Students for Obama aren’t just following the crowd

By Kimberly Yama

“Obama seemed like the better man for the job, regardless of race,” said Joshua Shneider, a senior at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Like Schneider, many students voted on Nov. 4 for Barack Obama because they believed in him and his campaign, and not just because he would be the first African-American president.

Reasons for voting

History was made when Obama was elected America’s president, but people were celebrating ‘change’ more than race. His views on the economy, the environment and the war took the interest of people and students all over the world. “I agree with some of the tax issues that Obama brings,” Schneider said. “I think one of the reasons our economy’s rough right now is because we don’t have a strong middle class anymore,” explained Schneider.

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Not all students voted for Obama

By Dayna Omiya

Nov. 4, 2008 was a historical day for the United States when Sen. Barack Obama was elected the first African American president. For many Americans this win meant a change from the conservative Bush administration that governed the country for the last eight years.

Election results

Obama beat McCain 52 percent to 46 percent and had 365 electoral votes compared to McCain’s 173 electoral votes. Also, according to MSNBC, McCain lost to Obama in Hawai’i winning 27 percent of votes compared with 72 percent. Many of Obama’s supporters included minority groups and students, including UH Manoa students. According to the Los Angeles Times, a poll of college students was conducted for the Panetta Institute of Public Policy. The survey showed Obama led McCain 59 percent to 27 percent among college students.

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