For the second time in six months, the presidential campaign trail has come through campus. President Barack Obama spoke in front of a crowd of about 3,300 Tuesday afternoon in yet another Ohio stop leading up to the 2012 presidential election.
Before the event began, student supporters from both parties were excited to have the President on campus.
“It’s a cool opportunity to see the President in person,” Senior Andrew Protopapas said. “I’m not an Obama supporter, but it’s our President. He’s probably going to say things that I agree and disagree with, but I think there needs to be respect for the President.”
Obama seemed to win some over by coming to a smaller school than the likes of Ohio State.
“I thought [coming to Capital] was smart for his campaign,” senior Mia Huttleston said. “It showed his grassroots campaign. It also showed that he thinks higher education is important.”
Proceedings began with an invocation from John Little, the pastor of Reeb-Hosack Community Baptist Church. Little was followed by the Pledge of Allegiance, led by Richard Pfeiffer, Jr., Law Director of the City of Columbus.
After the pledge came the first of two appearances by Capital students. Junior John McClain sang the national anthem to thunderous applause from his fellow Capital students.
Next came congressional candidate Joyce Beatty, who is running for election in Ohio’s third district, which contains Bexley. Beatty gave a speech of support for the President’s reelection campaign, focusing especially on Obama’s creation of jobs in Ohio.
“These are our friends’ jobs, our families’ jobs, and Ohioans’ jobs,” Beatty said.
She also took the opportunity to play the crowd, and finished her speech to a chorus of “four more years” chants.
“So let’s get out there, let’s get him reelected,” she said to the cheering crowd.
Matthew Garcia, regional field director for Obama for America, was next to speak, and offered more support for the President, as well as how to get involved in the campaign and register to vote.
After a break, Capital’s second representative took the stage to introduce the President.
Senior Steven DeBusk, who spent five years pursuing a professional cycling career before attending Columbus State and transferring to Capital, spoke about how much the Pell Grants and loans have helped him, and why it was Obama who helped him achieve his goals.
DeBusk then introduced the President, and Obama strode out of Troutman Hall to the cheering crowd.
“It is good to be back in Columbus,” he began.
Obama began by playing the crowd, asking if the students were excited for classes to begin, and pointing out one student who nodded his head no.
“Everybody is saying ‘yeah’ except for this guy over here. He’s just shaking his head ‘no,'” he joked.
The President focused his speech on education and how he plans to help the middle class, and discussed how he and first lady Michelle Obama can relate to the debt that college students face.
“We’ve been in your shoes,” he said. “Neither of us came from wealthy families. We both graduated from college and law school with a lot of debt… I’m only standing here today because of the chance that higher education gave me.”
Obama also spoke about why he offered a better education plan than supposed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s.
“Putting a college education in reach for working class families just doesn’t seem to be a priority for my opponents,” he said, adding that Mitt Romney recently told a student in Youngstown that if students could not afford college, they could simply borrow money from their parents.
After discussing the economy, healthcare reform and education, Obama closed with a call to action to the younger portion of the audience, asking each of the “young people” to register to vote, and ask ten of their friends to register as well, before getting the crowd excited with his last words.
“Ohio, we’ve come too far to turn back now,” he said. “If you’re willing to stand with me, vote for me… we’ll finish what we started, we’ll win the election, and we’ll remind the world why America is the greatest country on Earth.”
by Andrew King and Cindy Carr
