Debate Evaluation

The first national presidential debate between Senators Rebecca Sanders and Jordan Rubio was held yesterday afternoon at Ithaca College. Grand Old Publication writer Rafael Gilbert and myself were moderators for the event, which consisted of questions to the candidates covering pressing topics such as foreign policy, education, immigration, climate change, planned parenthood and police brutality. Both candidates had set views on many of the issues, but their responses were not always as polarizing as one may think (i.e. both agreeing that police should wear body cameras). Sanders and Rubio responded to the questions very well; here is my full evaluation of their respective performances.

Sanders:

Rebecca Sanders had yet another excellent public event. She took all of her momentum from the two previous press conferences and ran with it. Sanders came out strong against increased military spending, even in the wake of the resent ISIS attacks on Paris. Instead, the democrat favors more strategic spending of the military budget. Her plan for a war (which in the past she stated would be a last resort), would be to be extremely careful to minimalize any type of civilian casualties and work together with Islamic allies to ensure that we not only win the fight but do not create any new enemies. When it came to climate change, she was extremely optimistic, stating that moving to alternative fuels could create jobs and significantly boost the economy, referencing the success she had with her implications in Vermont. Overall, she responded to tough follow-up questions very well and was extremely knowledgeable about all the issues.

Debate Grade: A

Rubio:

Jordan Rubio rebounded very well from the last press conference (of which I graded him a C-), where he gave no response to the first question and stumbled when asked about immigration. This time around in the debate, it was for the most part a different story. Rubio’s opinions were much more well-formed than at the press conferences, and although I did not always agree with his ideas, they were valid answers to tough questions. One of the republican’s best moments of the debate was coming out against a Common Core curriculum in pubic schools. In lieu of this, the Florida senator suggested that we open up more vocational schools and invest more in job training since he feels the Common Core produces “robots.” On immigration, he believes that the immigrants that we already have can help out the economy and that a reformed look on how we accept people from foreign nations will aid the nation with future migrant people. His stance on the issue was much more solid this time around. Rubio definitely showed up at this event and like I said before even though I did not agree with many of his plans for our nation, the validity of his ideas is sound.

Debate Grade: B