Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The partisan presence on campus: who will prevail?

Hurrican Gustav may have rained on the Republican National Convention's parade, but ever-ardent McCain supporters are out in full force in the USC community as a constant struggle for young support rages with the fervent Obama student legion. 

The battle ground for student support is especially well armed on e-platforms where student coalitions harness support through Facebook group and discussion boards, blogs and websites. 

It's not surprising that students in a traditionally democratic state espouse the Democratic Party nominee, as is evident in the near 700-member USC Facebook group, Students for Barack Obama. It may be surprising, however, that the mere 72-member USC Students for John McCain Facebook group has a more updated page with recent McCain campaign YouTube videos. 

USC Students for McCain launched its own website that houses news on group events, blog forums and links to the John McCain 2008 official site and the California Students for McCain site. While the Obama counter site offers similar features, the website for the USC Chapter of Students for Barack Obama is only open to members. 

On a terrestrial level, McCain student activity pulls slightly ahead of Obama student activity. USC Students for McCain will host an open event on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in GFS 116  at which Republican political strategist Dan Schnur will speak. Schnur server as Senator McCain's Communication Director in his 2000 presidential election campaign against George W. Bush. 

USC's Students for Barack Obama closely follows its McCain counterpart in organizing rallies and gathering. Students for Barack Obama will have its first meeting on Sept. 8 to discuss the upcoming weekend's road trip to Las Vegas to help with voter registration and supporter identification. 

2 comments:

Jackie said...

This is really interesting Katherine. I had no idea there was such an overwhelming following of Barack Obama on the USC campus in comparison to the few followers of McCain!

Liz said...

I agree with what Jackie said — I thought the McCain support would be much stronger on campus. I thought this was really well-written and definitely has potential for several follow-up stories (e.g., McCain and youth voters, party politics on campus, how and why does each group attract students, etc.).