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Tuesday, November 8, 2016 — 3

for her,” he said. “Him being the 
president of the United States, he 
has a lot of say, experience and 
credibility. He’s been the president 
of this country for eight years and 
there is no one else more qualified 
to say who he thinks should be 
president.”

Obama 
also 
took 
aim 
at 

Republican 
nominee 
Donald 

Trump directly, listing reasons 
Trump is unfit to be president.

“Donald 
Trump 
is 

temperamentally 
unfit 
to 
be 

commander-in-chief,” Obama said. 
“Over the weekend, his campaign 
took away his Twitter account. If 
your closest advisers don’t trust 
you to tweet, then how can we trust 
him with the nuclear codes?”

Several 
politicians 
and 

candidates 
also 
spoke 
during 

the event on the importance of 
the youth vote, including Larry 
Deitch (D) and Denise Ilitch (D), 
candidates for the University’s 
Board of Regents, as well as Reps. 
Debbie Dingell (D–Mich.), Brenda 
Lawrence (D–Mich.), Sandy Levin 
(D–Mich.) and Sen. Gary Peters 
(D–Mich.).

Before Obama spoke, Chelsea 

Clinton told the crowd this election 
was not just a choice of politics but 
a choice between two different sets 
of values.

“There is a world of a difference 

between what my mother stands 
for and what her opponent does,” 
Clinton said. “We have a chance 
to prove that ‘stronger together’ is 
who we are. It is what my mother 
has defined her life by.”

During the last half of his 

speech, 
Obama 
echoed 
that 

sentiment, asking the audience to 
imagine what a Trump presidency 
would look like given his actions on 
the campaign trail — particularly 
toward women and minorities.

“Donald Trump is uniquely 

unqualified to hold this job,” 
Obama said. “But the good news, 
Michigan, is you are uniquely 
qualified to make sure he does not 
get the job. And the good news is, 
you don’t just have to vote against 
something — you actually have a 
candidate who’s worthy of your 
vote.”

Obama’s visit was one of 

multiple campaign stops from 
both Clinton and Trump in the 
state over the past few days, a 
potential sign that Michigan will 
be more competitive this year than 
in years past. In addition to the 
president, Clinton herself will visit 
Grand Rapids tonight and former 
President Bill Clinton campaigned 
in Lansing Sunday night. Trump 
visited Sterling Heights Sunday 
and Republican vice presidential 
nominee 
Mike 
Pence 
visited 

Lansing on Friday. A Republican 
has not won the state since 1988.

In his remarks, Obama noted the 

expectation that Michigan would 

be close in the election, repeating 
his call to vote.

“But, Michigan, all that progress 

goes down the drain if we don’t win 
tomorrow,” Obama said. “This race 
will be close here in Michigan, just 
like it will be in a lot of parts of the 
country.”

LSA senior Lauren Gallagher, 

president of Students for Hillary, 
wrote in an email interview that 
she thinks Obama’s visit signifies 
the importance of the youth vote. 
He is one of several campaign 
surrogates to talk on campus in the 
past few months, including Sen. 
Tim Kaine (D-VA), the Democratic 
vice presidential nominee, and Sen. 
Bernie Sanders (I-VT).

“We’ve seen in past elections 

how powerful the student voice can 
be,” Gallagher wrote. “Big name 
surrogate visits to our campus is 
the campaign sending a message 
that our voices matter, that the 
decision about what direction this 
country is headed in is up to us. It’s 
my hope that students don’t take 
this lightly and turn out tomorrow, 
it’s our futures that are on the line 
right now.”

LSA junior Casey Martel said 

attending the rally was a memory 
she will never forget.

“The rally was great,” she said. 

“It reminded me of why I am voting 
for Clinton. It was definitely a once 
in a lifetime experience to hear a 
sitting president speak — and the 
day before an election.”

OBAMA
From Page 1

nominee Hillary Clinton currently 
leads Trump by about 3 points 
according 
to 
RealClearPolitics. 

Also on Monday, Trump and 
Hillary Clinton visited Grand 
Rapids, while Clinton’s daughter, 
Chelsea, accompanied President 
Barack Obama to the University of 
Michigan.

At the Warren event, Trump 

Jr. contrasted Clinton with his 
father, 
saying 
that 
Trump’s 

career doesn’t rely on political 
involvement, making his motives 
to run altruistic. Trump Jr. also 
charged that Clinton didn’t have 
the qualifications necessary for 
presidency.

“They’re worth $250 million, but 

what have they created?” he asked. 
“What business? I’m not aware 
of any. Who have they hired? I’m 
not aware of anyone other than a 
couple lobbyists and people who 
have scrubbed servers.”

He 
also 
said 
not 
enough 

attention is being placed on 

America’s problems — rather, he 
said too much focus is instead on 
political correctness and aid that 
goes toward foreign countries.

“I watch reporters talking about 

how we should be more concerned 
about the feelings of people from 
countries that hate us,” he said. 
“People from countries that can’t 
stand our freedoms. People that 
hate every aspect of us.”

Trump Jr. also touched on 

what he characterized as failures 
of the Obama administration, 
with a particular emphasis on the 
Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile 
Obama drew an estimated crowd of 
9,000 to the University of Michigan 
on Monday, where he emphasized 
the success of his legacy and the 
importance of its continuation.

“Affordable health care sounds 

great on paper,” Trump Jr. said. 
“When you get your headline or 
your tweet of 140 characters or less 
that’s fine. But really we have this 
20,000-page document that no one 
has really read.”

Given that Trump is better 

known as a businessman than 

a politician, Ed Holowchak, a 
resident of St. Clair Shores, Mich., 
said he found Trump’s decision to 
run for presidency to be selfless.

“He’s 
an 
outsider, 
not 
a 

politician,” Holowchak said. “He 
doesn’t have to do this. He’s doing 
this just because he loves his 
country. When have we ever had 
that before?”

Royal Oak resident Mary Tzianis 

cited the repeal of the ACA as her 
main incentive to vote for Trump.

“I have a young son with autism, 

so his care is very expensive for our 
family,” Tzianis said. “If Hillary 
gets into office, it’s going to put us 
in a near-homeless state because 
we won’t be able to afford our son’s 
care.”

For many who attended the 

event, the policies at hand were 
more important than the perceived 
character traits of the candidates.

“They try to attack Trump’s 

character, but they can never 
attack what his plans are. They’re 
just going by these tiny character 
things, but the man has got a plan,” 
Tzianis said.

TRUMP
From Page 1

millennials in the state, didn’t ever 
entirely transfer their enthusiasm 
to Clinton — until recently.

“Many of the students originally 

were Sanders supporters, and 
I do think that you’ve got some 
students that Clinton was not their 
first choice,” said Aaron Kall, an 
expert on election politics and the 
University’s director of debate. 
“They’re probably closer to Clinton 
than 
(Republican 
presidential 

nominee Donald) Trump but there 
were a lot of hard feelings during 
the primary and they’re kind of on 

the fence on whether to turn 
out.”

But as the race in Michigan 

has begun to tighten, with Clinton 
only five points ahead, Democrats 
have begun ramping up their 
presence in places like Ann Arbor 
in a bid to ensure millennial 
enthusiasm as it’s looked like the 
state may be headed toward one of 
its closest matchups in decades.

In September, Sen. Tim Kaine 

(D–Va.), 
the 
Democratic 
vice 

presidential nominee, came to 
campus. In October, Sanders spoke 
at the University of Michigan 
Museum of Art. Capping it all off 
on Monday, one day before the 
election, was President Barack 
Obama, displaying the significance 
that both Michigan and Michigan’s 
millennial vote have suddenly 
come to have in the last days of a 
narrowing race.

In all these of those visits, a 

message has been clear — the vote in 
college towns matters, especially in 
Michigan. The campus enthusiasm 
for 
the 
surrogates 
delivering 

the message has been clear, too. 
Hundreds of people came to see 
Sanders, and an estimated 9,000 
came for Obama.

But at Obama’s speech Monday, 

how that enthusiasm will translate 
to 
Clinton 
wasn’t 
completely 

apparent. Clinton has struggled 
with the narrative that young 
people aren’t enthusiastic about 
her, though polling has showed 
they overwhelmingly prefer her 
over other candidates. In the lead 
up to the event, some students 
were buzzing more about the 
person Clinton sent in her stead, 
than the candidate herself, with 
several shouts of “four more years” 
mingling with chants of “Hillary.”

While waiting in line, Ann Arbor 

resident Mimi Lanseur, wearing an 
Obama T-shirt, and Yaqoota Aziz, 
a recent University alum, said they 
believe there is a gap in enthusiasm 
between Clinton and Obama. Both 
noted, however, that they were still 
very much in support of Clinton.

“I’m less enthusiastic, because I 

don’t like how controversial she is,” 
Aziz said. “But I think she’s just as 
competent.”

“She’s the most qualified person 

to ever run for president in this 
country,” Lanseur said. “Maybe I 
don’t get excited about her the way I 
got excited about Obama, but I trust 
her. And I trust her to make difficult 
decisions. And I trust her to be as 
informed as possible.”

Don, a merchandise vendor at 

Monday’s event who didn’t give 
his last name, spelled out the 

differences in enthusiasm in a more 
quantifiable way.

“With the sales, honestly, if 

it’s Hillary events by herself and 
it’s just Hillary, sales are kind of 
low,” he said. “But when you’ve got 
Barack Obama and Michelle doing 
something with her, or Bernie 
Sanders doing something with her, 
sales are good.”

Sanders 2016 buttons, he added, 

are always a reliable sell.

For the speakers who took the 

stage 
before 
Obama, 
building 

enthusiasm among millennials and 
students was a clear focus. Appeals 
varied from policy topics like from 
Clinton’s higher education plan, 
which aims to create tuition-
free college to individuals with 
families making under 125,000, 
to the Affordable Care Act. The 
importance of this election and 
fighting 
bigotry 
— 
including 

criticisms of Clinton’s opponent, 
Trump — were also themes, as was 
electing the first female president.

“I, as a woman and African 

American, have a lot to lose if this 
election does not go to Hillary 
Clinton,” Rep. Brenda Lawrence 
(D–Southfield) told the crowd, 
stressing the contrast Clinton 
presents to Trump on combatting 
discrimination.

A few minutes later, Rep. Sander 

Levin (D–Royal Oak) highlighted 
Obama administration policies that 
he said have aided young people, 
asking the crowd to raise their 
hands if they had health insurance 
under the Affordable Care Act.

In his remarks, Obama touched 

on many of those same issues, 
though he didn’t make many direct 
appeals to students. Instead, he 
spoke more broadly, telling the 
crowd a Clinton presidency would 
lead to job growth, increased 
equality and aid with student debt 
issues.

“She will work her heart out to 

create jobs that families can live 
on; childcare that you can afford,” 
he said. “She’ll fight for students 
who are struggling with college 
debt. She’ll fight to make sure that 
women get paid the same for doing 
the same work as a guy.”

LSA senior Tamara Hofer, who 

lined up to get into the event at 
5 a.m., said several of the policy 
issues discussed were particularly 
resonant to her as a student.

“Health care is obviously really 

important for me, because 26 isn’t 
that far away for me and I’ll be off 
my parents’ plan,” she said. “But 
also education, and getting more 
people into college.”

For LSA junior Jalal Taleb, 

comments from several speakers 
about combating discriminatory 
rhetoric were particularly poignant, 
including 
those 
on 
fighting 

Islamophobia from Rep. Debbie 
Dingell (D-Mich.).

Among some other students on 

campus, the contrasts to Trump 
were key even if enthusiasm wasn’t 
there. LSA sophomore Nicholas 
Kolenda, president of the former 
Students for Sanders group active 
on campus during the primary, 
said he believed most of the 
individuals who had belonged to 
the organization would turn out for 
the Democrats.

“As far as I can say, I think the 

vast majority of former Sanders 

backers are behind Clinton now- 
rather enthusiastically or to stop 
Trump,” he wrote. “A vast majority 
will vote tomorrow!”

Beyond the issues highlighted by 

the introductory speakers, Obama 
also spoke more directly about his 
legacy, telling the crowd he thought 
he has earned the right to be trusted 
by Michigan voters statewide.

“Plants 
that 
were 
closing 

when I took office are working 
double-shift now,” he said. “The 
auto industry has record sales. I 
think I’ve earned some credibility 
here. Manufacturing jobs have 
grown at the fastest rate since the 
’90s — when another Clinton was 
president. I think we’ve earned 
some credibility here. So when I tell 
you that Donald Trump is not the 
guy who’s going to look out for you, 
you need to listen.”

He charged that in contrast 

to Clinton, Trump is unfit and 
unqualified for the presidency 
because 
of 
his 
temperament, 

business reputation and rhetoric 
about several groups.

“Donald 
Trump 
is 

temperamentally 
unfit 
to 
be 

Commander-in-Chief,” 
he 
said. 

“He’s unqualified to be America’s 
chief executive. He brags that he’s 
a business guy. But we’ve got a lot 
of businessmen and women who 
succeed without stiffing small 
businesses and workers. Once 
they’ve already done work for you, 
and then suddenly you don’t pay 
them?”

LSA senior Jesse Dorbian, who 

said he came to the event to hear 
Obama campaign for Clinton, noted 
that he appreciated hearing about 
Hillary Clinton’s economic work.

“What stood out for me most 

was the fact that Hillary Clinton 
is willing to help out people in 
need and help people get to the 
top, instead of Donald Trump just 
favoring himself,” he said.

Hofer said she thought both 

Obama’s presence and the emphasis 
on his legacy would be a boost in 
Ann Arbor, but that the Clinton 
campaign should still be concerned 
about student turnout.

“I think people are still not as 

enthusiastic as they need to be,” she 
said.

Taleb echoed Hofer’s sentiments.
“Clinton for a while had a 

problem connecting with young 
people, including me, and I’m 
voting for her tomorrow,” he said. 
“Having (Obama) here in Ann 
Arbor to boost that millennial vote 
was really important.”

Nonetheless, for at least some 

people in line Monday, whether 
or not Clinton garners the kind of 
enthusiasm generated by Obama 
won’t be all that matters as they 
head to the polls on Election Day.

“Obama was special in a lot 

of ways, but Hillary Clinton … 
thinking about the fact that I have 
the privilege of voting for a woman 
for president, like right now, that 
makes me want to cry,” Lanseur 
said. “I don’t need to be excited 
about it. It’s way bigger than that 
for me.”

Tuesday, Democrats will find 

out if it’s the kind of revolution 
millennials statewide are ready to 
be a part of.

RALLY
From Page 1

putting Democratic presidential 
nominee Hillary Clinton at about 
three points ahead of Republican 
presidential 
nominee 
Donald 

Trump. 

At the same time, polls in the 

2012 election also suggested a 
narrowing lead between Obama 
and former Republican nominee 
Mitt Romney ahead of the election. 
Despite being within five points of 
Romney in the weeks before the 
election, Obama won the state by a 
9.5 point margin.

Along 
with 
Obama, 
other 

Democratic 
politicians 
and 

candidates spoke at the rally, 
including Larry Deitch (D) and 
Denise Ilitch (D), candidates for 
the University’s Board of Regents, 
as well as Reps. Debbie Dingell (D–
Mich.), Brenda Lawrence (–Mich.), 
Sandy Levin (D–Mich.) and Sen. 
Gary Peters (D–Mich.).

Republicans, too, have realized 

the potential Trump has to turn 
Michigan red. The candidate has 
spent a significant amount of time 
in the state in the days leading up 
to the election. In the past week, 
he has made two stops in the state, 
with his running mate Gov. Mike 
Pence (R–Ind.) making three. 
There have been several other 
stops in the state by his children 
Ivanka, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.

On Monday, both Clinton and 

Trump visited Grand Rapids, 
Mich. on their last day on the 
campaign trail, while Obama 
aimed to get out the vote at the 
University. 

But regardless of the tight polls 

and uptick in visits, the likelihood 
of anything a GOP win remains 
low, according to pollsters and 
experts. 
The 
FiveThirtyEight 

election 
forecast, 
created 
by 

combining polls from across the 
country with historical trends, 
Monday night put Clinton with a 

78.1 percent chance of winning the 
state. 

Political Science Prof. Vincent 

Hutchings, who is an expert in 
voting behavior and elections, said 
though polls are tight currently, 
there is a low likelihood that 
Trump will pull through.

“I doubt it will be a blowout here 

in Michigan, but I nevertheless 
expect the Democrats to win here 
as they have for the last several 
presidential elections,” Hutchings 
said. “I understand why Trump 
is trying to flip the state, and why 
Democrats are trying to counter 
those efforts, but it seems to me 
that there’s a very low probability 
that the state will go Republican 
this year.”

Aaron Kall, the University’s 

director of debate and an election 
expert, estimated that Democrats 
have a 75 percent chance of 
winning the state of Michigan.

“Early 
voting 
has 
now 

concluded in several battleground 
states, so it makes sense for Clinton 
to spend much of her Sunday and 
Monday in states where a plurality 
of the voters won’t vote until 
Tuesday,” Kall said. “These are 
the places she should be making 
her closing argument in person. 
Democratic officials have said 
off the record they are concerned 
about Michigan, but they are likely 
saying this to make sure voters 
remain enthusiastic and actually 
show up at the polls on Tuesday.”

Kall said he foresees the Clinton 

campaign strategy as focused on 
holding Michigan, Pennsylvania 
and Wisconsin, so there is no way 
for Trump to win — even if he were 
to win traditional swing states.

Coming to Ann Arbor and the 

University of Michigan at this 
point in the race is particularly 
notable in itself. The most recent 
Michigan Daily poll of students 
for a three-way race with Clinton, 
Trump and “other” put Clinton as 
the winner by a broad margin of 87 
percent to 13 percent in support of 

Trump.

Volunteers of all parties on 

campus — including heavy efforts 
from the Democrats in particular 
— have also emphasized the 
student vote. Michigan Daily 
polling data shows 93 percent of 
students are registered to vote, 
though 
students 
on 
average 

usually turn out in lower numbers.

Hutchings said the appeal to 

college students is mixed because 
while younger people vote at 
lower rates, on average people 
who are more educated vote at 
higher rates.

“The student vote has some 

significance especially for the 
Democrats,” 
Hutchings 
said. 

“Historically, 
younger 
people 

are less likely to vote but turnout 
is also associated with high 
education. So, college students 
will turn out relative to young 
people without a college education 
and this year this demographic is 
trending Democratic.”

Hutchings said for Clinton, 

where every little bit counts, these 
student votes could mean a lot 
overall.

Kall 
reiterated 
his 
point 

that Democrats may be more 
interested in energizing the young 
population through visits like 
Obama’s, rather than concerned 
about losing the state as a whole.

“The 
millennial 
vote 
is 

becoming crucial to the overall 
election,” Kall said. “These voters 
overwhelmingly favor Clinton, 
but are sometimes apathetic about 
voting.”

During his remarks Monday, 

however, the president largely 
stuck to local to state issues rather 
than student issues.

He devoted a lot of time to 

addressing 
the 
concerns 
of 

Michigan voters — not just 
students. 

PARTY
From Page 1

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