The Justice, November 7, 2012 Election Edition

ELECTION 2012 EXTRA EDITION The Independent Student Newspaper

the

of

B r a n d e is U n i v e r sit y S i n c e 1 9 4 9

Justice

Volume LXV, Number 10

www.thejustice.org

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Waltham, Mass.

OBAMA REELECTED ■ At 11:15 p.m., loud

shouts of joy emerged from the Campus Center as the networks declared a victory for President Obama.

By TATE HERBERT JUSTICE EDITOR

See OBAMA, 3 ☛

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

ELECTION ELATION: Students in the Shapiro Campus Center erupted in applause and cheers of “Obama” following the projection of victory for President Obama last night.

Elizabeth Warren wins Senate seat ■ Elizabeth Warren defeated

Republican incumbent Scott Brown, becoming the first woman to be a MA Senator.

By josh asen JUSTICE senior WRITER

Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic nominee and Harvard Law School professor, defeated Republican incumbent Scott Brown in the Massachusetts senatorial election last night.

For the first time in Massachusetts’ history, a woman will serve the commonwealth in the United States Senate.

“This is your night,” said Warren to her supporters in her victory speech last night. “This is your victory.”

In one of the most anticipated and highly contested races in the 2012 election cycle, Warren earned 53.9 percent of the vote compared to Brown’s 46.1 percent. 1,603,045 people

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casted their vote for Warren, whereas 1,372,068 supported Brown in the election.

On campus, the Brandeis community, especially those students hailing from Massachusetts, voiced their opinions on Warren’s historic victory. “[I’m] really, really excited because I think it was very needed,” said Margaret Hoffman ’15, a Massachusetts native. “She’s just very focused on education reform. She’s such an intelligent and role model of a woman that I’m just really proud to have her representing my state.”

Haley Packard ’16, also from Massachusetts, echoed Hoffman’s support for Warren. “[My friends and I] went to go see her at a rally in Boston and we all really liked her,” she said. “Obama supports her. I like her opinions. I side with her more than I do with Scott Brown.”

CBS News and NBC News, fol-

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INDEX

Massachusetts voters also approved the legalization of medical marijuana.

Electoral Votes ROMNEY OBAMA

Shortly after 11 p.m. last night, the anxious and excited chatter of Brandeis students gathered in the Shapiro Campus Center atrium turned into whoops of joy (with a few groans of defeat) as the giant screen showing NBC’s coverage of the presidential election projected President Barack Obama as the winner. Obama’s victory in Ohio was the deciding factor, bringing him over the minimum 270 electoral votes required to gain a second term in the Oval Office.

In the final count, Obama won the hotly contested state with 50 percent support over Romney’s 48.3 percent, according to the Washington Post.

Toward the end of the race, several political pundits said that Ohio could make or break Romney’s presidential hopes. As recently as Saturday, a poll conducted by NBC News, the Wall Street Journal and Marist College showed Obama with support from 51 percent of the state’s voters, a sixpoint lead over Romney, while many voters were still undecided.

Before Florida's results were finalized, the electoral vote tally was 303 to 206. Obama also won the popular vote by the slimmest of margins, 57,886,061 to 55,979,738, according to

303 206 “

Brandeis

students

As of 5 a.m., according to CNN projections, excluding Florida.

Elizabeth Warren is going to be really good for the state.

TRAVIS RAPOZA ’13

EDITORIAL POLLS

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poll results pg. 4 COPYRIGHT 2012 FREE AT BRANDEIS. Email managing@thejustice.org for home delivery.

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WEDNESDAY, nOVEMBER 7, 2012

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THE JUSTICE

Justice Justice

the the

Established 1949, Brandeis University

Brandeis University

Established 1949

Andrew Wingens, Editor in Chief Marielle Temkin, Managing Editor Eitan Cooper, Production Editor Fiona Lockyer, Deputy Editor Jeffrey Boxer, Nan Pang and Robyn Spector, Associate Editors Sam Mintz and Tate Herbert, News Editors Celine Hacobian, Features Editor Shafaq Hasan, Forum Editor Adam Rabinowitz, Sports Editor Phil Gallagher and Jessie Miller, Acting Arts Editors Jenny Cheng and Joshua Linton, Photography Editors Rachel Burkhoff, Layout Editor Sara Dejene, Online Editor Maya Riser-Kositsky, Copy Editor David Wolkoff, Advertising Editor

Challenges lie ahead This board believes that the citizens of the United States have made the right decision by reelecting President Barack Obama last night. However, President Obama’s victory has elicited a much more cautious reaction than the euphoria stemming from his momentous election in 2008. The President had promised hope and change for many Americans, but in 2012, those promises have not all been fulfilled.

Furthermore, because the Democrats have maintained control of the Senate and the Republicans remain in control of the House of Representatives, the nation is at risk of remaining in the status quo.

We hope that the President will continue his vigorous attempts at furthering the cause of same-sex marriage while also expanding federal support for Planned Parenthood.

Social policy remains an important issue for this country and of particular concern to our demographic.

Additionally, the economic recovery has been halting, and room for improvement certainly remains in the fields of foreign relations and environmental reform, as well as in fostering a culture of bipartisanship.

This board hopes that a second Obama administration will spearhead a more proactive effort at economic growth, but also continue its emphasis on college affordability.

The Obama administration took incremental steps in its first term toward economic recovery. The $840-billion stimulus bill created 2.5 million jobs, but yet, progress has been slow. The un-

Bipartisan efforts needed employment rate just recently dropped below eight percent—a figure that has remained stagnant since 2008.

The price of a college education will remain a focal issue for all college students.

President Obama must maintain funding for Pell Grants and continue to propel efforts to offset the financial burden for university students.

President Obama, in his strident attempts to defeat Al Qaeda, end the war in Iraq and foster the rise of democracies in third-world countries, has acted commendably in the realm of foreign relations.

However, he must seek to immediately curtail the growing nuclear potential of Iran.

The first Obama administration has made improvements in the environmental field, establishing national safeguards on power-plant emissions as well as setting a historical precedent for the reduction of carbon emissions. His administration will continue to face partisan opposition against the nationalization of climate change initiatives, but in the greater interest of our future well-being, he must continue in this momentous campaign.

There is much concern that a second Obama administration will fail to shake much of the current status quo. However, this board firmly believes that, building on the proactive steps that his first administration has taken, President Obama can make a lasting impact in the aforementioned fields.

Brandeis TALKS What do you think Obama’s first priority should be in his second term?

Heather Friedman ’14 “Health care.”

Dan Moskowitz ’15 “Bringing the troops home.”

Jennifer Ginsburg ’14 “Climate change.”

JENNIE BROMBERG/the Justice

BRANDEIS THE ISSUES ON

The Justice asked members of the Brandeis community to predict the impact President Barack Obama’s victory would have on the following key issues.

SOCIAL POLICY It seems to me that much of this election has focused on women’s “issues,” namely the right to a safe and legal abortion, equal pay for equal work and insurance coverage of health services such as mammograms, cancer screenings and contraception (with Planned Parenthood being used by conservatives as both a scapegoat for government overspending and an ideological masthead for women’s reproductive health). It is crucial to remember, though, that these issues affect not only women, but all people, and that ensuring gender equality should be a goal of any administration. Through the policies it has passed, President Obama’s administration has proven that it cares about promoting and maintaining gender equality. Even today, women are not paid the same rate as men and are charged more than men for insurance coverage. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act aids in the fight against pay discrimination, and the Affordable Care Act (“Obamacare”) puts an end to insurance companies charging women more than men for comparable coverage. President Obama has prioritized issues related to women’s rights and gender equality and rightly so because we make up slightly more than half of the population. It is imperative that we as a nation continue to uphold these rights as push-back from the right wing attempts to undo generations of progress.

Jennifer Mandelbaum ’14 is the undergraduate departmental representative for Health: Science, Society, and Policy.

ECONOMIC POLICY

President Obama’s devotion to government spending and his consequent infusion of funds into job creation will be integral to the decrease of unemployment from its current figure of 7.9 percent. He will continue to impose tax cuts on the middle class and, with investing in government infrastructure, private-sector jobs will only continue to be added. The progress, while slow and steady, is inevitably headed in the right direction.

Adam Rabinowitz ’14 is the president of Brandeis Democrats and the Sports editor for the Justice.

HEALTH CARE There is little doubt that the Presidential election of 2012 will have an important impact on the future of the US health system. Governor Romney has made repeal of the Obamacare or the federal health reform law his number one commitment. What that means is that upwards of 35 million more Americans will remain uninsured and the total uninsured rate will exceed 50 million. Benefactors of this repeal would be high income families and some individuals and small businesses that would not have their taxes increased or be required to purchase insurance for themselves or their employee. In addition, Congressman Ryan was the lead advocate of a House of Representative-passed budget that would have cut $800 billion dollars out of the federal contribution to Medicaid. Medicaid is a joint Federal/State program that pays for the health care of low income children, adults and seniors. The Ryan budget would eliminate the federal oversight of the program and turn the program over to each state to set eligibility requirements and the level of covered services. We can expect implementation of the health reform law to continue. Over the longer term, regardless of who is elected, changes will need to be made to slow the growth in spending for Medicare, the federal program that covers most American seniors and the disabled.

Prof. Stuart Altman (Heller) is the Sol C. Chaikin Professor of National Health Policy.

FOREIGN POLICY Taylor Baker ’14 “He needs to focus on restructuring the way we look at education.

Restructuring national standards.”

Rohan Narayanan ’15 “Closing Guantanamo Bay.”

Julia Dougherty ’15 “Fixing the economy, but a close second is climate change.”

—Compiled by Phil Gallagher and Photos by Josh Horowitz and Rachel Burkhoff/the Justice

The economic pressure on Iran will strangle its economy, forcing them to abandon their nuclear program—without military intervention. Additionally, the war in Afghanistan will be over by 2014, causing America to be disengaged from any war for the first time in 14 years. In regard to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the President has been adamant that any progress for a Palestinian state must be made through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and therefore the United States will continue to veto and default statehood bids in the United Nations. The divide between the Muslim world and America can, and will, continue to dwindle as the United States continues to support those who fight for democracy around the world.

David Clements ’14 is the undergraduate departmental representative for the Politics department and is the treasurer for the Student Union.

THE JUSTICE

tha Coakley on Jan. 20, 2010 after

lowed by CNN, declared Warren, founder and the first director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the winner of the election shortly before 10 p.m.

The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald then followed suit prior to 10:20 p.m.

Although Brown won a greater percentage of the commonwealth’s counties, Warren was victorious in a greater share of highly populated areas such as Boston, Brookline and Lynn, Mass. In Boston, 183,606 people voted for Warren in comparison to the 63,858 who voted for Brown.

Warren will represent the state alongside Democratic Senator John Kerry, who has been in office since 1985.

The loss to Warren was Brown’s first defeat as a political figure. He previously served in the Massachusetts Senate from 2004 to 2010 and in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1998 to 2004.

“Defeat is only temporary,” Brown said in his concession speech last night, possibly hinting at another Senate run in the future. Brown won a special election by 4.8 percentage points over Democratic nominee Mar-

the death of Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy. He became the first Republican senator from Massachusetts since Henry Cabot Lodge served one term from 1947 to 1953.

As senator, Brown prided himself on his ability to work with both major political parties, but he was unable to convince Massachusetts voters to elect him for a full six-year term.

“You all sent me to Washington to be my own man, and I’m returning my own man,” he said.

In contrast to Brown’s independent voice in Washington, D.C., Warren centered her campaign on helping the middle class and battling large corporations, as well as regulating Wall Street institutions.

“This campaign was never about me,” said Warren after voting yesterday morning. “This campaign was about all of us, about all the people who invested in it, all the people who truly believed that if you got out there and worked together you can make a difference.”

Warren will be sworn into office on Jan. 3, 2013 at noon.

—Sara Dejene and Tate Herbert contributed reporting.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 7, 2012

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FOUR MORE YEARS

SENATE: Warren vows to focus on the middle class CONTINUED FROM 1

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ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

A FACE IN THE CROWD: Obama supporter Emma Lieberman ’14 anxiously watches for the latest presidential election results.

OBAMA: Students react as victor is announced CONTINUED FROM 1

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

A TALE OF TWO PARTIES: Brandeis Democrats treasurer Ula Rutkowska ’15 (left) and Ricky Rosen ’14 react to the election results.

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

SUSPENSEFUL NIGHT: Anna Hirst ’15 awaits electoral count updates. President Obama was projected the winner of the election at 11:15 p.m.

ROBYN SPECTOR/the Justice

TECHNICAL ELECTION: Students take a break between watching the news to check Facebook, blogs and Twitter—and maybe do homework.

the Washington Post's early morning count. Third-party candidates such as Independent Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein claimed 1,777,624 individual and no electoral votes.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney conceded defeat just before 1 a.m. on Wednesday. “This is a time of great challenges for America, and I pray the President will be successful in guiding our nation,” said Romney during the speech in Boston, in which he also thanked his team and his supporters across the nation.

Democratic President Obama’s victory, the culmination of a divisive and extremely tight race, was a point of pride for Brandeis College Democrats officers and members, who cohosted the results viewing party in the atrium with Young Americans for Liberty, the Brandeis Libertarian Conservative Union, the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance, the Queer Policy Alliance and Google.

While Colorado, Nevada and Florida were too close to call at the time, students initially erupted in joy as Florida’s preliminary results were shown.

Alex Faye ’15, legislative affairs coordinator for the Brandeis Democrats, stood on his chair and raised his arms in victory with the other club officers and members when it appeared that Obama would win Florida.

“I feel absolutely fantastic,” said Faye in an interview with the Justice. “It just kind of feels like redemption after 2000,” he continued, referring to the closely contested victory of President George W. Bush in which Florida was decisive. “It’s just fantastic; it’s going to be an incredible four more years,” said Faye.

“To be honest, I’m overjoyed. I can’t put thoughts into words,” said Brandeis Democrats Treasurer Ula Rutkowska ’15 in an interview with the Justice. Rutkowska said she was surprised at the composition of the results, as Obama looked poised to win in Florida.

“I’m very proud, and I feel like my

JOSHUA LINTON/the Justice

LOOKING FORWARD: A crowd gathered in the Shapiro Campus Center to watch the results of the election trickle in from polls in Massachusetts and across the nation. vote really, really mattered, because I voted for Obama in Florida. … It feels good,” said Joy Feagan ’16 in an interview with the Justice.

Amid the ecstatic chaos, students kept an eye on the projector screen as results continued to come in.

Screams of “We got Ohio!” went up from the crowd as it became apparent that Obama had clinched the state’s electoral votes.

The election “was the most exciting thing of my life, because I was exercising a right as a citizen,” said Jasenia Hartman ’14, who, while she lives in New York, voted for the first time this year in Massachusetts. “I felt like my voice mattered.”

Hartman said she was happy with the results of the elections, but was ultimately happier with the atmosphere in the room.

“It just feels so good to see a bunch of Brandeis students rally together for a cause. It doesn’t matter who they voted for, it matters that we care about our future and … the impact on the United States,” she said.

The night was decidedly more subdued among the small Republican faction in the atrium, but BLCU representatives stayed and chatted with

their more-liberal friends throughout the night.

Nationwide, heading toward election day, the Republican and Democratic candidates were neck-andneck. A national Rassmussen poll from Oct. 31 showed Romney leading by a mere two percentage points, with the support of 49 percent of likely voters.

Three percent of polled voters remained undecided, while one percent said they were voting for other candidates. Similar polls conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News and Public Policy Polling showed Obama in the lead by one percentage point.

In a poll conducted by the Justice, 74 percent of Brandeis students said they were voting for Obama, while 11 percent said they were voting for Romney.

As victory was declared at his rally in Chicago and Obama appeared onstage to address his supporters, he was greeted with chants of “four more years.”

“I want to thank every American who participated in this election,” said Obama in his speech. “Thank you for believing all the way.”

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wednesday, november 7, 2012

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THE JUSTICE

POLLING TV NO

ECI

7% ING OT

UND

DED

OTHE

Below are the results from the Justice’s 2012 election poll. In total 609 undergraduate and graduate Brandeis students responded, starting on Oct. 31 and ending Nov. 6.

BRANDEIS BY GENDER 70%

Female students showed greater support for the President than did male students.

2%

R 5%

Brandeis students

ROMNEY 11%

OBAMA

OBAMA 74%

Econonics and Business students showed stronger support for Romney.

ECONOMICS & BUSINESS 109 Students

HSSP

SCIENCE

49 Students

117 Students BIOLOGY BIOCHEM CHEMISTRY PHYSICS NEURO

OBAMA OBAMA

88% 12%

ROMNEY 16% ROMNEY 10% OTHER

9%

OTHER

UNDECIDED 4%

2%

UNDECIDED 1%

NO. 1 ISSUES

106:73 60:135 MALES

FEMALES

6%

NOT VOTING 11%

BRANDEIS ORTHODOX ORGANIZATION

MALES

FEMALES

BRANDEIS REFORM CHAVURAH

73

17

48% 37% 100% 0% students polled

74% 71%

Social Media New York Times

54%

Classroom Discussions CNN MSNBC Boston Globe FOX Other

10%

students polled

ROMNEY

A total of 206 students were registered to vote in the Massachusetts Senate race.

OTHER

6% 4% NOT VOTING 6%

OBAMA

SENATE

87%

SOCIAL POLICY

ROMNEY OTHER

NOT VOTING 13%

MASSACHUSETTS

83%

ROMNEY 13%

UNDECIDED 4%

BROWN WARREN

70%

OBAMA

4%

70%

ROMNEY

OTHER

332 Students

ECONOMY

INCLUDING:

59%

20%

251 Students

OBAMA

BY MAJORS AND MINORS

ROMNEY

FEMALE

609 students responded, and 74% supported President Obama. In 2008, 87% of students polled voted for the President.

Designs by NAN PANG/the Justice

OBAMA

MALE

21% 21%

45%

WHICH SOURCE INFORMS YOU? Students identified which news outlets

57% they utilize during the election season.