Representatives for Democratic presidential hopefuls made their case and took questions from fewer than 20 students at a forum in E.W. Scripps Hall hosted by Ohio University's Black Student Communication Caucus yesterday.
For Jessica Krupke, a field organizer for Sen. Hillary Clinton, the biggest selling point is the senator's experience in public service and the knowledge she has gained from past mistakes.
It teaches you when you can stand your ground and when you can compromise
and you have to know when you should do each as president Krupke said. Her health care failure taught her when to make changes and say 'OK we have to compromise here.'
Sen. Barack Obama's keen judgment and the ability to think independently outstrip experience for Karen Richardson, an Obama staffer.
Richardson, a former intern in Obama's Washington, D.C., office who has lived abroad for much of her adult life, distinguishes the two candidates by the judgment they exercised in the 2003 vote to authorize the Iraq War.
She's (Clinton) very articulate
very smart
but at the end of the day you need to rely on some fundamental judgment of your own
Richardson said. She got it wrong
she said, referring to her vote to mobilize troops to Iraq.
In defending Sen. Clinton's vote to authorize the war without actually having read the National Intelligence Estimate presented to Congress, Krupke made an analogy between politicians who are briefed on important matters and college students slacking off on assignments.
The intelligence reports she may or may not have read ' but was briefed on ' gave her every indication that the threat was real and that the American public thought ' at the time ' that this was necessary.
Obama, who was serving in the Illinois state legislature at the time, was not under the same media scrutiny and had not seen the intelligence, Krupke said.
Obama says he is not sure how we would have voted with the same evidence had he been a (U.S.) senator at the time.
Richardson said the quote was hypothetical and taken out of context, and that Obama has never wavered on the Iraq War.
That's one thing you cannot hedge on in terms of his consistency
she said.
Richardson is also concerned with repairing America's image abroad after two terms of strong-arm foreign policy.
People see him as a bridge builder
someone who can resurrect the America they knew
Richardson said.
For Krupke, Obama's promise to usher in a new era of hope and bipartisanship is divorced from reality.
Do you want a doctor who will 'hope' you to better help? she asked. It's not that the Clinton campaign is not hopeful but hope does not put food on the table.
