By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Even before Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump arrived on the stage at Hofstra University Monday night, a clear winner was evident at Bowling Green State University.
The organizers of a debate watch party brought in a standing room only crowd that had them bringing in stacks of chairs into the designated room in the student union, and then redirecting some students down the hall to an overflow room.
The pizza? Gone in minutes.
About 200 students were drawn to the first faceoff between the major party candidates.
The banter back and forth was evident as they waited for the telecast to begin, as were the Trump-Pence and Love Trumps Hate signs. Once the debate started, though, the students were quiet.
Some exchanges drew laughs as when early on Clinton turned to her opponent and said: “Donald, it’s great to be with you.” And the Republican smirked in response.
The largest applause came when Clinton retorted after Trump criticized her taking time off the campaign trail to prepare for the debate that: “I’m prepared to be president. I think that’s a good thing.”
The crowd grew more vocal as the debate neared its conclusion including one Trump supporter who shouted that Clinton “was a pig.”
Then as soon as the event was over they headed for the exit.
A few did linger long enough to comment on what their reactions to the debate were.
Flint Porter said the debate confirmed his negative view of the two major party candidates.
“I thought it was ridiculous,” he said. “Both candidates proved they were not eligible candidates to be running for president. They made a mockery of our country in their debate. Instead of talking about how to make our country better, they just argued and bantered back and forth, and I don’t think that’s appropriate when we’re trying to move our country forward, when we’re in a state of emergency.”
Still Porter intends to cast a ballot for someone other than a major party candidate, though he declined to say for whom.
“I think it’s important to exercise your right to vote because many people have fought for our right to vote,” he said. “Especially for me as an African-American, a lot of my ancestors fought for that.”
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Christian Thomas was not impressed either. “It kind of confirmed for me that my only option is to either not vote or to vote for the lesser of two evils”
He plans to vote for one of the major party candidates, though he wouldn’t say which one. The debate didn’t sway him at all.
Randi Sargent and Kendyl Kerch went in Trump supporters and came out pleased with how their candidate fared.
“I think he made better stances on the issues,” Sargent said. “I thought Trump was going to dig at Hillary more than he did, and then Hillary started it. That surprised me.”
Kerch felt Trump stuck to the issues “where Hillary just dug in and attacked Trump as a person. She was more aggressive then I’ve seen.”
Bria Burse said she enjoyed watching her first debate live and was surprised there wasn’t more conflict between the different factions in the room.
While she appreciated the candidates expressing their different stances, “it made me go more toward a certain candidate.” That candidate, she said, was Clinton.
Clinton supported issues Burse cares about: education, the most important, and support for Black Lives Matter and addressing police brutality.
Brett Lance, a member of the Undergraduate Political Science Association, said he, too, enjoyed the exchanges in the debate. “Both candidates got to say what they wanted to say,” he said. The proceedings were “not so chaotic” as they could have been.
A self-described independent, the debate didn’t change his point of view. As a representative of the non-partisan UPSA, he said it wasn’t appropriate to share which way he was leaning.
Also sponsoring the event were the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, College Democrats, College Republicans, International Relations Organization, Multicultural Greek Council, and Young Government Leaders.
The turnout for the watch party, Lance said, “shows that college students actually care about politics, and they actually will vote this election and not be bystanders.”
