Campaign rhetoric ads mean little to Southern students

 
With the 2012 Presidential election in November, politics and campaigns have been pervasive on television and the internet since the beginning of the year.
The presidential debate trade-offs between President Barack Obama and the Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney have made all the social media and TV ratings shoot through the roof.
According to the Nielsen rating company, a leading global information and measurement company that provides market research, insights and data about what people watch and buy, when President Bill Clinton delivered his speech for Obama, an estimated 25.1 million people watched the convention, for the Democrats, between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. on day one of the three day event.
Nielsen reported that the Democratic Convention ratings beat ratings of the Dallas Cowboys’ season opener. 
With 25.9 million viewers on the second day and 24 million on the third, the Democratic National Convention ratings held up well compared to 2008.
According to the New York Daily News, ‘Eastwooding’ is the latest Internet fad.  The term, ‘Eastwooding’ was coined when actor, Clint Eastwood, who gave a speech at the Republican National Convention where he posed a question to the president on stage to the pretend president in a wooden chair, “So Mr. President, how do you handle promises you’ve made?”
The New York Daily News reported that by the end of the night, Eastwood-related Internet memes were buzzing across social media and Twitter users began uploading pictures of empty chairs with the hashtag, ‘Eastwooding’.
Students at Southern University had mixed opinions about the politics on TV.
Ayana Lery, a senior criminal justice major from New Orleans said, “I’ve seen the president on TV and I watch the news, but I don’t know anything about the other people that’s with him.  I feel he can’t move a mountain with the few years he’s been president.  People would have to give him a chance to make things work.”
Lery said that the campaigns could be both negative and positive.  “It just depends, because I’ve been hearing a lot of negative things but also positive things.
Keith Morgan II, a freshman mass communications major from New Orleans said he’s seen an increase in politics and mostly Romney ads about his proposed policies. “Mainly, I’ve seen a bunch of things about the election, just about with Mitt Romney and the laws he’s trying to pass.  To me, since the campaign, politics have definetly increased.  It really increased because of the different views and with the candidates that are running, especially for Mitt Romney with all the laws he’s trying to get passed as far as financial aid wise and different things about college and school,” Morgan said.
Morgan also said that most of the campaigns are negative, it’s going to keep going back to Mitt Romney and his attempt for the presidency. 
“I’m pretty faithful at watching it.  I see that Mitt Romney is really trying and actually, has a chance at standing up to Obama and the many people he has on his campaign.  He’s setting law that a lot of people seem to be interested in, “Morgan said.
Vankia Thomas, a freshman mass communications major from New Orleans said, “I have not seen much on TV.  I really haven’t been watching TV.”
Thomas spoke about what she believes based on the information she has heard.
“All I know is that everybody seems like they are trying to downgrade what Obama’s done because he hasn’t done a lot in his four years, but I feel like if you vote for him in another term, I think he’ll do what he’s been trying to do,” Thomas said.
Thomas agreed that politics have increased since the beginning of this election year.
“Everybody seems to think that since Obama did it, it’s a wider view of what politics can do and what it can’t do.  The diversity of the aspect as a whole has changed.  Every since Obama’s on it, it seems it has a wider view on it,” Thomas said.
Thomas said the campaigns have been mostly negative despite the need for necessary information to make a voting decision.
“I would say that the campaign is mostly negative because of how people want to take shots at everyone, like downgrade what they’re doing.  I think that they should just say what they have to say and run the race,” Thomas said.