By Jennifer Eder
One of Sloan Saunders’ goals when she first came to GW was an ambitious one: meet President Barack Obama.
On Tuesday night, she was able to cross that goal off her list.
Ms. Saunders was one of about 200 people gathered in the Continental Ballroom in GW’s Marvin Center Tuesday for a “Moving America Forward” town hall meeting. President Obama took questions from the audience as well as from a few individuals across the country using Twitter and Skype. The town hall meeting was sponsored by Organizing for America, a project of the Democratic National Committee.
Late last week Ms. Saunders, a freshman studying exercise science in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and a first-time voter, was invited to attend the meeting. It wasn’t until she arrived at the Marvin Center Tuesday evening that she learned she’d be the only GW student to greet President Obama when he first arrived on campus.
“It was the most amazing experience,” says Ms. Saunders, a GW varsity swimmer. “I can’t believe I’ve only been at GW for a few months, and now I’ve already met the president.”
The meeting was part of the DNC’s midterm mobilization effort “Vote 2010.” People across the nation hosted over 200 “house parties” to watch a live webcast of the meeting.
During his third visit to GW, President Obama urged the audience members to re-energize themselves for this year’s midterm elections.
“We’ve got a whole lot more work to do,” said President Obama. “If you can muster and sustain that same effort and energy, I’m absolutely confident that we will do well in the election, we will win all across the country.”
President Obama recognized that he’s had to take several emergency steps, some of which have been unpopular or weren’t discussed during his campaign, to reverse the “extraordinary crisis in this country.”
“When I took office, we were possibly down the path to a second great depression,” he said.
Despite recent economic growth, nine consecutive months of private sector job growth and the stabilization of the financial system, many Americans are still struggling to find work, pay their mortgage or finance their college education, he said.
“There’s a lot of fear of anger and frustration across the country, but as difficult as things are and have been in the last few years, we are moving in the right direction,” said President Obama.
The president pointed to health care reform that now allows young adults to stay on their parents’ insurance until they’re 26, education reform that’s investing in math and science and a transformation of the student loan system that’s giving billions of additional assistance to college students.
“We have made some huge changes over the last 20 months, but we’re not where we need to be yet. And this election is going to help determine whether we can continue on this path so that America finally takes on these tough challenges,” said President Obama. “But the only way this will work is…if you commit to vote.”
The president asked the audience to not just vote themselves but spread the message to their friends, family, co-workers and neighbors that “November 2nd matters.”
“If you were excited in 2008, that was the beginning of the journey, not the end of the journey,” he said. “It’s going to be up to you. The future is going to be in your hands.”
The GW students that attended the meeting were drawn from the Guide to Personal Success (GPS) program, and the participating GW professors were selected by the Department of Political Science in the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences.
President Obama called on GW junior Dan Lippman, who asked what surprises President Obama encountered and what lessons he’s learned during his first two years in office.
The president said he was surprised with how the news cycle in Washington focuses only on what happens “this minute” versus what needs to happen over the course of several months or years.
“The 24-hour news cycle is so lightening fast, and the attention span is so short that sometimes it’s difficult to keep everybody focused on the long term,” he said. “The things that are going to really matter in terms of America’s success 20 years from now are not the things that are being talked about on television on any given day.”
Mr. Lippman, a junior studying political science in CCAS, said getting to ask the most powerful man in the country a question was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
“GW students are really lucky to be right in the center of things in Washington and be able to go to events like this,” he said.