The campaign trail

This semester I sacrificed my last Fall of gamedays in Athens to work on Sen. John McCain’s campaign in the Communications Department at the Ohio and Pennsylvania Regional Headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. Living in Big Ten country has been tough at times. I have been surrounded by an inferior brand of football, and it started getting cold in late September.

But today, as thousands of my fellow Bulldog undergrads cast votes in this election, I wanted to take a look behind the stump speeches and political rhetoric and examine each candidate’s stance on the issues to explain why McCain has the vision to lead our country forward.

As we face an impending energy crisis, McCain realizes a comprehensive all-of-the-above approach is necessary to achieve energy independence. McCain has called for the development of all our domestic resources – wind, tide, solar, nuclear, clean coal and offshore drilling – to ease the burden Americans face with rising energy costs.

In contrast, Barack Obama is reluctant to develop safe nuclear energy or drill offshore. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, he admitted his energy platform would cause energy prices to “sky rocket” and that his cap and trade system would “bankrupt” the coal industry, which meets approximately 49 percent of domestic demand and employs more than 100,000 Americans. Also, it is McCain, not Obama, who introduced legislation in the U.S. Senate to address climate change.

McCain will ease the burden Americans face with rising health care costs by offering a $5,000 health care tax credit. He will allow Americans to choose the health care plan best fit for themselves and their families. Obama will put a bureaucrat between you and your health care provider and move our country closer to a nationalized system, which will reduce the quality of our care.

As our economy sits on the brink of an economic recession, McCain understands we must cut taxes to stimulate growth and job creation, which is why he proposes cutting the corporate tax rate.

Meanwhile, Obama wants to raise taxes on corporations, capital gains and dividends, discouraging economic re-investment and expansion. He wants to raise taxes on small business owners, who employ about 84 percent of the American work force, and drive them to downsize to meet the increased tax burden.

There is no surer way to force American jobs overseas and strangle the middle class than to increase taxes across the board during tough economic times. Obama wants to “spread the wealth around,” giving tax cuts to more than 40 percent of Americans who do not pay any income taxes at all in the form of a $500 check to individuals and a $1,000 check to families.

Obama believes the government has the answers to all your problems, and he promises to increase government spending by nearly $1 trillion. McCain wants to let you keep more of what you work hard to earn and fundamentally believes you can make a better decision with your money than the government can.

- Jeff Minch is a senior from Austin, Texas, majoring in marketing.

The youthful voter

It’s almost over.

The years-long campaign trail is coming to a close today, and we can determine the outcome.

Fellow students, the race is now up to us more than ever before.

Voter turnout among 18 to 21 year olds increased from 31 percent in 1996 and 30 percent in 2000 to 42 percent in 2004, according to the U.S. census. Today, the percent will be even higher, according to a survey by the Institute of Politics of Harvard University. The survey reached 2,400 people between 18 and 24.

In mid-September, I was asked to attend a conference at Harvard with 200 college newspaper editors and leaders of the College Republicans and Young Democrats to discuss the survey and the youth vote. The numbers we saw were staggering.

The polls don’t reflect our views. Most of our favorite polling places – Rasmussen, Harris, you name it – still contact subjects through landline phones. How many of you have a landline phone?

Yeah, I thought so. Only two hands went up in the room that day.

So we’re being underrepresented at the polls.

The other staggering fact: the next four years really can be decided by the youth vote. And right now, Barack Obama is taking the lead, according to the Harvard survey.

It shouldn’t be much of a surprise – Obama has done the most to reach our age group through technology. His campaign created a national Facebook group before he won the primaries and organized his first rally. His campaign sends text messages, and his Web site is comprehensive.

Campaign Web sites are nothing new, but Obama’s is more detailed. In a fast-paced world when some of us must quickly brush up on the issues before heading to the polls, the more detailed answers in a one-stop shop will make the most impact.

For example, under Obama’s education issues, concise paragraphs outline three plans – reform No Child Left Behind, invest in early childhood education through a “Zero to Five” plan and make college affordable through an American Opportunity Tax Credit worth $4,000 in exchange for community service. Under higher education, the Web site gives further details about the tax credit and Obama’s plan to streamline the financial aid application.

On the other hand, John McCain’s education tab pulls up eight longer paragraphs that eventually address No Child Left Behind and vouchers for parents to choose schools.

No matter how eloquently worded the paragraphs may be, they are sure to lose any online reader. Under higher education, McCain wants to “prepare for the 21st century” but doesn’t explain what it means to “modernize our universities.” He also wants to simplify higher education tax benefits, simplify federal financial aid and more.

Though McCain and Obama have the same ideas, McCain doesn’t explain any in detail and doesn’t send tech-savvy readers elsewhere to find this information.

In a nutshell, he loses readers.

So don’t let the older generation or the campaigns think they’ve missed us. Go to the polls today and vote.

- Carolyn Crist is the news editor of The Red & Black.