Sept. 4, 2009 | The Clarion
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Experts, students analyze Obama presidency so far
by Christianna Kyriacou
Daily Trojan
U-Wire Content
The same day a CNN public opinion poll
announced that the president’s approval rat
ing had dropped to 53 percent, the Univer
sity of Southern California Jesse M. Unruh
Institute of Politics held its first Students
Talk Back forum of the semester, titled
“Obama Overview: How’s he doing?”
At the forum, held in the EVK Com
mon Room Wednesday,
students and faculty gath
ered with experts from
the 2008 Democratic and
Republican presidential
campaigns to discuss the
Obama presidency.
“I think these forums
and these debates are im
portant so people can not
only articulate their views,
but strengthen them,” said
Alexa Ekman, president
of the use College Re
publicans, who attended
the event.
Students convened with
expert panelists Craig
Schirmer, a senior advisor
of the Obama/Biden campaign, and Andrea
Jones Rivera, the California state director
of the McCain/Palin campaign. Student
panehsts Jon Carpenter, former president
of the use College Democrats, and Jo
seph Clark, a representative from the USC
College Republicans, also presented their
political views at the event.
Dan Schnur, director of the Unruh In
stitute, and Daily Trojan Managing Editor
DanLoeterman, moderated the lunch panel
discussion.
“Dan [Schnur] has an incredible ability
to pull together people from across the
political spectrum and help educate stu
dents on important issues to our country,”
Rivera said.
The forum covered the full gamut of
issues on the president’s agenda, from the
economic stimulus to health care reform
and even the wars in Iraq and Afghani
stan.
“The president has a lot of challenges
ahead and he’s starting to meet them head-
on,” Schirmer said during the forum.
Rivera said she thought Obama needs to
balance which issues he wants to make an
impact on with the issues that he needs to
make an impact on. Rivera added that she
thought Obama should have stayed in the
United States for longer than he did after
the election to make some progress on his
agenda, before choosing to go overseas.
“Obama has a larger-than-life per
sonality, the likes of
which we haven’t
seen since JFK,”
Rivera said.
On health care
reform, Rivera said
she thought Obama
started out on the
right foot by meet
ing with senators
and representatives
from both sides of
the aisle, but that he
did not set the right
tone for the specific
items he wanted to
see accomplished.
The current back
lash on health care
reform is based on the widespread view that
the current administration has taken on too
much, Rivera said.
Obama was elected on the promise of
change, according to Clark, but instead the
country found itself with a growing deficit
and an expansion of government into bank
ing and the auto industry.
Schirmer said it seemed Obama was
starting the process of making changes.
“ [Obama]’s beginning to lay down the
markers of changing Washington,” he
said.
He noted Obama expanded the national
debt to prevent a full-fledged depression,
and that health care reform seems to be
close to fruition.
The president plans to address both
houses of Congress next week with his
specific goals for health care reform.
“He’s a guy that finds a way to get things
done,” Schirmer said, adding that Obama
will need to present a clear, compelling
message to gamer enough support to back
the health care legislation.
Despite the global financial crisis, con
servatives are wflling to spend money for
the war on terror, as long as there is a clear
vision in the ongoing fight, according to
repubhcans Rivera and Clark.
“President Obama is in a unique position
in that he can reach out to other countries,
especially in the Middle East,” Rivera
said.
The president is working with Gen.
Stanley McChrystal, who commands US
and NATO troops in Afghanistan, to de
vise a new strategy for the next year in the
country, Schirmer said, with the hopes that
progress would be made before liberals
become disenchanted with the war.
“The administration needs to bring po
litical muscle this faU,” he said.
After the panel discussion concluded,
both the students and experts in attendance
said they thought the event was a good
way to spark discussion about important
political issues.
“The country is faced with great prob
lems and it is always good to engage in
political dialogue, no matter what your
ideological perspective,” Schirmer said,
following the fomm.
Rivera agreed, noting that it is particu
larly important to have students involved
in discussions like the Students Talk Back
forum.
“This is the next generation of young
leaders and it’s extremely important to
help them get involved,” Rivera said.
“It’s important to have a discussion about
politics without throwing a table across
the room.”
Schnur said he was pleased by the high
student turnout, especially since it was the
first panel of the semester
“From the time we started these lunches
last fall. I’ve been pleasantly surprised and
tremendously encouraged by the level of
student turnout and participation,” Schnur
said. “The fact that we were able to start out
today with such a strong turnout and such
a valuable discussion bodes very weU for
the semester”