Saturday, September 27, 2008

my first political party


As many of you know, I have begun going to the gym this year. Both of my roommates are very health-conscious girls and I am hoping that living with them will pull me more in that direction. They excel at staying healthy and I do not. I am hoping our friendship will change that for the better. Last night I had another similar opportunity. One of my friends invited me, very last minute I might add, to a "presidential debate party." After about 5 minutes of questioning him as to what that was - I agreed to go along. Again, as you may know, I am not a very informed person when it comes to politics. I have done a really good job of keeping myself out of the loop when it comes to this campaign. So, going to this debate I didn't have a strong preference for either candidate.

That wasn't the case for everyone else attending the party. This was a party hosted by McCain supporters. Didn't see that one coming, did you? I went to a Republican Party in a mansion (basically) in MA - one of the most liberal states in the country. It was interesting to listen to their political views (especially on taxes) as well as their views on Obama. I'm not sure I have it in me to be so diametrically opposed to people - but perhaps that is just because I have not been watching the campaign commercials for the last year.

As far as the debate goes, I thought it was pretty good. I felt that McCain seemed more comfortable with the topic of the evening - foreign affairs. His main point that Obama is inexperienced definitely hit home. However, Obama did seem to come out on top on the issue of economics, which is the most current crisis (not that I need to be telling any of you.)

I'm glad I went - and not just because I got a huge piece of cake. It was good for me to step out of my ignorance. If the debate taught me anything - it's that our political choices now affect the world at large for years to come.

2 comments:

Critically Christian said...

wooohooo everybody loves debates and free cake

Kim said...

I ended up watching the debate too, instead of getting my homework done. Apparently I was less uninformed than I thought, because they didn't really say anything I hadn't already heard. It's going to be a long road to a decision this year if they don't both start picking up the pace and giving me something solid to base my decision on.

Also, I get the irony that your party was hosted by Republicans. I'm pretty sure my entire campus is highly liberal, except for one other girl on my floor. When politics come up, I mostly just keep my mouth shut and hope to learn something.