“It all started when UAO decided to show ‘Fahrenheit 9/11’ a week before the elections,” said David Scharfeld, a member of the College Republicans.

UAO organized a debate between the College Democrats and College Republicans, last night, in response to the College Republicans who were upset about the showing of the documentary, said Scharfeld.

Three members of each club represented their organization during the debate. They were asked six question and given three minutes to answer each question. During the course of the debate, the crowd, made up of mostly college students, cheered, booed, applauded and laughed. They were also asked to settle down a few times by UAO moderator, Bernard Little, whose joking comments seemed to ease the tension in the room, at times.

In their opening statement, the College Democrats stressed that the upcoming election is important for many reasons. They said Bush doesn’t accomplish things, there are 45 million Americans with out health care and the country is more paralyzed than ever. They said this election gives people a chance to change all that and let their voices be heard.

During the debate, the College Republicans said that the Democrats are running more of a blame Bush first campaign, rather than actually coming up with solutions themselves. They said Democrats are trying to scare people by spreading rumors of a drafts and no social security checks which aren’t accurate.

Scott McCarty, the Democratic candidate for the Ohio Senate, also attended the debate. He said that while he commends both sides for doing well at the debate, he would have like to have seen more in depth research regarding the topics.