“Mason wählt”: Getting Quoted in German

This is totally random and has nothing to do with my week in New Orleans or my continuing attempts to kiss a penguin. However, it’s awesome.

Last fall, a group of foreign correspondents were brought to George Mason University during one of the Mason Votes watch parties for a presidential candidate debate. I talked to a couple of them and had great fun hearing all the countries they were from. A few of them interviewed me but I didn’t really think about it after that.

Well! I was googling myself a little while back and managed to find a German article written from that event quoting me! Pretty awesome. Stephanie Plagens, a cool woman from my church, was kind enough to provide a free translation for me. : )

To avoid breaking any copyright laws, I’ve only put the English translation here. Go check out the original German article!

(And for the record, no, I was and am not the director of Mason Votes- there was clearly a miscommunication there. I worked in association with Mason Votes on a lot of things during the election, as a live-blogger, reporter and whatever.)

 

McCain scheitert bei Aufholjagd

Von Joachim Frank, 16.10.08, 07:22h, aktualisiert 17.10.08, 10:14h

In the last presidential race TV debate there was aggressive discussion as in prior debates. The Republican Jon McCain attacked Barak Obama sharply – but he couldn’t, according to the student body and viewers, take the advantage over the Democrat.

John McCain and Barack Obama already “butt heads” before the first radio broadcast to the public. About 100 students in the Atrium of the George Mason university (GMU), a sober patio surrounded by stepped construction, pursue the last TV debate before the US presidency choice on the 4th of November.  As McCain, the republican candidate, once again brings up Obama’s contact to the former radical left-wing anarchist William Ayers as well as irregularity in the voter recruitment of the democrats, Obama strikes back:  The selection of this theme says a lot about McCain’s campaign.

That’s when the spectators in the GMU- “Debate Watch” applaud for the first time.  They follow Obamas observation that McCain wants to take the advantage of his opponent with this attack.  Reporting technology student Eugene Luarasi will criticize McCain’s introduction of this connection in the live broadcast as “nasty” and “an unworthy president”.  Although both candidates complain about the irrelevantly led campaign and mutually reproach themselves about negative campaign advertising, this evening McCain clearly goes more aggressively into the discussion and spares no personal attacks on Obama.  This repeated opportunity to shake his (Obama’s) head and seemingly calmly laugh – is, for the sturdy Albanian student Elia Celsulal, a mark of his “class” and a “presidential bearing”. 

Most of the time the listeners of the 90-minute debate concentrate to follow subjects of the US domestic policy, specially tax politics and health politics, but without outwardly recognizable interest.  Only occasionally does an elective voice arise.  In one of these rare moments, John McCain extols his “Running Mate”, the strong conservative vice presidency candidate Sarah Palin from Alaska, as a role model for American women. 

That’s when Tahira White, an African American marketing student, can no longer refrain herself. She hisses through her teeth, narrows her eyes and shakes her so that her thinly woven braids fly. “I already can’t bear McCains face“, she says. “the fellow bores me”.  White speaks for the majority of her fellow students – and obviously also for the majority of Americans.  Representative Ad-hoc-surveys of the television station CNN and CBS see the democratic applicant clearly ahead in the viewers’ favor after the end of the debate. 

The Obama fans in the “Debate Watch” at the George Mason university are also clearly in the majority, not just because many republican minded students are attending the religious services taking place simultaneously.  The Wednesday evening time is after the preferred Sunday gathering time for the Christian students, explains Rachel Dickson, organizer of the university-wide campaign “Mason votes” for a high voter turnout. 

Certainly pious reasons alone are not why republican minded students stay away at this evening.  In the entire campaign, its representatives had been as good as invisible, says James Greif of the press office of the university.  At the same, time the mobilization of students in this campaign is extraordinarily high. “Everyone on the campus has his opinion”, so Rachel Dickson.  And two-thirds go home agreeing with Obama.

For the young, well trained Americans – so seems it –, the race to be George W. Bush’s successor is already decided – for the benefit of the charismatic party of big change in the United States.  In his summary, Obama does not let the keyword of his campaign escape the people:  He stands for a “fundamental change”. 

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