About 30 students gathered to watch President Bill Clinton's State of the Union Address in Brace Commons last night, but most of the audience seemed more concerned with the verdict in the O.J. Simpson civil suit than with the president's vision for 21st century.
The president's speech, which was followed by a discussion led by Government Professor Constaintine Spiliotes, called on the American public to meet a "challenge as great as any in peacetime history" -- the nation's entrance into the next millennium.
But the general reaction of students was one of indifference, and the strongest emotions of the evening was the students' apparent approval of Simpson being found liable for the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
The verdict was announced by television networks just as Clinton finished his address.
As for the speech, people in the audience, who were mostly members of Young Democrats and the Conservative Union at Dartmouth, found the address to be non-controversial.
Spiliotes described the speech as "solid."
"There were no surprises, but there didn't need to be any," Spiliotes said. "We're not really facing a crisis at the moment, and he's already been re-elected."
And Spiliotes noted Clinton "glided over the controversial programs, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. He's learned to focus on bite-size, piecemeal measures, instead of proposing sweeping change."
CUAD Chairman Michael New '97 concurred, stating that "Clinton tailored his speech to the public. He talked conservatively on some things, but also made a point of protecting popular programs."
Carrie Dunsmore '00 commented that "the speech was very middle of the road. It didn't say anything that 90 percent of America didn't agree with. He didn't take on any controversial topics."
However, New noted that "President Clinton made many promises. We heard about new programs and initiatives that will increase spending -- particularly if the president maintains social programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security -- but there were no specifics on cuts in the budget to finance them."
The president's address stressed many of the major themes of his successful 1996 re-election campaign. As Spiliotes noted, "we heard a lot of these themes -- education, crime prevention, and the environment -- during the campaign."
David Schleicher '00, president of Young Democrats said he felt optimistic about Clinton's comments. "Despite the cut and paste of ideas from his campaign speeches, this was the first speech since the 1993 State of the Union, that he didn't flub."
Clinton proposed tax cuts and exemptions to enable children to attend, at the least, a two-year college. But Spencer Jones '00 said that "the president made a lot of promises; let's just hope he keeps them."
As expected, there was a call for bipartisan action between Congress and the president.
Clinton urged the 105th Congress to finish the job of balancing the budget, continue to implement the newly passed welfare reform, and pass a campaign finance reform bill by July 4.
