In Professor Janette Muir’s class on presidential campaigns the question of the day was: will the presidential debate go forward on Friday? The class, which has students who will help to moderate Mason’s debate watch party, had a lot to say about presidential candidate John McCain’s surprising request for the first debate to be postponed.
“There are 98 other capable senators. I just feel that [President George W.] Bush waited too long to deal with this,” said junior history major Kaitlyn Burrough. “It is important for us to know their plans for the economy and their platforms since the problem is going to fall in their lap.”
Sophomore Catie Dugan disagreed with Burrough saying, “Despite everything Bush has or hasn’t done, he’s trying to do something now.” Dugan also said it is important for the two senators to do the job in Washington they were elected to do.
Currently, the debate is still scheduled for tonight at 8 p.m. although McCain has not yet announced if he will be in attendance. Mason Votes is co-sponsoring a watch party in the Johnson Center Atrium starting at 7 p.m. with pre-debate commentary from Mason Professors Janette Muir, Steve Klein, and Stephen Farnsworth, in conjunction with representatives from local Republican and Democratic committees.