In the midst of the worst American financial crisis in decades, the next president of the United States faces decisions sure to impact future generations, according to Jonathan Alter, a nationally recognized political commentator and author on campus Sept. 29 for a lecture sponsored by the Liberal Arts Forum and the School of Communications.
“The president of the United States is not just a lame duck, politically, he’s a dead duck. He has no political clout of any kind any more,” Alter said, speaking of the Republican opposition to legislation supported by President George W. Bush. “It’s an extraordinary rebuke of his authority.”
It was in that context that Alter also addressed the 2008 presidential race between Republican Sen. John McCain and Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. Alter said that economic woes during a presidential campaign typically favor the Democratic candidate, though because of Obama’s relative lack of experience compared to his opponent, not to mention his race, the polls remain close.
Alter cited a groundswell of support among young voters as having a potential impact on the election. “The old notion that ‘it really doesn’t matter if I vote’ is pretty much obsolete,” he said. “All you have to do is look at the 2000 election when many of you were in grade school and may have only been dimly aware of what was going on.”
What else has driven the surge in interest? Alter listed factors that included the recognition that leaders do matter (post Sept. 11 and Hurricane Katrina) and the rise of social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube, where political information is shared outside the traditional channels of major newspapers and network news programs.
“You could conceivably have a situation where North Carolina held the balance of the election in its hands,” Alter said. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be Ohio.”
A more intimate question-and-answer forum in Whitley Auditorium preceded the talk earlier in the afternoon. Alter also spoke one-on-one with The Pendulum student newspaper, answering questions about the presidential race but not offering many strong predictions of what would happen on Election Day.
A senior editor at Newsweek, Alter has written a widely acclaimed column that examines politics, media and social/global issues for almost two decades. His 2006 book, The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, was a national bestseller.
A Chicago native, Alter received his B.A. in history with honors from Harvard in 1979. In addition to “The Defining Moment,” he is co-author of “Selecting a President,” co-editor of “Inside the System,” and just this summer, a collection of his Newsweek columns, Between the Lines: A View Inside American Politics, People and Culture.
The 2008 presidential campaign is the seventh election Alter has covered for Newsweek. As editor, he helps shape the magazine’s overall news coverage.