Issue 51, Volume 121 Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Dr. Nick Geidner, an assistant professor of journalism, is originally from Ohio, one of the biggest swing states in this year’s election. He noticed the different atmosphere in Tennessee compared to his home state. “It’s a completely different world living in Tennessee than it was living in Ohio four years ago. You can’t imagine the ads,” he said. Geidner’s alma mater, The Ohio State University, has provided a nearly literal battleground in this year’s election. The presidential candidates have combined to make seven appearances in and around the campus, and Obama even chose to kick-off his campaign there. “Today, both Romney and Obama were within a couple miles of Ohio State’s campus,” Geidner said. UT, however, does not provide a common destination to the candidates. Tennesseans may not have as direct of an impact on the Electoral College as Ohioans. For those disenchanted with the election process, Geidner offered an
RJ Vogt
alternative perspective, pointing out the importance of the popular vote. “If Obama wins the Electoral College and loses the popular vote, he’ll still be the president, but he’ll have a lot less political capital,” he said. “The votes still mean something.” This thought may explain why both campaigns have pushed to increase their hold on the states they are projected to carry. Obama and Romney know the importance of the popular vote. The election is not only a matter of our country’s executive branch, either. School board members, house representatives and a senate seat are also up for grabs. These are elections that may affect voters more than most students realize. “There’s a number of downticket races,” Geidner said. “We tend to focus on the presidential election, but there are school board elections that will be decided by hundreds of votes. I can still make valuable decisions in my community by voting.”
News Editor Headed into tonight’s election, most of the states are already considered to be in the proverbial bag for either Obama or Romney. The real suspense of the election, as it has in the past, will reside in the decisions of a few key swing states. This swing state phenomenon instills apathy in the minds of voters who live in predominantly Republican or Democratic states. “Tennessee has been a Republican state for as long as I remember, so I don’t see why that would change,” said Adrien Raucoules, a sophomore in mechanical engineering who decided against voting. His mentality is not rare among voters, and history backs him up. The GOP has carried Tennessee in the past three elections, with almost 57 percent of voters siding with the Republican candidate in each of the last two elections.
Local elections consist of few surprises David Cobb Assistant News Editor
• Photo courtesy of U.S. Senator Bob Corker
• Photo courtesy of Mark Clayton
What’s in store for you? Are you better off now than you were four years ago? Is this country? Does America need a ‘Comeback Team’ or does it need to move ‘Forward?’ Preston Peeden Associate Editor Romney and Ryan share a bleak view of the past four years. That, however, is not how the incumbent team of Obama and Biden view their presidency. While the Republicans speak of themselves as “America’s Comeback Team,” Obama and Biden stylize themselves as moving
“Forward.” Four years ago, the 2008 campaign was plastered in the populist slogan of “Hope,” and it was that “Hope” that put Obama in office. After four years, the unemployment numbers have dropped below eight percent (and continue to drop) and the economy is still growing. See OBAMA on Page 2
Blair Kuykendall Editor-in-Chief Do you believe in America? Mitt Romney believes America has the potential to progress, but has yet to break out of recession. His slogan, “Believe in America,” was selected to convey his transformative vision for the nation. This vision includes a complete reversal of the
policies that have defined President Barack Obama’s tenure. For the Romney campaign, the last four years have been plagued by a series of “misdiagnoses” and “mistakes” regressing America. The economy has grown faintly since 2009, and the Republicans have been aggressive in advertising that fact. See ROMNEY on Page 2
Tonight, while political analysts break down their predictions for the future of the White House, the ticker at the bottom of the television screen will subtly display the future of something a little closer to home — Tennessee and its municipalities. Senator Bob Corker, a UT graduate and Republican incumbent, is up for re-election against Mark Clayton in the race to claim — or in Corker’s case, reclaim — a Senate seat in Washington D.C. “To me it’s really not Republican or Democrat,” Brian Stevens, mathematics lecturer and 2014 state senate hopeful, said. “You have to look at the person, their capabilities, how they meet with the public. And Senator Corker’s experience as the mayor of Chattanooga puts him in line to know how to handle this responsibility of being a U.S. Senator. People have different views on how he did, but I don’t think we should look at Republicans and Democrats and put broad generalizations on them.” The Clayton campaign has seen its share of hiccups, including inter-party disputes that have allowed for Corker to remain the widespread favorite in a race that came down to the wire in 2006.
“It’s going to be a landslide,” Stevens said. “It would be the biggest shock in politics. He (Clayton) has 10,000-to -1 odds of winning. And if he wins, my jaw will hit the ground, it will literally, and a bunch of other people’s will, too.” But even more centralized than Corker vs. Clayton or Obama vs. Romney are the races for positions that have direct influence on the UT community. “People need to be involved in local politics,” Stevens said. “Especially when you look at what’s happening with our university, which is a big thing to me, because the decisions of local politicians greatly impact this university.” Each spring, UT ’s Student Government Association takes a trip to Nashville to visit the state officials who make decisions on higher education and the funding that UT receives from the state. “Chancellor Cheek and our administration, they aren’t meeting with the president and White House staff,” SGA President Adam Roddy said. “They aren’t speaking at the House of Representatives.” Roddy, a political science major, spent his summer in D.C., working with Tennessee third district congressman Chuck Fleischmann. See LOCAL ELECTIONS on Page 2