Category: Videos

Flash Lecture held at GMU on Higher Education Policy

GMU Student Govenrment held the first of a series of “Flash Lectures” on October 17, 2012. The flash lecture was a debate with an election spin to inform students more about issues. The debate featured Professor Bryan Caplan and Professor Steven Pearlstein who spoke on the question of “should government withdraw from and active role in providing and subsidizing higher education?”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKYvLYynVSM[/youtube]

598756_10151242020840027_1003958994_n — Flash Lecture held Oct. 17, 2012 sponsored by GMU Student Government

Student Reactions to Final Debate

President Obama Returns to Mason and Talks Women’s Issues

For the second time in less than a month President Barack Obama held a grassroots rally at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The President talked jobs and the economy, but spent a majority of his stump speech talking about women’s issues. He also debuted a new line of attack against Mitt Romney for his change in position on many issues especially women’s health issues.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Fi73Nz9Ozk4[/youtube]

President Obama’s full remarks:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/48BmtinOSl4[/youtube]

Mason Votes 1-on-1 with Cecile Richards

VA Senate Candidates Debate Last Time

Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, left, and former Sen. George Allen, right, shake hands prior to a debate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. (Steve Helber | The Associated Press)

Virginia Senate candidates George Allen (R) and Tim Kaine (D) faced each other for their fifth and final debate this 2012 election season October 18, 2012 at the Haymarket Theater in the Virginia Tech Squires Student Center.

View the entire debate here: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/308845-1

KaineAllenDebateVaTech — Former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, left, and former Sen. George Allen, right, shake hands prior to a debate at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2012. (Steve Helber | The Associated Press)

Stein Gets Arrested

Photo by: Mary Altaffer/AP Photo

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnam1yi5bVs[/youtube]

A video of the Green Party’s Presidential Candidate, Jill Stein and her running mate, Cheri Honkala being arrested as they attempted to enter the grounds of the Presidential Debate on Tuesday, has gone viral.

Stein, along with the other third party candidates were not permitted to participate in the event, organized by the Council of Presidential Debates. The CPD’s rules dictate that only nominees with an average of at least 15% of support in 5 chosen, national polls are allowed to enter the debate.

In protest to being barred from participating, Stein and Honkala held a press conference near Hofstra University, where the presidential nominee stated, “we are here to bring the courage of those excluded from our politics to this mock debate, this mockery of democracy.” After which they began proceeding to the debate hall, but were met by local police, who would not them in. Though they refused to leave the premise and were consequentially arrested for blocking traffic. They were not released for 8 hours.

This is not Stein’s first attempt to be included in the debates. She has petitioned the CPD to allow all of the candidates who have “demonstrated minimal level of support,” to join. She received over 14,000 signatures.

Stein, along with third party candidates, Virgil Goode, Rocky Anderson and Gary Johnson, will be debating each other on Tuesday night at 8 PM. It is going to be moderated by former CNN host Larry King and streamed on Ora.tv and YouTube.

Harvard Institute of Politics releases Fall 2012 National Poll on young voters

[youtube]http://youtu.be/bs70ivV-HOU[/youtube]

Cambridge, MA – A new national poll of America’s 18- to 29- year olds by Harvard’s Institute of Politics (IOP), located at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, finds President Barack Obama continuing to widen the gap between himself and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney leading by a nineteen-percentage point margin (55%-36%) among young adult “likely” voters. Just weeks before the presidential election, the poll also shows voting enthusiasm slipping as only forty-eight percent (48%) of America’s young adults say they will “definitely” vote this fall.

In addition, the IOP’s newest survey results – its 22nd major release since 2000 – show a solid majority of 18- to 29- year olds (62%) more comfortable with the view that President Obama inherited problems unable to be fixed in one presidential term rather than the viewpoint that he has failed (33%) – see below for more information. A detailed report on the poll’s findings is available on the Institute’s homepage at www.iop.harvard.edu.

The KnowledgePanel® survey of 2,123 18- to 29- year old U.S. citizens with a margin of error of +/– 2.1 percentage points (95% confidence level) conducted with the Government and Academic Research team of GfK for the IOP between September 19 and October 3, 2012. Here are some of the findings –

President Obama more trusted than Gov. Romney to handle major issues; majority believe problems President inherited are complex and require more time to solve. When America’s 18- to 29- year olds were asked which presidential candidate they trust more to handle a number of top issues, late-September IOP polling shows President Obama favored over Governor Romney on health care (+23 percentage points), foreign policy (+23), to be the Commander-in-Chief of the military (+22), immigration reform (+20) – and the economy (+19). Obama was also trusted more to handle “issues of concern to someone your age” (+31) and “issues of concern to women” (+33).

In addition, six-in-ten Millennials (62%) said the statement: “the problems that President Obama inherited are so complex it takes more than four years to do the job” came closer to their own view, while only a third (33%) said the same about the statement: “despite his best efforts, President Obama has failed.”

Romney voters more likely to turnout than Obama voters; less than half of America’s young adults expected to “definitely vote” in November. 18- to 29- year olds favoring Governor Romney are more likely (65%) than those favoring President Obama (55%) to say they will “definitely” vote this fall. Overall, forty-eight percent (48%) say that they will “definitely” vote in the November elections, with another ten percent (10%) saying “probably” and sixteen percent (16%) saying “50-50.” African Americans (59%) and Whites (54%) are both significantly more likely to say they will vote this fall than Hispanics (31%), as are college students (55%).

Obama leads Romney by nineteen points with young adult “likely” voters, continues to be preferred candidate among 18- to 29- year olds generally and is ahead on college campuses. At the time the IOP’s new fall poll was conducted, 18- to 29- year old “likely” voters gave President Obama a nineteen-percentage point (19%) lead over Governor Romney (55%: Obama; 36%: Romney), a slight improvement from March IOP polling (51%: Obama; 34%: Romney). Among young adults enrolled in a four-year college “likely” to vote, Obama leads 48%-38% with fourteen percent (14%) undecided. The IOP’s latest poll also shows Obama has continued to grow his lead among young adults generally to twenty-two points (48%: Obama; 26%: Romney; don’t know: 22%), five percentage points greater than seen in March IOP polling (43%-26%) and eleven points greater than December IOP polling (37%-26%). Obama leads Romney among 18- to 24- year olds by twelve points (41%-29%) and 25- to 29- year olds by 23 points (46%-23%).

President Obama enjoys strong leads in “Blue” and “Swing” states – and also ahead in“Red” states. President Obama is favored over Governor Romney among likely 18- to 29- year old voters in Swing states by 16 percentage points (54%-38%) and in Blue states by 34 points (61%-27%) – he leads by 6 points in Red states (49%-43%).

Governor Romney’s VP pick unhelpful. When young adults were asked how Governor Romney’s selection of Congressman Paul Ryan as his running mate affected their likelihood to vote for him, by more than a 4:1 margin more respondents say the Ryan pick made them “much less likely” to support Mitt Romney (40%: much less likely; 9%: much more likely). Among likely Republican voters, thirty-four percent (34%) say that the Ryan pick makes them “much more likely” to vote for Romney, with six percent

(6%) saying “much less likely;” among likely Independent voters, nine percent (9%) said the Ryan pick makes them “much more likely” to support Mitt Romney, with thirty-seven percent (37%) saying that it makes them “much less likely;” and among likely voters who are Democrats, three percent (3%) report that the pick made them “much more likely” to vote for Romney, with 65 percent saying “much less likely.”

Four-in-ten young adults prefer a Democrat-controlled Congress. A plurality (40%) of America’s 18- to 29- year olds prefer that Democrats control Congress after the November elections, with one-quarter (25%) saying they support a Republican-controlled Congress and 30% saying Congress should be split.

Professors Alan Schroeder and Warren Decker examined the debating styles of President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, who were to meet the following evening for the first of three debates. White House correspondent Laura Meckler discussed the candidates’ preparation for the debates. Professor John Sides talked about the relevance of presidential debates. C-SPAN archival video from past presidential debates was shown.

Professor Schroeder participated by video link from Boston and Ms. Meckler and Professor Sides from the C-SPAN newsroom.