Debate Reflection

On Monday the 11th of February, my humanities class had a Mock-Debate and Election based on the current candidates for the 2008 election. Prior to the debate, my fellow classmates and I researched information based on the candidate and issue we were assigned. I looked into Hillary Clinton and her standpoint on education reform as well as the positions of opposing candidates Barack Obama and Mike Gravel. I chose to research education because I believe education to be vital in the success of our nation. To me, education is the very foundation of our youth, and of technological and social progression in the world. Because of this, I was shocked to find out how much our education system if faltering today, and the lack of action to compensate for this. Almost one third of high school students don’t graduate high school and over six million middle and high school students read quite below their grade level. So when I discovered these shocking statistics, it gave me more incentive to find out the plans of actions of the candidates to help fix this.
According to my research, all the candidates had similar ideas on how to improve the education system. Obama and Clinton’s plans seemed almost identical and their plans seemed to coincide with one another. However, Mike Gravel’s opinions, such as teacher merit pay and vouchers differed very much from each other. My experience representing Hillary Clinton on education in the debate was somewhat invigorating. I agreed with most of Hillary’s views on education, like providing more funding to children from low income families and school-based merit pay. So I didn’t have a difficult time defending Clinton and her views since they were quite similar with mine.
There many different issues where I wasn’t quite sure we I stood, or even understood the aspects of the issue. Although the issue of abortion wasn’t brought up in the debate, while researching I came upon different candidates views on the subject matter. On this issue I am stand in the middle because, although I do believe that women have their own right to do what they want to their bodies, I also take into consideration the rights of an unborn child. I know that Hillary is pro-choice, although I myself don’t know if I agree with her or not.
I found the debate to be very enlightening and entertaining as well. It was interesting to see how other people would embody the candidate they represented, and put themselves in that candidates shoes. Something that I found quite controversial and intriguing was the position of the republicans in Iraq war. I personally believe that the United States should leave Iraq, although do so slowly but surely to ensure that the country isn’t left in ruins. However, all three republican candidates, McCain, Huckabee and Romney, would like to stay in Iraq and even increase military spending.
Overall I thought the our Mock Elections were a success, and I’m sure everyone in the class was able to learn a thing or two.

Results of the Mock Elections:

Presidential Nominee – Democratic Party: Barack Obama
Presidential Nominee – Republican Party: Mitt Romney