As Thursday night’s most anticipated campus party kicked off, the noise echoing out of Lerner Piano Lounge was—except for the sounds of a television—silence.
At a viewing sponsored by the Columbia Political Union, the College Democrats, the College Republicans, and public affairs committee LionPAC, over 100 students from across the political spectrum crowded into the venue to see, applaud, and scoff at the vice presidential debate between Senator Joe Biden (D-Del.) and Governor Sarah Palin (R-Alaska). Some even said the VP debate was more anticipated than those between presidential candidates Senators John McCain (R-Ari.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.).
“It was like a spectator sport,” said Brenden Cline, CC ’11 and communications director of the College Libertarians.
In the hyper-attentive context, small moments stood out. Aside from brief explosions of clapping or chuckling, the event was so intensely quiet that participants sometimes glared up at people talking loudly on the floor above.
The combined reactions of scores of viewers also magnified the impact of every point—and gaffe.
“Biden sighed often, loudly, into the microphone,” said Lauren Salz, BC ’11 and executive director of the College Republicans. “She [Palin] winked a couple of times. I don’t really know what that was about.”
Many of the Alaskan governor’s remarks were met with snickers.
“People clapped for everything Biden said,” Aloke Chatterjee, GSAS ’08, said. “I don’t think this is going to change anybody’s mind. ... It seems like nobody at Columbia supports McCain.”
Chatterjee said that is a shame “because it’s not representative of the country.”
Perhaps the positive reaction was representative of the sentiments of the crowd, but Salz had a different explanation.
“It was a pretty one-sided, no, vocally one-sided crowd,” Salz said. “There were plenty of Republicans there—they were just less rude.”
Aside from a few wishes for a larger and louder television set, most viewers left happy.
“I think it really shows how much excitement and hype there was about the vice presidential debate,” Salz said of the turnout, which she said was four times what the Republicans saw at their viewing of the first presidential debate last week.
“I had the option of watching in my lounge on a nice comfy couch,” Whitney Green, SEAS ’10, said. “But it’s something about the energy of watching it with other people and seeing their reactions.”
