Bent Tree News

Even though the weather on February 6th wasn’t appealing, an array of Clayton State students attended the ”New York Times” discussion on the outcome of Super Tuesday. Facilitators Dr’s Joe Corrado and Augustine Ayuk began with a question and answer session where students and faculty enjoyed pizza and drinks. Hot topics included Clinton’s wins in California and Massachusetts and Obama’s in Georgia. One student believes that the fight for the Democratic vote will depend on a series of events, which could sway the vote in either direction. The overall Democratic vote in Fulton County was about 30% higher than usual. Next, four discussion questions were given on topics ranging from division of delegates to gender. Students and faculty were divided into small groups, and the debate began. Each cluster elected a presenter to talk to the overall politically-minded crowd about which questions or issues sparked interest. One group debated about Clinton’s and Obama’s overall healthcare plans; Nazish Haqqaui, elected group leader, feels like each candidate needs to address the illegal immigrants in their healthcare platform. Margaret McCall expressed her thoughts on why southern and average woman tend to dislike Clinton, “a lot of southern women dislike Clinton because she married a southern governor [and] that she wasn’t a traditional southern wife, and the average woman has nothing in common with her because she has not led an average life.” Margaret went on to say that “northern women tend to like Clinton because she is a progressive-minded individual”. Alexis Hill, another participant, said that “the discussion was very informative,” and that he would come again. The overall conversation was similar to the media’s coverage of the primaries and the presidential election. In general, it was geared toward the Democratic race whereas the Republican candidates were barley mentioned. In past elections, Super Tuesday front-runners were determined hastily and went on to become the elected presidential candidates for their particular party, but this year’s race doesn’t seem to be following that pattern. Indeed, Super Tuesday wasn’t as “super” as the Democratic candidates anticipated; the race continues and will continue until the last vote is in. Dr. Corrado encourages any fellow Clayton State student who is interested in politics to attend one of the six ”New York Times” discussions. I was very proud to see many fellow students and faculty wearing the “I’m a Georgia Voter” sticker, and I hope to see this much of an outcome in November.

Creative Commons Image taken from moria’s (Heather Kennedy) flickr stream.

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