s fake and the other one thinks he should be president,” Keith said.

Though Keith had a lot to say about Palin, Biden didn’t seem to make much of an impression on him at all. 

I wonder what’s worse? 

-Regan McTarsney

Amy Davis has finally joined Keith Clark and Miguel Lopez as a registered voter!

Davis turned in her registration form Friday afternoon to Associated Students of the University of Missouri, who are helping MU students register on campus. She decided to register in Missouri rather than in Oklahoma because she felt her vote will have more weight, considering Missouri’s history as a swing state.

Clint Birdsong, member of Associated Students of the University of Missouri, looks over Amy Davis' voter registration information.

Birdsong said that Davis should be in the system by Tuesday; just in time so she can vote on election day.