Obama wins Western’s mock election

By Zachary Baker

-- Student reporters Sarah Zeeck, Ashley Manning, Irene Niedzwiedz and Christina Holt also contributed to this report.

Obama bests Giuliani, others in mock vote

Many students, faculty and other pertinent staff gathered in Western Hall on Monday evening to elect a new president, or at least a pretend president, and it was Barack Obama who earned a whopping 506 of the 538 votes needed to become the new president of the United States.

Jessie Kallman, the campaign manager for Barack Obama, displayed pure confidence before the Electoral College began voting.

“I think Obama is pretty likely to win,” Kallman said. She said this mock election has been a great campaign opportunity.

“I’m ready to go to bed, but celebrate with a victory party beforehand,” Kallman said. She added that the campaign team was ready for the nation “to have some change.”

Change was what the Obama campaign got, but Republicans felt they had a good chance to win the presidency.

“Even though I feel that this campus is more liberal, I think that since Giuliani is more moderate, students might not want to go as far left as Obama,” said Steve Steinert, chairman of the College Republicans.

Brian Keller, vice chairman for the College Republicans, felt good about his campaign but said there weren’t sufficient candidates running who could challenge Obama.

“I feel confident Republicans are seen as the underdog on campus, but Obama has won in a landslide because he didn’t really have any strong candidates against him.”

The Giuliani campaign believed it did hold some advantages over the other party’s candidates.

“Reduced taxes, keeping taxes low, we offer strong and proven leadership. Rudy comes from a large state with experience, and Obama is inexperienced,” Keller said.

Greens plant seeds for future

Though the Greens were not expecting a victory, they were hoping to switch some votes. Their main goal was to inform Western Illinois University students that third parties do exist. Western is a liberal campus, they suggest, but many students do not fit in with the Republicans or Democrats. The Green Party Convention on Thursday was a big success, and Erin McCarthy representing California said she noticed that most people who attended the Thursday convention were surprised to learn the stance on the second amendment, and she was thrilled that she got that point across because she feels it is very important.

“This is a party for the true progressive person,” Jeremy Arendt said. “It is also important to understand that Greens stand apart from all other parties because they do not accept corporate donations. … people will understand that this is a grassroots democracy.”

Libertarians try setting themselves apart

The Libertarians emphasized just a few policies. The first is the principle of non-aggression. Because of their belief in the non-aggression principle, they favor withdrawal of troops from Iraq and abolishment of death penalty. They support the rights of individuals to bear arms; they strongly favor the legalization of marijuana for medical and recreational use; and they believe in free market principles of capitalism and oppose both government interference such as a universal health care and increases in
the minimum wage.

CAS dean: MPE captures spirit of discovery

Dean Inessa Levi of the College of Arts and Sciences also was a guest speaker Monday night. Levi grew up in the former Soviet Union, and she said the term mock election would have a much different meaning in the once-Communist state.

“It would have been used to characterize the nature of the electoral process in the USSR whereby a slate of communist party candidates were swept into office by a nearly unanimous vote because that was the only slate available,” Levi said.

Levi said that the Mock Presidential Election here at WIU has benefited the university as a whole.

“Today we gather not only to learn about the democratic process, but to celebrate it. Over the past two weeks, it has been a true pleasure to see students, faculty and staff from across WIU come together in a spirit of discovery to conduct this mass simulation.”