Reflecting on the 2008 ElectionCall Number: DVD JK 526 2008 .S256 2009
Publication Date: 2009
Dr. Leona Pallansch, Dept. of Political Science, welcomes the audience to the opening session of the Spring 2009 President's Peace Commission Program. Rev. Bernard Lee, S.M., Vice President for Mission & Identity, offers the invocation. Dr. Sonia Garcia, Dept. of Political Science, serves as the moderator for this session. Dr. Garcia introduces the panelists: Gabriel Omar Hernandez, a Senior at St. Mary's University; Juan Sepúlveda, former Texas State Director of the Obama for America and the President/Founder of The Common Enterprise; and Ashleigh Garcia, a Junior at St. Mary's University and first time voter. Mr. Hernandez spoke about his volunteer activities related to the Obama Campaign including staffing a phone bank and block walking in New Mexico. He also was in Washington, D.C. for the Inauguration of Obama and had been there four years earlier for the second Bush Inauguration. Mr. Sepúlveda had met Barack Obama twelve years prior to 2008 when they were both appointed to a committee. He led the "Obama for America" campaign in Texas. Ms. Warfield related her story as a first time voter and as a student in London Study Abroad program during the Fall 2008 semester. She also reported about the joy the British and other European expressed following the election. A question and answer session concluded the program. (68 minutes)