'One of the best elections we've had'

Posted by Mark Silva at 1:55 pm CDT

ORANGEBURG, S.C. – Listen to six young men and women, college students and African-American all, some eyeing their first presidential election, some their second, most weighing the relative advantages of Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama, one ready to embrace Rudy Giuliani.

Some say Clinton already knows the territory of the presidency, having lived in it. Some say Obama knows too little of the landscape, too new to know his way around. One insists that Giuliani is battle-tested by the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001. And most of them, including one who voted for President Bush, are deeply disappointed with the White House and angry about a war that has pressed their families into service.

Strolling out of the low brick Bulldog Dining Hall on the breezy but sun-baked campus of South Carolina State University, where all the Democratic candidates for president are preparing to debate tonight before a national television audience, they paused to talk about a vote which they view as historic by any measure.

"It's probably gonna be one of the best elections we've had,'' says one, a sophomore from Seattle.

Auriel James, 19, a sophomore from St. Petersburg, Fla., will be casting her first presidential vote.

"It's gonna be a difficult choice, I know that,'' she says. "Me personally, I'm looking at Barack – minority-wise, and he's done a lot, coming from Illinois and lifting himself up. If not him,'' she says, "I'm looking at Hillary Clinton. I know she's talking about getting the war settled, and education…

"The United States is ready for a change,'' she says. "You have Hillary Clinton, a female, and that would change the world right there. And Barack Obama – that would just shock the world.''

"With either of them, that would be a good thing.''

Behind the Martin Luther King Jr. Auditorium, a modern brick and glass theater at the entrance to campus where the debate will play out, stands a tree-shaded monument to the Orangeburg Massacre, the 1968 police-shooting of three young men here during a protest over a segregated bowling alley.

None of the students stepping out of the dining hall on this balmy late spring afternoon had even been born yet, during the tumult of the Civil Rights movement. But most of them, aware of the significance of an African-American candidate seeking the presidency today, insist that race alone will not determine their decision about who they will support.

Ricoh Glover, 18, a freshman from Summerville, S.C., says: "I will vote for, I think, Hillary Clinton. And I'd like Barack Obama to be her running mate. Because I think he needs a lot more experience before he runs for president.''

Why Clinton? "I think she kind of knows what she's doing, in that her husband was already in the chair.''

And a Clinton-Obama ticket, Glover says, "would probably be a big thing in history.''

Obama as a running mate, he suggests, "sounds better than him trying out now and not doing as well as he thinks he will.''

Brandon Turner, 19, a sophomore from Marlboro County, S.C., who joins others in lamenting the unequal funding which they say their historically black state university has received, says one thing about this election is certain: "I am encouraging any young African-American – or any creed or color – to vote. That is our way of getting our voice heard.

"I've got a couple of candidates I'm swaying toward,'' Turner says. "I'm gonna see how they sway me.''

But Obama carries no sway for him as an African-American, he says. "We should put a president in who is gonna do the job and do it right – not just because of race or color.''

Thomas Cunningham, 20, a sophomore from Greeleyville, S.C., likes the junior senator from New York: "I like Hillary. She's talking about health care. She's trying to help us out. She is, by far, the smartest woman I know…. She has that woman thing, the feminine side, but she can get aggressive to make a point.

'This guy, Obama, I don't know his situation,'' says Cunningham, waiting to hear what the junior senator from Illinois has to say tonight and insisting that Obama's race will not determine the choice he makes. "It has an effect – but regardless, it's not about looks. When he opens his mouth, we're gonna see what he's talking about. He can be African-American all day, but not having anything to offer America is not going to help us.''

It is Zach Cooper, 21, a sophomore from Seattle, who says: "It's probably gonna be one of the best elections we've had… With a woman and an African-American in there, and when people see what's happened with the war and with Bush, they're gonna want to see what's coming out of their mouths.

"Hillary Clinton could be an alien, as far as I'm concerned,'' Cooper says. "If she's gonna do the job, then we should put her in office.''

Yet, his mind still is open. He finds Obama to be "a strong person, overall,'' but also says "he has the most to lose.'' Should he fail, he suggests, it could be some time before another black candidate runs. Should he win, "he's gonna have all eyes on him, because he's the first black president, and he can't mess up.''

Yewston Myers, who will turn 21 this year and is a sophomore from Columbus, Ga., is the one who parts ways, politically, with classmates.

He voted for Bush in 2004 – and regrets that today. His father went to war with the Army in Iraq, and came home safely. Yet Bush "has disappointed me,'' he says. "I wish I'd made a different choice.''

Yet he still leans Republican, he says, and he is leaning toward Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

"Because of what he did for New York,'' Myers says. "I want to see what he'll do for the nation.''