Though Joe Biden’s name has been uttered countless times among campus Democrats, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean briefly stole the spotlight on Thursday afternoon, when he addressed a packed house of College Democrats and Students for Barack Obama in the Edison Theatre at 1 p.m.

The former Vermont governor spoke for roughly 20 minutes. Harshly criticizing Republican presidential nominee John McCain, he called on audience members to mobilize and get other voters registered to vote for Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential nominee.

“If all you do is vote, you get a D,” Dean said in his speech.

Dean also criticized McCain for giving tax cuts to the richest Americans and for supporting the spending of $10 billion a month in Iraq but neglecting to address rising tuition and health care costs.

“That money belongs here in Missouri, so kids can pay student loans, so we can have adequate health care, so elementary schools and high schools work properly and so that we can have jobs in America,” Dean said.

Additionally, Dean asserted that Obama maintained the moral high ground in the election, frequently compared the former President John F. Kennedy with the Democratic nominee.

So many students came to the event that it had to move from the Gargoyle to Edison Theatre. Students expressed support for Dean’s message of bipartisan unity and the urgency of young people’s involvement in politics.

The chairman also took photos with students after the event and spoke with media.
Dean said that, with Missouri as a swing state, he believes enough college-age voters could be energized for Obama to win the state.

“People have a different view under 35. In the civil rights generation, we tried to do the right thing but didn’t grow up with the lots of different people. You did grow up with the lots of different people,” Dean told reporters after the event.

The DNC Chair inspired some students.

“Dean has been a hero and role model for me. He’s really true to his ideals, even voting against the war in Iraq while he was running for president,” junior Todd Zimmer said. “His message that we need to be active and do work politically needs to be broadcast loud and clear.”

“He’s wholly supportive of democratic ideals, not just the party. He exemplifies his message of unity, and he trashes John McCain because of his support for partisanship,” junior John Peters said, referring to what Dean described as McCain’s “us versus them” attitude.

However, sophomore Jeff Dreifus expressed skepticism regarding Dean’s message.

“I don’t think he really represented Obama or the Democrats too well; he talked about restoring moral high ground [with torture] but he still wants to impose our will around the world by keeping [military] bases in 140 countries,” he said.

After criticizing McCain’s support for financing the war in Iraq, he expounded on what Obama and running mate Sen. Joe Biden would do to tackle rising tuition costs.

“Ultimately, what you’re going to have to do, which I think is a very good thing, is have is a national service program, which doesn’t have to be mandatory, but where you get serious credit toward your college education by giving two years before you go [to college],” Dean said in the interview.

Dean said that such a program would be beneficial because students would receive money in exchange for their service.

With additional reporting by Sharon Barbour