Published: September 22, 2008 11:45 pm         

Edmond residents focus on economy, presidential debates

EDMOND — Inside Java Dave’s, 9 S. Broadway, Shantell Phillips and Erin Brewster, were reclining on a comfortable couch, doing some homework.

Both of them are University of Central Oklahoma nursing majors who will be graduating in December, and they said they have been following the news about the nation’s financial crisis.

Also, both of them said they plan to watch Friday night’s debate between presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama.

Phillips said she is undecided, but leaning slightly toward Obama. Brewster said she too is undecided. Both said they are a bit antsy about how the crisis will affect their financial future. They plan to use the debates to help them make their choice on Nov. 4.

Phillips said she is concerned about how far and how fast the stock market has dropped. She said she is worried that money which could have gone elsewhere will instead have to go to cover gas and rising food expenses.

If she could ask the candidates a question about the financial crisis, Phillips said it would be, “How will it affect us financially? Will taxes go up?”

Brewster, an Edmond resident, said she would ask, “What’s your plan? How are you going to respond to this in a realistic manner?”

Mickey Hepner, director of the UCO Policy Institute, a non-partisan policy organization, said given the convergence of the financial crisis and the presidential campaign, interest in the first debate should be high.

Hepner said as a voter, he wants to hear the candidates address how they would respond to the financial crisis and other pressing issues such as health care and Social Security.

“It’s unusual that they’re having to respond and both campaigns have been busy trying to back up their economic response,” Hepner said. “This week we get to hear them talk about it in a debate.”

Friday night, the candidates will answer questions side-by-side at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Miss. The second debate will be Oct. 2 at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., the third on Oct. 15 at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y.

The debates will be 90 minutes long and begin at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, according to the sponsor, the Commission on Presidential Debates. The first will focus on domestic policy. In each debate, except the town meeting format, the candidates will be seated at a table with the moderator.

Both Hepner and Keith Gaddie, a prolific author and a University of Oklahoma political science professor, said the enormity of the financial crisis commands a non-partisan response.

“These problems and challenges are far too serious for name calling, too complicated to be on sound bites, too pressing to be ignored,” Gaddie said.

Gaddie said both candidates have some image issues to overcome.

McCain is an “elitist” in the sense that he has an “aristocratic” family military history, and he also has seven Wall Street lobbyists running his campaign, Gaddie said.

Obama, a former professor, sounds like he doesn’t know how to relate to ordinary people, Gaddie said. Obama, a self-made man who is portrayed as an elitist, needs to talk to voters on their level.

Gaddie said as a voter he wants the candidates to govern in a way that is best for the people. In the early stages of the campaign, the prevailing thought was the election would hinge on foreign policy issues. Now it is focused on the economy, Gaddie said.

     

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