Comments on: New Hampshire Debate ‘Whiffs’ on Education

By: WorldWideBlog » Obama and Edwards and Vegas, Oh My!!!

WorldWideBlog » Obama and Edwards and Vegas, Oh My!!! — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:07:39 +0000

[...] to the New Hampshire debate, the war in Iraq and the economy took center stage in Vegas. MSNBC’s Brian Williams and Tim [...]

By: A. Dupin

A. Dupin — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 17:50:38 +0000

I did watch the entire debate, thanks to TiVo, of course. There’s no way I was staying home on Saturday night to watch McCain smile nervously and laugh at nothing, Mitt Romney fix his hair every 60 seconds, and John Edwards admonish the upper-class endlessly (of which he is a part!).

And it’s easy to time each topic when a digital recorder does it for you. Thanks TiVo!!!

By: A. Dupin

A. Dupin — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 12:47:11 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Matt. I think that the ’service for tuition’ program should be expanded. It definitely provides an excellent opportunity for many. However, just to present both sides of the issue here, let me play Devil’s Advocate a bit.

My only concern with the proposal is the ‘maximum’ amount of money that programs such as AmeriCorps are willing to offer students. Although I haven’t dug too deep into the numbers, it seems like the rough $5,000 – $6,000 per year is a little paltry. Back when I was in grad school (not too long ago), my expenses ran about $6,000 per quarter. I can see students avoiding these community service programs in order to enter the job market quickly and make money.

Nevertheless, you can’t knock community service. I think that more people should take time out of their day to help others. And in this case, they’d get something monetary out of it, too.

Thanks again, Matt.

- A.D.

By: Matt Wilhelm

Matt Wilhelm — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 21:24:19 +0000

great post! richardson has brought up national service at several debates… he’s come a long way on the issue. we’ll certainly miss his voice in the race after tomorrow.

obama, clinton, edwards, and huckabee are all supporters of expanding americorps by at least 100k members annually (and obama to 250k). mccain and romney are past champions, but have yet to voice specific support for national service programs in this election cycle.