Republicans Cater To Young Voters

Mary Lee Gibson, Vice president of College Conservatives and Marco Tarentino, chair of the College Republicans at the University of Tampa. (Here & Now/Kevin Sullivan)

President Obama leads Mitt Romney by nearly 30 points among young voters. But at the Republican National Convention there’s been a push to energize young people to go to the polls, with events like a rock the vote concert.

Guest:

Marco Tarentino,chair of the College Republicans, University of Tampa
Mary Lee Gibson, Vice president of College Conservatives, University of Tampa

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

J__o__h__n

Young people don’t hate gays as much as most Republicans. I don’t see how the Republicans win on economic issues either though.
J__o__h__n

Thank you for pointing out the Romney/Ryan welfare lie.
- J__o__h__n
  
  Not that the guest admitted it and then dismissed it as both sides lying.
  - BHA_in_Vermont
    
    Yeah, it is really too bad she isn’t even willing to check the facts as Robin cited them and accept that not everything she hears from the Republican tower is not true.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003000884786 Navin R Johnson

Mary Lee Gibson will be a good spokesperson for further promoting the long-standing reputation of the University of Tampa as the safe school for dumb wealthy kids who couldn’t get into an Ivy League school.
Guilfoyle20

I wish I could believe that these two are not representative, but I have a feeling that they do in fact represent the all-too-pervasive “I know what I know, don’t confuse me with the facts” attitude that has gripped our country. Ignorance is going to give this election to the ideologue fear-mongers who have co-opted the Republican Party.
TribalGuitars

They should really make college students take critical thinking and philosophy classes, because these students seem to revel in their ignorance when confronted with facts. No one gets to pass on not knowing the facts when the facts are handed to them. These kids are just another example of Republicans denying fact, history, science, and experience, not to mention logic.

When I was in college I had a Prof that gave the dictionary definition of a fruit (flowering plant, internal seeds, etc) . Then he asked a student what a tomato was: Fruit or vegetable? The student said it was a vegetable. The Prof proceeded to explain exactly how a tomato was a fruit. Then he asked the student again if a tomato was a fruit or vegetable. The student again said it was a vegetable. The Prof said, “Notice how he clings to his beliefs no matter what the evidence is otherwise.” This is the exact way so many of the Republicans behave, clinging to ideology and deliberate ignorance in the face of fact.

Even Faux News was nailing Ryan about some things in his speech. Do you know how badly you have to mangle truth and logic for Faux to nail a conservative on it? This is coming from the network that changes “R” to “D” every time a Republican in power, usually in Congress, gets nailed in a sex scandal. Yeah, you gotta be that bad.
- Jpower22
  
  Are you kidding with the R to D BS. What a dipshit! I used to beat the shit out of dipshits like you in undergrad, luckily there weren’t any of you in law school with me.
  - Tenacious_G
    
    Actually, Fox news history of denoting Republicans who get into any sort of sexual scandal as being a Democrat is well documented on the intertubes.
  - spiral007
    
    great job! said like a boor!!
    - Tenacious_G
      
      When facts aren’t on your side, beat the shit out of em’. LOL
  - TribalGuitars
    
    The short list of “accidental” Faux News’s party switcheroo:
    Larry “Wide Stance” Craig
    Mark “Are you horned?” Foley
    John McCain
    Ted Stevens
    Mark “I’m out hiking” Sanford
    Sheldon Whitehouse
    David�
    “Diapers & Hookers” Vitter
    
    Had it happened once, that’s an oops. Twice, maybe. But this “error” occured too frequently and only with Republicans that were involved in a scandal. Not one “D” was ever mislabeled with and the wrong party affiliation and listing went on for hours and hours, often the entire day, until some media watchers busted them on it. That they do this regularly has even made the national news.
    
    So, J, you are carrying on the latest Republican agenda: Denying fact, history, science, and experience.
    
    Your comment on thinking with your fists, rather than your brain, says volumes about the person you are, which is a deliberately ignorant bully.
BHA_in_Vermont

Nice try attempting to correct Mary Lee’s belief that Obama is taking
the work requirement out of welfare. Her refusal to believe she is wrong
is why dirty campaigns and lies work. The fact that she is the Vice president of College Conservatives could likely have suggested this would be the case. People hear what they WANT to
hear and will reject any facts to the contrary.
Tenacious_G

Mary Lee… you need a dope-slap, girl!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_MHCRYIJLCSGAO5QI4CXS746VAU Duffy

I’m so glad Robin corrected Ms. Gibson on the welfare-work issue (not that it mattered, she still ignored the facts). Far too often I’m hearing interviewees favoring the right say something completely false or downright racist (like this morning on Morning Edition: see the story on Romney addressing the American Legion in VA) and the interviewer says nothing to correct and/or call them on it.
Tenacious_G

Robin, between the tea-party lady yesterday and Mary Lee, I’m going to suggest
brain-bleach might be in order. Sadly, some folks are fact and reality-resistant.
Ben C

I would like to preface this comment by saying I am a democrat. I realize Ms. Gibson was ill informed and it would have behooved her to consider Ms Young rebuttal to her argument. However, I would rather have seen “Here and Now” follow Ms. Gibson’s comments with corrections from an expert rather than having Ms. Young chastise her guest. The next segment of the show, “Fact Checking the RNC” was the perfect place to provide the education required, however now I am curious if this segment was inserted to serve as damage control. NPR prides itself on non-biased reporting. When it’s reporters take on the position of correcting guest, bias is reinserted, and the credibility of the reporting process is jeopardized. I love this show, and depend on NPR to educate me. However, I feel emotion my have affected Ms. Young’s better judgement. Republicans honor war, and understand frontal assaults as an opportunity to stiffen their resolve (Ms. Gibson proved that) Subtlety on the other hand is a more difficult art to defend. Therefore consider in the future applying your education like a suave rather than wielding it like a sword.
Jennyg5600

Mary Lee,

What you said was right. I’m proud of you for standing up for your beliefs!
Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnhuB0Z0AIA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

The Left always have a way of playing word games with the facts. I’m sure the others that have posted here won’t appreciate that this video is from the O’Reilly Factor, but facts are facts. The bottom line in all of this is that President Obama has not helped our country, nor has he built it! WE ARE NOT BETTER OFF THAN WE WERE FOUR YEARS AGO!
It’s time for hope and change… I HOPE this election brings a CHANGE in administration!