Summation of Debates and Pre-Election Coverage- And my thoughts on QU and elections in general, read it you know you want to!

All right Bobcats, the day is almost upon us! It's March 31st and the candidates continue to campaign their hearts out, and yet how many QU students really, I mean really and truly, care? As I sit here in the cafe surrounded by posters and table tents, I ponder this question.

The ability to elect an official to represent your opinions and beliefs to a government is something many Americans, particularly many young Americans take for granted. It is a right that we, as Americans, fought desperately for. And if you are a woman, or an African American, your ancestors had to fight even harder for that right. Voting enables governments-be it national governments or University governments- to change with the times and adopt the new ideas of their constiuents, which is this case is the QU community- each and everyone of the 5500 undergraduate Bobcats has the ability to change their "voice" tomorrow and I strongly urge you all to do so.

But how do you know who is right and who is wrong? Sometimes you simply know- an example of this from my personal life is when I first saw Barack Obama speak. It was before the primaries, before the "talking heads" of CNN, MSNBC, and all the other networks were disputing whether or not Hillary should have cried, before Rudy Guiliani threw his hat in and way before I was able to rationalize a day when I would have a president I could be proud of. I knew Barack was the man I would vote for before anyone else even knew if he was going to be the candidate. He had a quality about it, a quality that I now know to be similar to that of John F. Kennedy; a quality that makes people believe what he is saying and want to be better Americans and better people in general. And believe I am not saying that Barack Obama by any means tricked the American people, because I genuinely believe in him. I believe he can fix us, and so I exercised my hard earned right to vote on Nov. 4th and now live in a nation under a President I chose.

That feeling, of actively participating in government selection (which I know is not entirely true as there is still the electoral college, but a girl's gotta dream!!) is what motivates me to be a reporter, and a political one at that. Because let me let you in on a little secret Bobcats and Bobcat enthusiasts (Hi Mr.Clark!), political reporting is BORING. Most times you listen to politicians skirt the true answer to questions and sift through hundreds of pages of paper to simply find ONE good story, but it's that passion that I may help someone else feel inspired to vote and enforce change that drives me.

Now please don't let me make you believe that I am some saintly journalist who goes and finds the story and doesn't expect to be paid or anything, because that is not the case (How else could I ever afford MANOLOS someday, come on people!). But I am looking to inspire you today, my fellow Bobcats.

Read the campaign promises, check out what the candidates said at the debates, watch their youtube videos, all of which can be found on The Quad News, and try to find the one candidate for each position that speaks to you. Whether you know them or not, listen to them all, I beg you, because you have a chance to enforce a change of power here, a chance to make Quinnipiac what you want it to be, so don't forget midnight tonight, sign on to blackboard and vote. Vote for YOUR representatives, Vote for those who inspire you.