Hours before the election on Nov. 6, a CNN/ORC poll showed Governor Mitt Romney and President Obama at a statistical tie in the race. After the polls closed, Obama won 303 electoral votes, while Romney only received 206. Romney did not win any of the battleground states.
“I feel like its actually a good thing for four more years only because all the off the stuff he’s tried to do has been future-oriented, and now he has four more years to put those polices into action,” said Caitlyn Allen, Gladwin sophomore and member of College Democrats.
She helped with Obama’s campaign, Organizing for America, and even had the chance to meet Jill Biden, Joe Biden’s wife. On Election Day, she spent hours on the phone encouraging locals to get out and vote.
“You can actually have a say in your government, where there are governments where you have no say and you do what they tell you to,” Allen said.
On the opposite side of the aisle, Austin Moccia, Grosse Isle sophomore and vice chairman of College Conservatives, believes there is a stark difference between the two candidates.
“Barack Obama holds a different perspective and a different ideology than Mr. Romney,” Moccia said.
The club has record membership, with over 60 members signing up at Briton Bash. Moccia helped students participate in this year’s election season by volunteering for campaigns.
“With the Romney campaign, we’ve been doing door-knocking, phone calls and generally making people aware of the principles Romney stands for and how he differs from his opponent,” Moccia said. “We’ve been working with Americans for Prosperity, which is determined to fiscal conservatism.”
Salaina Catalano, Rochester Hills junior and president of College Democrats, believes this election showed the current state of the Republican Party.
“America gave a clear message in this election, that the Republican Party is too extreme to represent their interests,” Catalano said.
Though there is a new president, Moccia thinks Washington still needs change. If he could change one thing about D.C., it would be to force every member of Congress to know exactly what the bill is before signing it.
“I think people who are elected to represent us in a constitutional democracy should be required to know what their representation is,” Moccia said. “The Constitution is sacred. Every single one of them should know what’ s in [the bill] if their name is on it. That goes for both parties.”
Both Obama and Romney agree that Washington needs to embrace bipartisanship moving forward.
“[Romney] did a great job in his concession speech talking about how both parties need to come together, and I think that’s a really big thing,” Allen said.
Photo courtesy of VOA, Wikimedia Commons
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