Audience members at Alumni Arena sounded every reaction from vindictive "liar" chants to wild applause Friday night as Karl Rove and Gen. Wesley Clark spoke onstage in a bare-knuckle debate.
???The discussion marked the first event of the 22nd Annual Distinguished Speaker Series at UB. Opposite ends of the political spectrum were represented with Clark, a 2004 Democratic presidential candidate and Rove, the former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush.
???Defined by a pair of reputable panelists and an intimate forum, the event took place alongside the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain.
???"It's like the little league before the World Series," Clark said.
???Rove and Clark were allotted five-minute opening statements.
???"I am a Democrat because we're a great nation with great values, great skills...wonderful recourses, and we're a nation in trouble. We need new ideas and we need new leadership in America," Clark said.
???Clark continued his introduction with a focus on the evening's main talking point-the wartime policies of the Bush administration.
???"We had to go after the terrorists," Clark said. "But we let Osama Bin Laden escape. We 'sunk-cated' the efforts in Afghanistan and went into a war we didn't have to fight in Iraq."
???Rove wasted little time before raising the contention between him and Clark.
???"I think the very same former military officer who testified before the House Armed Services Committee in 2002 said it right when he said that Saddam Hussein was a clear threat - that action could not be postponed indefinitely...that the United States should and could act preemptively against him and that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. I believe General Clark was accurate when he made that testimony in 2002," Rove said.
???At one point in the evening, Clark and Rove became so heated over the issue of possible torture at Guantanamo Bay that mediator Dennis Black, vice president of Student Affairs, moved his position to directly between the two panelists to the laughter and applause of the audience.
???"We would like the exchange to be a complete thought - and a complete thought," Black said, motioning individually to the two panelists.
???The current financial crisis in the U.S. also received plenty of attention.
???Clark offered a plan to freeze the raising of adjustable mortgage interest rates for five years - a plan Rove discarded.
???"If they [the three percent of homeowners at risk of foreclosure] bought too big a house or a house that their paycheck won't support, we, the 97 percent of people who paid our mortgages on time, are under no obligation to give them a house they couldn't afford in the first place," Rove said.
???Clark rebutted, saying that financial institutions doing well can only benefit the American people.
???"I believe, we have to make sure that if we're helping the financial institutions, we help American families in their homes," he said.
???Rove referred to ineptitudes of the former leaders of Freddie Mac (Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation) and Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) several times throughout the debate as being the roots of the U.S. financial crisis.
???Clark sought to hold the Republican leadership in Washington accountable.
???"Who was in the White House? Who had control of Congress for most of the last eight years? This was a party that did not want to believe in regulation," Clark said.
???Rove was quick to respond to Clark's accusations.
???"I would remind you, General Clark, that in 2005, the [Bush] administration proposed the regulation of Fannie and Freddie," Rove said. "I would also remind you that the two people who opposed and stopped it from passing were Chris Dodd and Barney Frank," of the Democratic party.
???Impassioned exchanges were met by taunts and cheers from the audience. Most of the heckling was aimed at Rove, yet there was occasional hiss toward Clark as well. Neither man was ever a few minutes away from a large ovation.
???Clark was added to the Distinguished Speakers after former Vice Presidential Candidate John Edwards canceled his appearance.
???Prior to the debate, Rove told The Spectrum that he was saddened by Edward's cancellation.
???"It's a sad, sad thing. I feel sorry for his family; I feel sorry for the situation," Rove said.
???Despite Edward's cancellation, however, Rove added that he enjoyed the idea of debating Gen. Clark.
???"It's an honor to be onstage with him. I'm looking forward to it," Rove said prior to the debate.
???In a similar interview, Clark told The Spectrum that the task of debating Rove would be a difficult one.
???"It's pretty daunting. You know he was Bush's brain," Clark said. "He's spent a lifetime in politics and he really knows this. I haven't spent a lifetime in politics. I'm just a guy who went to West Point and served in the military."
???With quick, statistic-citing responses during the debate, Rove's lifetime of experience in politics was evident. Following the event, some students felt that Rove was the better debater but that Clark held his own.
???"I think Karl Rove came out on top of the debate," said Patrick Walsh, a junior environmental engineering major. "He seemed more well-prepared than Gen. Clark. But in the end they both made good points. It was a healthy debate even though there were instances where the gloves came off."
???Luke Scanell, a sophomore electrical engineering major, enjoyed the performances of both candidates.
???"I was very impressed with the amount of information Karl Rove brought and the ability of General Clark to think on his feet," Scanell said.
???Other audience members would have liked more from the panelists.
???"I think when it comes down to issues, politicians dance around the questions," said Robynn Murray, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War and UB alumnus. "I would've have liked to hear something on health care for returning veterans."
???Other students were pleased with the forum and felt the panelists offered a great deal of insight, perhaps more than the presidential debates we see on television.
???"I was surprised in a good way to see that they [Clark and Rove] gave concrete examples of ways to address certain issues," said Chris Llop, a junior electrical engineering major. "In presidential debates they often make broad statements about categories. Here, they actually said we could do this or we could do that. It was a lot more exciting than watching one on TV."
???Immediately following the Rove/Clark debate, a delayed showing of the Obama/McCain debate was presented on the projection screens in Alumni Arena.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
