Student Life reporter Scott Fabricant talked to Laura Schwartz, who hosts CBS’s Trail Mix, a show about what’s going on out of the spotlight on the political trail.
So what do you think about Washington University so far?
It’s great. [The students] are involved, and not just involved for one candidate or the other, but [for] the issues. I think that is so important for students to get involved. You don’t have to be red, you don’t have to be blue, you can be independent and just focus strictly on the issues.
OK, lets get down to politics. Palin and Biden: What are their biggest weaknesses and their biggest strengths?
Palin’s biggest strength is that she comes across as very likable. She presents herself as just down-home Sarah. She could be your neighbor. People really go for personality, they like that.
Her biggest weakness is what I call “The Ramble.” As we’ve seen in the Katie Couric interview last week for example, when she’s uncertain of an answer or when she’s trying fit too much into an answer, she rambles; she looks lost and confused quite frankly. But tonight, if she could keep her answers to one or two specific examples, she can keep command of those answers and that’s very important because she’s got some work to do.
Now, Joe Biden’s biggest downfall is exaggeration. Joe goes on a little too far. But I think that he recognizes that downfall and has worked on it and I expect him to be very crisp in his responses and I think he will go on the attack on John McCain. He’s not attacking Palin, he’s attacking the issues and telling the audience why they’re important to him. And his biggest strength is knowing that issues. He’s lived them, he knows them, and the voters have no doubt in their mind that he’s familiar with them.
In the wake of Hillary Clinton, do you think Sarah Palin was picked simply because she’s a woman?
I think that absolutely went into it, most observers would say so especially given the lack of a vetting process that we in the media were told about. McCain had met her once before in February at a governor’s meeting and he’d spoken to her maybe once or twice on the phone, but that’s unclear at this point. They wanted to capitalize. When they announced it, it was the Saturday after the DNC, and the biggest hurdle the DNC had to unity was brining the Hillary Clinton voters into the fold.
Will she pick up the female vote?
Well, there are women on both sides. Some thought “Finally, [McCain] has the courage to pick a woman since Barack Obama didn’t.” Others thought “Ugh, a woman who doesn’t even believe in women’s right to privacy or Roe v. Wade or certain health care rights”. Sure, some women will vote for Palin simply because she’s a woman, but I believe most Americans are taking this election very seriously.
Was nominating her a mistake?
I don’t think anyone can evaluate if she’s a mistake yet. Polls everyday are going up and down. After her coming off a bad week, if she’s got a great night tonight, people will hail her as the best choice ever. I’ve been in politics too long to call things before they happen.
Do Vice Presidential candidates have a big effect on the outcome of an election?
Unless there’s a huge gaff, it’s really about the top of the ticket. It’s either an Obama or McCain administration. You lead from the top; the VP presidential candidates can act as the attack dogs. They can attack the other person on the top of the ticket so the principal candidate can talk about how they can make people’s lives better and not be the bad guy. In the case of Sarah Palin, McCain needed a boost, and she gave him one, and that’s since disappeared. You’ve got to go with the long-term effects.
What can Wash. U. students do to help?
This year, the youth have a chance to prove the critics wrong. Each year, the youth vote has gone up, but it hasn’t gone up as much as it goes up in enthusiasm. Youth voters have not turned out in polls in correlation to their grassroots activism. And this year, because they did turn out in the primaries, they’ve got to keep focus, they’ve got to do absentee ballots if they’re registered somewhere else, they’ve got to take the free busses from campus to polling places, to prove they are voting and they are a force, and from then on they will be taken in the utmost seriousness. And they should be; they are the future.
Questions with Laura Schwartz
Published: Thursday, October 2, 2008
Updated: Thursday, October 2, 2008
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