Students Sense Lack of Depth at Romney Rally

By Amanda Phipps
phippsa@mytjnow.com 

Photo By Claire VanOstenbridge - vanostenbridgec@mytjnow.comCheck out Jonathan McFadden's coverage of Mitt Romney's visit to WU

Many students did not leave McBryde with high hopes in president hopeful Mitt Romney. 

Romney spoke about his belief in America and the pursuit of happiness during his speech to hundreds of people, including students, faculty and community members in McBryde Hall Wednesday. 

While Romney spoke about keeping America strong, he also focused on getting Obama out of office. 

“The president is out of ideas and excuses,” he said. “In 2012, he will be out of town.” 

Romney said he guarantees he will make America better. 

“I want to restore the principles that made us the hope of the earth,” he said. 

While Romney focused on improving America, many students did not feel he gave enough depth to his speech.  “There was no substance to his speech,” senior political science major Megan Robinson said. “His speech was not useful for undecided voters.” 

Robinson said she felt Romney did not include all groups in his speech as well. 

“(Romney) spoke about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all – except gays,” she said. 

Senior political science major Kayla Barber said Romney’s speech was not honest. Barber said Romney used different statistics when referring to Obama’s comparison of Europe and America than he did when referring to his own. 

“He framed issues in a way that made them sound like they were positive but in actuality were flat out lies,” she said. 

Before Romney gave his speech, Winthrop alumnus Joseph Bursey shared his message that Romney may not be the best candidate for the presidency. 

“Our goal is to raise awareness that young people aren’t (always) for the more popular conservatives,” he said. 

Bursey said he wants to have more power to the people and less to the government. 

Bursey and some other messengers passed out a flyer that compared Obama’s views on issues, including corporatism and bailouts, to the other candidates.

“We are people who are worried about our country,” he said. 

While some students would have liked to attend the event, their class schedules got in the way. 

“I’m mad I missed it because of my MCOM class,” freshman MCOM major Gabrielle Franklin said. 

Freshman MCOM major Leslie Brown said she wished she could have used the opportunity to gain more writing experience. 

“If we had an assignment, that would have been nice,” she said.