Jackson Free Press

Deflating.

That's the best way to describe the attitude on here at the University of Mississippi. Months of planning. Millions of dollars. All down the drain because of one apparent maverick's desire to stay "above politics." For the candidates, the debate at Ole Miss is simply one obstacle in a series of hurdles that ends with a potential stint at the White House. For Ole Miss, the debate is everything, the final pat on the back that the university has been seeking ever since it started burying its Confederate past under Chancellor Robert Khayat's administration. And, for a moment at least, it seems ruined. John McCain stood them up, or is trying to, at least.

I asked several students the question: What should the Oxford community do if John McCain doesn't show up? Here are some of their suggestions:

Tyler Craft, junior political science major from Stringer:: "We should have our music festival anyway, and take the weekend to continue to talk about politics."

Sommer Wallace, senior philosophy and religious studies major from McComb: "We should personally invite John McCain to come to our university and apologize for the harm he's caused."

A.J. Gibson, junior geological engineering major: "Barack Obama should just come down and do a Q & A with the students about the economy."

Holly Reeves, freshmen journalism major from Oxford: "We should bring John McCain over here to talk about economics: like the economics of us spending all this money for him to show up."

Jacob McAnally, senior park and recreation management major from Glen, Mississippi: "Barack Obama should go and do it himself."

Previous Commentsshow

Nice post, Bryan. Good for these students–deserve an apology from McCain, indeed.

DonnaLadd

Sep 24 2008

The more I think about what he's doing to Mississippi and Oxford without any apparent consideration, the madder I get. I swear Mississippi may go blue over this. Per The Commercial-Appeal today: Once the federal government finishes negotiating a bailout of Wall Street, the University of Mississippi might want to ask for one of its own. After Ole Miss spent an estimated $5.5 million on construction projects and campus improvements for Friday's scheduled presidential debate, everyone from campus to Courthouse Square offered dumbfounded responses to news that Republican nominee John McCain might not show. The investment that Oxford and the University of Mississippi took out for the debate -- the massive technological upgrades, the beautification projects, the JumboTrons, the vast preparations for media -- could turn out to be worth about as much as the subprime loans that Wall Street wants to unload. [...] "I've been better," Andy Mullins, executive assistant to the chancellor in charge of coordinating the school's debate plan, said when reached Wednesday afternoon. Told later Wednesday night that the McCain campaign was floating a scenario that could include Oxford hosting a vice-presidential debate at a later date to be determined, Mullins said: "There is no way to determine that. We have other events. We have football games with 70,000 people. I just got back from the debate site. We are moving ahead and preparing to have it."

DonnaLadd

Sep 24 2008