2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Lecture met with protest
Former SGA president attends protest
Kate Olesin, Collegian Staff
Issue date: 4/12/07 Section: News
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The first in a series called "Talking Politics," sponsored by the UMass Civic Initiative run by the Donahue Institute and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Card's talk was entitled, "The American Political Landscape: Looking Towards 2008." Among his topics he stressed how important participation is in a democracy.
"If you don't show up, you can't complain about the results," said Card.
With a long history of politics rooted in his family, Card functioned as Chief of Staff under George W. Bush from 2000-2006, making him the second-longest serving Chief of Staff to the White House.
Card started off the talk with an emphasis on his early involvement in politics and his ties to his hometown, Holbrook, Mass. As protestors began to file into the ballroom, sitting in chairs with their backs turned to the podium and blocking their ears, and many with a variety of signs such as "LIES" or "Card=Criminal," Card transitioned to the 2008 elections and why this is a "very interesting period" in the political calendar.
"There are more candidates running for president than any other election that I can remember with the exception of 1980," said Card.
Card explained that this is the time in the political calendar where the United States has "faux presidents," where citizens look to candidates for leadership even though they are not in office. "What does it mean to have a leader who is not president…?" Card posed to the audience and especially to political science classes.
The success of candidates in the upcoming election, according to Card, will depend on hundreds of millions of dollars spent on television advertisements. He implied that immense spending is an unfortunate consequence of having so many candidates for president, and pertinent issues or those candidates without vast amounts of money may be lost in the fray.
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
UMassGrad
paul J Rae
posted 4/12/07 @ 6:48 AM EST
I'd just posted a comment about Greg Collins story on visiting "Professor" Finkelstein, wondering if there might have been a protest about his visit, as had been for Professor Mike Adams' last fall. (Continued…)
S. Dougherty
posted 5/11/07 @ 10:05 AM EST
This is an extremely poorly-written piece of reporting. The focus is scatterbrained, and word choice and sentence construction are poor.
This passage, "As the audience posed questions to Card, student protestors forcibly shouted from the back of the ballroom, waved signs and carried mock, dead soldiers from the room. (Continued…)
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