Just before the first presidential debate of 2004, the atmosphere in the Frist Campus Center multipurpose room and the first floor TV lounge resembled the quiet anticipation preceding a championship game. More than 300 students and faculty members gathered to watch the battle between Sen. John Kerry and President George W. Bush on Thursday night.
The event was sponsored by the Class of 2006, College Democrats, College Republicans, P-Votes, Whig-Clio, the USG and the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students.
Scattered around the rooms was the gear of dedicated fans: a life-size cardboard cutout of Kerry and a "Bush/Cheney" poster waving above the crowd. The fans themselves participated in the battle of the buttons: "Viva Bush" versus a W crossed out.
The quiet buzz of conversation was much more civil than that of the average sports stadium, but the viewers were just as enthusiastic. Ripples of laughter swept over the crowd whenever either candidate slipped up or spoke awkwardly.
The loudest laugh came when Kerry, trying to compliment Bush's family, said that he had "watched" Bush's daughters and then paused too long before finishing the sentence.
But overall, the crowd's views were decidedly liberal. Many more of Bush's comments were laughed down and scattered applause erupted after several of Kerry's points, sometimes obscuring the first few seconds of Bush's response.
"It's a college crowd so these people are probably more liberal than they'll be ever in the rest of their lives," said Lauren Meehan '08. "People had already made their minds up, and their responses . . . show that these are Princeton students, the most brilliant people, but they're still closed-minded."
Most people were not surprised by the performance of either candidate.
"Basically, both candidates showed me what I expected to see," Adrienne Umeh '05 said. "Most people [in America] who were watching were already decided and the few people who haven't decided are watching cable, looking for something on other than the debates."
Whatever the apathy of the nation, Jay Saxon '05, president of the College Democrats, was impressed with students' enthusiasm.
"This [turnout] is more than we expected. We expected maybe 100, and we had 3, 4, maybe 500 people," he said. "The excitement and the importance of this election shows — in the number of people registering to vote and in the enthusiasm of people for their candidate."
Saxon thought the crowd's vocal response was appropriate.
"Whenever you get an excited group of young people for something this important, they're going to respond with laughter when something's funny, with applause," he said. "I think there was silence when important things were being said."
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