N.C. State Students Reflect On Second Presidential Debate

This story was written by Saja Hindi, Technician

With the public's mounting anxiety over the nation's financial crisis, the presidential debate centered around this topic Tuesday night -- a move some students say was the right choice.

Emma Wahab, a junior in history and member of the North Carolina State University Students for John McCain, said both candidates seemed to care about this growing economic issues.

"They spent the first hour, it seemed like, talking about the economy," she said. "They seemed to raise a lot of questions."

Candidates discussed the current financial crisis, the bailout and potential solutions to the crisis.

"It definitely seemed like they cared about the issues," Wahab said. "They seemed like they answered the questions pretty well."

Wahab said some of McCain's main points, like placing a temporary spending freeze and earmarks will fix the economic problems.

But for Barack Obama supporters like Mariem Masmoudi, a sophomore in political science and Obama campaign volunteer, Obama is the way out of these problems.

"Honestly, experience is not the issue for me," she said. "Clearly, George Bush has been getting more and more experience over his eight years and he's been getting gradually worse," she said. "I think Obama's clearly demonstrated that he has the right kind of judgement to lead us out of the economic crisis."

Both Wahab and Masmoudi said they thought this debate was different than the others because it seemed more hard hitting and the candidates seemed to be showing the differences among each other's policies.

Masmoudi said it was good to hear the differences, but it could have been better.

"From both candidates, I wish they would have given more straightforward answers," she said. "For Obama, I wish he would have been more forceful."

Aaron Dancy, a freshman in engineering and John McCain supporter, agreed with Wahab about McCain.

"McCain has the oversight and leadership to guide the country through the economic crisis," Dancy said.

And Dancy said the debate was beneficial.

"I felt that McCain lived up to his expectations," Dancy said. "He had a strong performance, and Obama did too, but if you could put a winner with this debate, it would be McCain. I think he was able to connect with the audience the best."

Wahab, however, held a different perspective.

"They both did a pretty good job," she said. "I think both sides are going to be happy."

Masmoudi said she was glad the economy was discussed as much as it was because it is definitely an issue on the minds of students and non-students alike.

"The focus was on domestic issues, and the questions were worded in a good way," Masmoudi said.