Recently I attended a Presidential Debate on Monday, September 26th. The event was held in the Board of Trustees’ meeting room and was packed with what seemed to be well over 100 students. Since as how this is one of the most polarizing and controversial elections in US history, I was not surprised to find out that roughly 84 million people had tuned in to watch it. This number was just on television alone, not counting all the live streams on social media platforms, and other services like YouTube or similar websites. In addition to just watching the debate, the organization provided a large screen with a real time feed of popular tweets that were related to the debate from regular people and celebrities and other famous people as well. In addition, they provided refreshments and played “Debate Bingo”, using many key words as board spaces. Overall the event was well put together and smoothly functioning for all who were in attendance. I highly look forward to returning to the future debates being held on the live screenings.
The debate started off fittingly, with Clinton telling Trump how “nice” it was to be there on the same stage with him. The debate continued on just as all the campaigns have to this point, with plenty of untrue statements, mudslinging insults, and heated arguments. It’s quite interesting to see two people with similar goals and objectives, who seemingly have so much hatred for each other. Nonetheless, both Trump and Clinton proceeded to push their ideas while still trying to answer some of the question asked by the moderator Lester Holt. Overall, looking back makes me question the stability of our future with leaders so unpredictable, scandalous, and controversial as these two. The next four years will certainly be quite interesting (and possibly terrifying) to watch unfold. For this event itself, all that can be said is that the debate hosted in the Board of Trustees’ room went much smoother than the debate itself, unsurprisingly