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As the presidential candidates made another bid to sway American voters during Tuesday night’s debate, red, white and blue lines raced up and down on a television screen in the Holliday Forum of the Journalism Building.As part of the Reilly Center’s continuing campaign event schedule, about 70 students gathered together to watch the debate. Twenty students were given perception analyzers, handheld dials like the ones used by CNN to poll their focus groups.”I’m excited to see that Manship has the same technology as some of the big news organizations,” said Monica Postelnicu, assistant mass communication professor.The analyzer dials work on a scale from one to 100. Higher numbers correspond to positive responses to the candidates from the audience. The audience responses were monitored in real time on a television screen next to the screen playing the debate.Though the original plan involved a random drawing of participant names from bowls, not enough students chose to add their names to the drawing to make it necessary. Instead, everyone who put their name into a bowl received a perception analyzer.Of those people, only four were registered Republicans. Chuck Fontenot, College Republicans president, said he was disappointed by the turnout but was confident about his party’s strength on campus. He said the College Republicans have recruited more than 1,000 new members this semester.Fontenot said he was interested in seeing the results of the perception analyzers throughout the debate.”Its an advantage because we can see where we should change our plan of attack on campus,” Fontenot said.Kevin Guillory, College Democrats president, said he was less interested in the results of the perception analyzers. “I don’t really think it is necessary to gauge how students react during the debate,” Guillory said. “We already know that this is a conservative campus, and we know how our students will react.” Democrats and Independents were more highly represented during the screening, and their responses to candidates were often similar.For the most part, the results of the perception analyzers were predictable. When Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama, was speaking, the readings were more positive from Democrats and Independents. Republicans responded more positively to republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.  Before the debate began, Kirby Goidel, professor and director of public policy research, and Mike Xenos, mass communication professor, gave a short talk on what to expect from the debate.The talk emphasized the importance of “electoral context” during the debate. Goidel said the economic crisis, an unpopular war and a disliked incumbent were all important issues putting a burden on the McCain camp.”If nothing else happens in this election cycle, Barack Obama wins,” Goidel said. “Hands down.”
 
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Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]