Watching the debate with Baldwin Wallace University students

Photographer: WEWS
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Posted: 10/04/2012

By: Stephanie Ramirez, newsnet5.com

BEREA, Ohio -

While millions were glued to their TVs and electronic devices, so were college students at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea. The watch party was organized by Tom Sutton, one of NewsChannel5's political analysts, who is also a professor at Baldwin Wallace University.

His students came early, got comfy and by 9 o'clock, were ready to hear something new said BWU Junior, Emily Deaton. The junior, in her BWU sweatshirt, told me she was so far, undecided on which candidate to vote for. But one thing she knew going into the 9 o'clock hour, "I'm just really tired of the bashing each other," said Deaton.

She said, "I'm going to school to be a History teacher, so my concern is over education and funding."

Another student in the room, BWU senior Wes Byers also expressed a concern for jobs. But by the end of the night, Byers, who is also president of BWU College Republicans, said he's sticking with Mitt Romney.

"I thought tonight's debate was lively and energetic and I heard what I wanted to hear from Mitt Romney," said Byers.

The Senior added, "My concern was that the market we have right now is not conducive to job creation and entrepreneurship and I think Mitt Romney laid out a good plan on how to better foster an environment where that can happen."

When asked what really stuck with Byers, he answered, "It was how the tax code could really be reformed to close certain loopholes and deductions, just make it a simpler tax code, I've thought this for a long time. The tax code needs to be simpler and I think Mitt Romney wants to do that and I think it'll help tremendously."

A student aligning himself on the other side of the spectrum, Junior and BWU College Democrats member Andrew Moore said, "If there's one thing that stuck with me, it's that I, as well as the American public, finally got to hear much of what President Obama as done to better the economic circumstances. And President Obama is a 'show but don't tell' president, so the public got to hear and see some of what has gone on in the White House the past four years."

Mitt Romney's stance on wanting to repeal Obamacare is something Moore said also stood out to him, but not in a positive way.

"It's probably the most landmark healthcare reform passed in the past 45 years since Medicare and Medicaid was introduced," said Moore, "and to repeal this bill in such tough times would do immense damage to working families in a time when people are already hurting as is."

The BWU junior added, "I think the President got to make a couple of points clear to the American public and he definitely made his plans for the next four years clear. The American public will be very receptive of it."

It may not be surprising that the College Republican member and the College Democrat member both agreed after the debate - they're sticking with their respective parties. But there was one surprise Wednesday night, and that came from Emily Deaton.

She's the junior I talked to earlier in the story, who is studying to be a History teacher but was so far, undecided. Well, after the debate, she came out to tell me, "I made my decision."

Her answer?

"Probably Obama," said Deaton.

When asked why, Deaton said, "Because I want to be a teacher. His plans for education seem really important to him, where Romney didn't really spend time focusing on it."

Deaton added, "It may just be the debate ... but I think that even though they didn't specifically talk about education that much, the fact that he continued to bring it up and focus on it seemed it was more important to Obama than Romney."

It was interesting to hear from these students who, like thousands of Americans, will be voting come November 6. The students also expressed concern for other topics such as Social Security and the national debt, but it seems jobs is what will be driving these college students to the polls this year.