Co Editor in Chief Expectations for Friday’s Honors Politics were extremely high; the class had been talked about for weeks, students were continuously whispering politics in the halls, long block was being let out a full fifteen minutes early, and people were allowed to use twitter during assembly- obviously this debate was something pretty special. Luckily for those Honors Politics students working hard till early hours of the morning, Friday exceeded those initial expectations. During Friday’s long-block both campaigns were doing everything they possibly could to win the viewers attention. The Romney campaign even went as far as to post “NOBAMA” signs around the school, while the Obama campaign posted signs of flip-flops to represent Romney’s character. But more than that things got pretty personal, when the Romney podium had two microphones and Obama’s podium had one, the Obama campaign got a little worried. As tensions rose, however, there was no time for pettiness, both Matt Lucas (Obama) and William Pritzker (Romney) got into serious character mode as the debate started. Soon enough, the crowed joined in laughing here and there, and tweeting so much that Mr. Greer’s twitter feed froze. Many students and teachers were extremely proactive about their tweets, fighting with others to create wittier tweets with better hashtags. Senior,Marissa Weiss got really excited by the prospect and mentioned “I loved that Mr. Greer was retweeting from @LatinHonPol during the debate. It was interesting to see what other students and teachers were thinking about in realtime.” Some of her hilarious tweets included: “‘Romney has tunnel vision.’ #GetYourEyesChecked #AnyoneHaveAGoodOptometrist?” “‘America, you need a president with character, not a politician that plays one.’ Romney, stay on the stage where you belong.” And, like Marissa, many students still wanted their tweets re-tweeted by Mr. Greer after the debate because of their wittiness. But twitter wasn’t the only media use that impressed everyone in the crowd. The campaign ads had a huge part to play. Senior Gaby Dago said of the ads, “ I was really impressed by the ads, especially the Obama ads. I thought the Obama ads had really creative editing and used an interesting strategy to try to rattle Romney” ( I promise I asked her a neutral question and this was her response…I didn’t include any bias) while many others believe the ads looked “totally professional.” The crowd could obviously see how much time went into the ads. On the Obama team, the creative team worked through an entire night without one minute of sleep. Of the experience, one Obama creative team member, Andy Bank says, “Yea, it was intense.” And, everyone felt that intensity. The debate’s intensity is what made it engaging and fun to watch. Several students agreed with freshman Alex Arkin’s view that “it was pretty cool to see how high school kids approach politics and it was cool how they spent so much time preparing for it just like Obama and Romney actually do. The campaign’s preparation showed because they both really knew their stuff.” Taking Alex’s comments even further, on a more personal note, senior Matt Lucas (acting as Obama) explained, “As the candidate I didn’t really know what to expect. For nights I was stressed out of my mind getting ready for the debate, and when the time came to go up to the podium I thought for sure something was going to go wrong. I never thought I could get through that because I never really thought of myself as a good public speaker. As I look back on the experience all I can say is that it is something I will always remember. This politics class has changed my perspective on the real campaigns and has given me something I can always hold in my heart as something I will tell my kids about.” It’s easy to see the debate had a huge impact on the Latin community whether people were part of the campaign or the audience. Part of that comes from the assembly being engaging and interactive for everyone involved, and part of it comes from the fact that students expectations were taken to a new level. Either way, senior Blake Lasky sums it up perfectly: “the debate was the best assembly of high school.”]]>