By GINA TALAMO and OLIVIA IANNONE
Assistant-News-Editor and Staff Writer
Students representing four major political party candidates got the chance to lay out their platforms at the CHS mock election debate this afternoon, covering a number of current issues from national debt and health care to gay marriage and abortion rights.
Three of the candidates were represented by seniors. Matthew Goldman, Taylor Walters, and Adam Dorfman acted as Democratic incumbent President Barack Obama, Republican Governor Mitt Romney, and Libertarian Governor Gary Johnson, respectively.
Sophomore Megan Kelleher of Ocean Township represented Green Party candidate Jill Stein as a last minute replacement. The original Stein representative, sophomore Emily Woods of Middletown, had to pull out of the debate due to a concussion.
During the debate, Stein/Kelleher focused on educating the spectators about the Green Party, especially with regard to her Green New Deal, a program which she hopes will create jobs while simultaneously taking advantage of renewable, clean resources.
Johnson/Dorfman’s political opinions drew considerably louder crowd responses than that of the other candidates, particularly at his proclamation that national security should be a priority because “the economy, abortion and gay marriage don’t matter if you’re dead.” When he said that “a lot of the bad stuff that goes on around the borders has to do with drug trafficking, and that will be put to a halt when I legalize drugs,” he received a similar response.
Both Obama/Goldman and Romney/Walters came prepared with arguments defending their views.
Obama/Goldman stressed his Affordable Care Act, the need for government action to create jobs and advocacy for gay and women’s rights.
“The government has no right to tell women what they can and can’t do with their bodies,” he said, to loud fanfare.
Romney/Walters, similarly, reiterated the ideas that his campaign has been based on in the past months, stressing energy independence, lower taxes and support for small business.
Romney/Walters did not hesitate to point out perceived shortcomings of the Obama administration, especially regarding the handling of the economy and national debt.
“Throwing money at problems does not work,” he said.
Tension between Obama/Goldman and Romney/Walters grew as the debate progressed. Many responses to questions came in the form of criticisms of the other’s failures or inconsistencies.
When asked about using a strategy of personal attack to campaign, Romney/Walters said “I have not made any personal attacks on Obama, just citing his record.”
Such exchanges not only highlighted the discrepancies between the two presidential candidates, but the long-standing rivalry between the students playing them, as Walters pointed out immediately following the debate.
“I want to thank you for listening, and I also want to thank all of you, and especially our classmates, for really keeping the fire in the argumentation between me and Matt Goldman for four years,” she said. “I think this is the best representation of our opposition, so thank you very much.”
Following the debate, Dorfman stated that he felt he won.
“I killed it,” he said. “I won. I was the best…I got all my points across.”
Walters expressed that she was satisfied with her performance in the debate, and that she had succeeded in shedding light on Obama’s current record with regard to economic issues.
“As young voters, we often let social issues drive our votes, and in an economy like this, it’s just not practical,” she said.
Though she said she was nervous, Kelleher said that she felt she successfully communicated her points.
“It was a lot tougher than I expected,” Goldman said of the debate. “The candidates were a lot better prepared than I thought they would be. Not to say that I didn’t think they would be, but definitely a lot more prepared than I expected.”
When asked who he felt was the winner, Goldman said, “I think it’s a toss-up, really. All four candidates did a great job.”