Campus leaders give input on conventions
Although Gov. Chris Christie failed to become Mitt Romney’s running mate, the governor showed his support for the presidential hopeful last week at the Republican National Convention.
Alex Weiss, vice president of Rutgers College Republicans, said he thought Gov. Christie’s speech was not the best and believes Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., delivered a stronger speech at the RNC.
Weiss, a School of Arts and Sciences junior, said there were a lot of attacks on President Barack Obama and many general comments about Romney, but no speaker talked at great length about Romney’s credentials.
“I think they missed a big opportunity in spending more time building up Romney’s business record. … The nation needs an executive and [Romney] is an executive who turned around companies,” he said.
Stefan Mancevski, president of the RU Democrats, said he felt like Christie’s speech was weak and did not really energize the Republican base.
“I remember watching the RNC, and I remember Ann Romney got more applauses than [Christie] did,” Mancevski said, a School of Arts and Sciences senior.
Mancevski said although he dislikes Christie’s attitude and disagrees with his policies, he feels Christie is a good speaker when it comes to speaking in town halls.
Before the convention, a Rutgers-Eagleton poll showed that 46 percent of the 916 registered New Jersey voters polled believed Christie’s speech would not affect the state’s image.
While 35 percent of voters over 65 years of age are more likely to say Christie’s keynote speech — 25 percent of those under 30, feel the same, according the Rutgers-Eagleton press release.
“New Jerseyans are more dubious than they were 16 months ago about how Gov. Christie’s national visibility affects the state,” said David Redlawsk, director of the Rutgers-Eagleton Poll.
Mancevski said Christie did a good job in differentiating the views of the political parties, but felt the overall focus of Romney’s message at the convention was to speak negatively about Obama.
“I wanted to hear explanations on how some of their proposed policies work, like, for example, they haven’t explained how their Medicare vouchers would work,” he said.
Weiss agreed that Romney mainly spoke about the president’s failed policies and that it is time for a change.
“I though Romney’s message was simple. His speech was pretty good, which concerns me because Barack Obama is going to give a great speech [at the Democratic National Convention], I’m sure,” he said.
With the Democratic National Convention starting this week, Mancevski said he wants the president to provide a clear contrast from how the country was during the Bush Administration and where it is today.
“As a campaign, I think he’s doing phenomenal, [but] as president, he’s done some things that I personally don’t approve of — he hasn’t closed Guantanamo, but that’s a tough decision and something difficult to do,” he said.
