Chelsea Clinton chatted with about 250 students and supporters yesterday at the Stamp Student Union food court in a last-minute stop at the university, which has become a regional political hub in the course of a weekend.
Clinton spoke on behalf of her presidential candidate mother, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), hosting a question-and-answer session and addressing issues ranging from the war in Iraq to fiscal responsibility to gender equality.
The intimate campaign stop was planned Saturday afternoon, but students seemed pleased with the event and thought the personal, low-key forum was an appropriate format for the Clinton campaign.
“I really liked that [Chelsea] was younger, so I felt like I could relate to her,” said Alysse Glovinsky, a sophomore marketing major who attended the event. Glovinsky said the event was very successful in informing young people of Hillary Clinton’s views. “[Chelsea] makes me less sure of who I’m going to vote for. I was leaning towards Obama, but now I might be leaning towards Clinton,” Glovinsky said.
This was precisely the intended outcome of the event, College Democrats President Jonathan Sachs said. “The rally with Sen. Obama is exciting, but if you’re an undecided voter, a personal event with in-depth explanations is more persuasive,” he said.
Yet last night, Sen. Clinton held an upbeat rally down the road at Bowie State University. Over a thousand supporters crammed into a gym to hear her speak, with Gov. Martin O’Malley, Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson there to support her. And, in stark contrast to her daughter’s event earlier in the day, Clinton’s rally began with the three supporters pumping their fists, raising the roof and encouraging the crowd to cheer even louder.
Clinton – yelling over chants of “Who do we want? Hillary! When do we want her? Now!” – spoke about universal health care, the No Child Left Behind Act, the war in Iraq and many other issues.
The crowd erupted in cheers and applause when Clinton mentioned affordable higher education, pouring more money into the Pell Grant program for low-income students and reforming the student loan industry. These cheers were outdone only by the crowd’s roar when Clinton advocated fully funding the National Institutes of Health and advancing stem cell research – a fact that speaks a great deal about the Baltimore-Washington area and its newfound emphasis on the biosciences.
Chelsea Clinton spoke about many of the same issues but was able to speak about them in greater depth. She said her mother has tried to push legislation making financial aid easier to apply for and would, if elected, work to eliminate the FAFSA form. Clinton said it would be more efficient if federal aid were linked to tax forms so that the Internal Revenue Service could collect financial information and then contact students to let them know what aid they are eligible for.
Clinton also emphasized the need for student tax credits and a better student loan system to eliminate predatory practices by lenders taking advantage of their young clients. She said her mother made it through law school on government loans that could be paid off at a more leisurely rate, in stark contrast to today’s fierce loaning atmosphere.
While the crowd as a whole stayed calm – Clinton’s well-versed but soft-spoken manner incited little more than polite applause – students who attended said they thought the small forum was more appropriate for the Clinton campaign than the large rally that Sen. Barack Obama will hold today.
“The fact that I was able to pick Chelsea Clinton’s brain about stuff was really cool because I felt like, wow, she’s going to take my ideas and at least maybe tell her mom, ‘You know, Mom, I talked to a bunch of young people, and this is what they’re really feeling and you should address this,'” said senior English major Megan Lahman, a former Diamondback Diversions reporter. “With Barack … he’s not going to be able to talk to any students and really hear what we have to say. We’re going to hear what he has to say, but we don’t get to point out questions. I’d love to ask him questions, but at Comcast that won’t be possible.”
The forum was planned on Saturday afternoon, giving members of the College Democrats and Students for Hillary only 24 hours to post flyers, send out Facebook messages and spread the word to ensure a good turnout.
“We were really worried we weren’t going to have enough people and that it was going to be a small turnout,” said Amy Hartman, a member of Students for Hillary and the membership secretary of College Democrats. “It’s been a great turnout. We had people from the College Park area and a ton of students. We’re really happy with it.”
Sachs said the Clinton campaign planned out the logistics of the event and purposely chose to have a small venue.
“I was a little confused at first that they didn’t want to do something bigger,” Sachs said. He said the campaign made well thought-out decisions, both with the location of the event and in sending Chelsea Clinton instead of anyone else from the family.
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