Franklin Pierce chooses their President

The results are in! Over the course of the last year and months, we Americans have seen the significance of our free choice dominate and speak out like never before. We have witnessed politicians strive relentlessly to gain the approval of the American people and we have seen a colossal shift in our society. We have come a long way.

Finally, the world has seen the controversies between different races and sex shatter the glass ceiling, but who knew it would happen all at once? The fight between former first lady, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, now known to the world as the first African American to become president, then the battle between Obama and McCain and Senator Palin, certainly had America sitting on the edge of our seats in anticipation.

In this election, the world has seen race and gender push through to the top with success, but we have also seen a shift in our youth. It has become evident that Obama's lusciously funded and well organized campaign has indeed brought about change. His creative and rather modern campaign helped him connect with youthful America. Also, the influence of the media and its "Don't Vote" and "5 Friends" video's seemed to inspire young Americans to pay tribute to their civic duty... or did it?

Last week on November 4th, the same day of the American Presidential election, the Pierce Media Group sponsored a mock election for Franklin Pierce students. Every once in a while all the Fitzwater Fellows, who are in charge of media outlets like the newspaper, radio, sports, marketing, news, FPTV 25 and online get together to think of special events for our community.

Running from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., in the campus center, students seemed to enjoy the idea voting within the parameters of the Franklin Pierce Community.

"A lot of them really liked the idea of voting two times," said Natalya Waye, Fitzwater Fellow for Four Corners Marketing.

Also, freshman Dona Rawinski mentioned how, "It was cool to see what they wanted for their future. As a community it's good to see us participating."

It seems like a lot of those students who chose to and knew about the mock election, enjoyed it and thought it was a fun and cool idea. Others, simply commented that they had been "too busy".

Many mentioned how good it was to see so many students excited about the election of 2008; but despite all the influences of the media and presidential campaigns, and the persistence of teachers advising students to vote- some even cutting class time so students could go vote, there is still a good majority of students who did not cast their ballot.

The day after elections, one student mentioned how she voted in the mock election, but did not vote in the actual election. She started, "I didn't register, politics really confuse me, I don't really watch TV... I have no interest. But," she paused. "last night someone explained a lot of it to me- I should have voted. I regret not voting."

Regardless, on campus, by 2 p.m. Obama was up by 321 votes while McCain followed with only 95. By then it was already made clear who, at Franklin Pierce University, was the ideal president for America. With that said, it's about time we said, 'Welcome, Mr. President'!