Tim Skubick, host of “Off the Record” and contributor to mlive.com, recently came to Ferris to speak to students about issues surrounding the November election in a manner that was lively, humorous and informative.
After a brief introduction by President David Eisler, Skubick went on to give his speech.
He began by trying to discern the members of the audience who had already made their decision regarding the November election and those who were still considering their options. Of course, the vast majority of the audience had already decided who they were supporting in the upcoming election.
Skubick pointed out how many voters don’t really do much research into the issues and candidates and claimed “we’re getting lazy in democracy.” He also talked about how the concept of the “lesser of two evils” was emerging as the theme of the election.
Regarding President Obama, Skubick said, “four years ago Obama was a phenomenon; not the president. Obama needs the youth to win, but the youth tend to be apathetic.”
Skubick discussed former Governor Mitt Romney saying, “Romney’s problem is that he doesn’t connect. He’s rich. His hair is nicer than any of ours and he just doesn’t connect with the audience.”
He talked about how those who are close to Romney know him as a personable man with a good sense of humor and the struggle of the campaign to try and get that likeable Mitt Romney to come across to the voters.
“I think Obama and Romney are both out of touch with the American public,” Timothy Burke, Ferris junior in hospitality management, said. “Obama never shut down Guantanamo or repealed the Bush tax cuts. Romney says he’ll balance the budget, but we haven’t seen the plans.”
Regarding the overall trend of the election, Skubick observed that Obama was doing very well until the first debate.
Skubick said, “Romney showed up in the first debate and turned this election around. Obama may have won the foreign policy debate, but that’s not a huge victory; foreign policy is not as important to voters in the election.”
Skubick was later posed with a question regarding bias in the media. He admitted to a degree of bias in the media, especially in cable networks like Fox News and MSNBC, though argued a major problem with this was that viewers selected only media outlets which reinforced their particular beliefs.
“I think media bias is getting to the point that it’s becoming blatantly obvious,” continued Burke. “When it comes to third parties, the mainstream media fails to even mention the debates. There is more than just Obama and Romney, but the media doesn’t want to forgo the big paychecks from the campaign backers.”
On media bias, however, Skubick went on to say, “I don’t think the media is biased. The reason is that if I was a liberal democrat then the other side wouldn’t talk to me. After I would interview former Governor Engler, pro-Engler people would ask how I could be so disrespectful to the governor. Anti-Engler people would come up after the same interview wanting to know how I could just let him off the hook.”
After this statement he concluded to the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen, if there is any bias in the media, I’m looking at it.”n