There is a a sense of deja vu in the coming on campus rally for Senator Murray and President Obama..
The campaign itself has a sense of deja vu since Patty Murry ran her first campaign as an uneducated housewife in tennis shoes, a persona that was .. well tea partyish!
Now Senator Murry is among the most impressive of the Senators but is running in an an era reminiscent of the Know Nothings of 150 years ago. Her opponent, however, is an oddity. Rossi is a fairly avergae, local Republican, not running on claims to be a luddite or patriot but as on a claim that he is qualified to promote the limited view of government Republicans have usually had.
So, in sense we have a campaign from a progressive Senator who has risen from her origins vs. a conventional Republican with rather usual credentials. Odd. My personal vote is obvious. I respect Senator Murry and have been very pleased to see her increasing attention to the UW. While I worried about her when she first ran in tennis shoes, the Murry of today is a Seantor to be proud of. I have no agenda against Republicans, but Rossi ..albeit not a Tea bagger, has never shown the evidence that he has any ideas of his won.
Why our campus? Why not Key Arena? The issue here is whether it is appropriate to hold such a rally on campus. I REALLY am not in favor of using our campus space for this rally. Are we going to have Rossi next? Perhaps we should call it a class named “Your next puppet or pork-barrel, call your”. The nail in the coffin is bring in the President (it will basically trash all transportation on or near campus). For what purpose? Is the Pres that worried about losing his party’s edge?
Why our campus? BECA– USE we are a not a monastery, an antiseptic research center or an ashram. We are a PUBLIC institution devoted to free speech. Moreover, we all need to remember that our core purpose is not running an R&D center a diploma mill or even a football venue. Our core purpose is education.
As for Rossi, I would encourage that! Why NOT have him speak? Would that be less educational than a concert by the Beijing Opera or an exhibit of dinosaur bones from the Okanagon?
Finally, we pay a huge price by NOT being a venue for politics. Whether Rossi or Murray wins, we need them to see US as part of their constituency.
The last major rally by a politician (of sorts) was by the Dalai Lama, a couple years ago. Many might say, “that wasn’t a political event!” but I suspect that Beijing thought differently.
Another political “rally” here was in Red Square about a decade ago, when Dennis Kucinich made his first run at the White House. Anybody remember it? No? That’s because there were about 12 people in attendance. Dennis K had the extremely bad fortune of being in Red Square at the *exact* same time that Jim Clowes was giving his Last Lecture to a standing room only crowd in Kane Hall.
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Regarding the propriety of having Obama in Hec Ed: the Obama campaign is paying for it. It may be a traffic snarler, but it’s a legitimate traffic snarler. If Rossi wants to campaign there, all he has to do is pay up. But of course, he’d probably do better spending his resources about 3 miles due East.
Even this rally is only kinda sorta on campus. The Campaign sees it as targeted at the undergrads. That is, of course, a good thing. BUT, the pols seem utterly unaware of the huge potential of votes from faculty and graduate students. The faculty numbers about 5000 and grad students about 15,000. That is a lot of votes. Moreover, at least for the faculty, there is multiplier effect since faculty often have influence off campus.