"You have an enormous stake in this," Dean said. "Barack Obama is the candidate of your generation, he really is. He speaks to your generation, he speaks about your generation, and he really thinks of himself as a member of your generation."
Dean and the other speakers, Rep. Paul Hodes '72, D-N.H., and Bill Shaheen, Jeanne Shaheen's husband, encouraged students to become active in the political process.
"People always say they want change, but we don't ever really get anything done until the pain of staying the same exceeds the fear of doing something different," Dean said.
The three issues Dean believes most require change are policies regarding Iraq, health care and the economy. He said it is crucial to consider how Obama and Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain plan to address these challenges.
"The difference between Barack Obama and John McCain on Iraq is 98 years," Dean said in response to a statement McCain made earlier in the campaign season about how long the United States would remain in Iraq.
Although many Republicans say McCain made his "100 years in Iraq" remark facetiously, Dean said he sees nothing in McCain's policies that would preclude such a commitment. He added that the $10 billion per month America is spending in Iraq is needed in the U.S., most notably to reform the country's health-care system. Under Obama's plan, Americans who are content with their current insurance plan can keep it, while those who are dissatisfied will receive government assistance, he added. The McCain campaign has dubbed Obama's plan "socialized medicine." According to Dean, this claim should be seen as untrue fear-mongering, as Obama's plan would not be government-administered. He added that America's current health-care system hurts the economy.
"We lose jobs to Canada, not just China, because our companies have to pay for a major cost," Dean said. "In Canada, they pay indirectly through taxes, but that doesn't go up at a rate three times that of inflation every single year. We need real change, and Barack Obama is that kind of change."
Obama's tax plans are better for the economy than McCain's, Dean added.
"Barack believes that the best place to put tax-reduction money is in the middle class and the working class families, because they have to spend it, they're up against the wall in this economy," Dean said.
Although such issues may dominate the next president's agenda, Dean said voters should also consider the larger issues of restoring America's moral authority and unifying the country.
On a local level, Dean said that it is also crucial to elect Shaheen as a U.S. senator from New Hampshire. Shaheen is currently ahead of incumbent Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., in the polls by a 5.9 percent margin, according to Real Clear Politics' average of recent New Hampshire polls. Nationally, Obama leads McCain by 7.4 percent, and in New Hampshire, his lead is 10.4 percent.
"John McCain has voted with George W. Bush 90 percent of the time," Dean said, telling students that, despite the apparent support for Democratic candidates, New Hampshire is still a swing state. "But there's another senator who has voted with Bush 90 percent of the time, and that's John Sununu, which is why we need to send Jeanne Shaheen to Washington."
Dean added that he does not think Shaheen, in the Senate, would vote with Obama, in the executive office, 100 percent of the time, but that a Democratic administration will need legislators to support the liberal agenda.
"I think we need a senator from New Hampshire to stand up for the voters of New Hampshire, not a senator from the Republican party to stand up for George W. Bush," he said.
Dean told students that while his generation transformed America in respect to human rights and the Vietnam War, the baby boomers made a crucial mistake that he hopes young people today will avoid.
"After a while we felt, well, we transformed the country now we can take some time off for our families and our careers," he said. "That was a mistake. Well, it's never a mistake to put time into your family, but it's a mistake to think you don't have to participate in the political process -- you do."
Hodes, who came to Dartmouth as a freshman in 1968, agreed. He said that while he and his peers hoped to effect societal change, they became complacent and made less progress than they intended. Dartmouth students, as voters in a swing state, have the opportunity to be a driving force in this election, he said, but have to seize it.
"You can take a couple weeks, your grades will be fine, your professors will understand," Hodes said. "Take time to knock on doors, speak to people, be our ambassadors for change."
