The battle for Democratic votes on college campuses in Indiana's May 6 presidential primary hits in Evansville this week.
Three of Sen. Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers — including two former officials of President Bill Clinton's administration — will appear Tuesday at the University of Southern Indiana.
The public event, billed by Obama's campaign as a "foreign policy forum," will begin at 5:45 p.m. in Rooms 201 and 202 of USI's University Conference Center. Similar events will be held at Indiana State University in Terre Haute on Tuesday and at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis on Wednesday.
Tuesday's panel discussion will include former Clinton administration officials Sarah Sewell, who served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense, and Greg Craig, who was director of policy planning at the State Department. Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. James Smith also will appear.
The panel will "discuss Obama's plan to restore American leadership on the world stage and decrease the risk of terrorism by attacking global poverty, upholding the rule of law and rebuilding international cooperation," an Obama campaign statement says.
Campus skirmish
The panel discussions are part of a larger skirmish for votes on college campuses and in their respective host cities as Obama and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton battle it out in the Hoosier State's primary.
Chelsea Clinton, the Clintons' 28-year-old daughter, has been touring college campuses in an effort to cut into what political analysts believe will be a strong base of support for Obama.
Obama's campaign staged events over the weekend with television actor Kal Penn at Ball State University in Muncie and Indiana University in Bloomington.
Campus organizations supporting Obama already have sprung up at USI and the University of Evansville.
Clinton's March 20 rally in Evansville attracted many college stu-dents, and local Clinton organizers say students are among their volun-teers.
Jonathan Swain, a spokesman for Clinton's campaign in Indiana, said the campaign hasn't ruled out sending Chelsea Clinton to USI and UE.
"We would hope to see her come there, we would like to see it happen, but I don't have anything I can confirm for you," Swain said.
Any local Chelsea Clinton appearances could help boost Hillary Rodham Clinton in an area of the state that political analysts believe is strong for her.
They say Clinton has the prospect of a base in rural counties filled with working-class voters like those who lifted her to victory in industrial Ohio's March 4 primary.
Her economic message — including a plan for "American retirement accounts" offering families tax cuts if they save certain amounts — could resonate in factory towns.
Mythical disadvantage
In a Saturday telephone interview with The Courier & Press, Obama called his perceived disadvantage with working-class voters "a little bit of a myth."
"We won blue-collar workers in Wisconsin. We won them in Virginia. We won them in Iowa. We won them in Minnesota. And we won them in Illinois," he said. "... If I'm not known well in some of these rural areas or blue collar towns, then we've got some work to do."
As I observed in my comment, it's interesting that Obama is sending three foreign policy advisers to hold a panel discussion over terrorism and international relations, while the Clinton campaign is thinking of sending Chelsea.
Now just who isn't taking the students seriously?
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
Glocksman wrote:Now just who isn't taking the students seriously?
It's possible that Clinton is just making a justifiable decision to mostly write the campuses off, because they're about as strong for Obama as any place could be, given the young, educated, and left-leaning electorate that predominates there.
"I am gravely disappointed. Again you have made me unleash my dogs of war."
--The Lord Humungus
Glocksman wrote:Now just who isn't taking the students seriously?
It's possible that Clinton is just making a justifiable decision to mostly write the campuses off, because they're about as strong for Obama as any place could be, given the young, educated, and left-leaning electorate that predominates there.
Could be.
If I could afford to skip work (I work 2nd shift), I'd love to go listen to that panel discussion.
Maybe the college radio station or the local NPR station will broadcast it.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
Hillary did that for the U of Maryland College Park campus as well. Obama came in person to the indoor stadium, while Chelsea was sent to the campus food court.
STGOD: Byzantine Empire Your spirit, diseased as it is, refuses to allow you to give up, no matter what threats you face... and whatever wreckage you leave behind you.
Kreia
Maybe this is me being too paranoid or crazy, but it almost sounds to me that Clinton's throwing her own daughter under the bus as well.
DPDarkPrimus is my boyfriend!
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Mayabird wrote:Maybe this is me being too paranoid or crazy, but it almost sounds to me that Clinton's throwing her own daughter under the bus as well.
I don't think so. For one thing, her campaign isn't organized enough to throw anyone under the bus. For the second, Chelsea's a good choice to send to college campuses as a symbolic gesture. She's going to get slaughtered in that demographic for the reasons Pablo mentioned but this way it superficially appears that she considered them important (unlike say most of the states in the union ) and will get a few votes out of them.
The Excellent Prismatic Spray. For when you absolutely, positively must kill a motherfucker. Accept no substitutions. Contact a magician of the later Aeons for details. Some conditions may apply.
Plus, at this point, Hillary can't afford foreign policy experts to send anywhere.
When ballots have fairly and constitutionally decided, there can be no successful appeal back to bullets.
—Abraham Lincoln
People pray so that God won't crush them like bugs.
—Dr. Gregory House
Oil an emergency?! It's about time, Brigadier, that the leaders of this planet of yours realised that to remain dependent upon a mineral slime simply doesn't make sense.
—The Doctor "Terror Of The Zygons" (1975)
) and will get a few votes out of them.