Respected journalist said he believes there will be a debate Friday night
OXFORD, Miss. – Longtime NBC News journalist Tom Brokaw said he expects
Friday’s presidential debate to go on as planned during a Thursday
night event at Fulton Chapel on the University of Mississippi campus.
Brokaw said the surprising move by presidential candidate John McCain,
who announced this week that he was suspending his campaign to work on
the country’s economic crisis, is an example of what he has termed UFOs
in presidential elections – “the unforeseen will occur.”
“I think there will be more of these UFO moments before the campaign is over,” he told the capacity crowd, adding he believes that McCain will come to Oxford and the debate will go on.
Brokaw, who started his morning with an interview with Bill Clinton for “Meet the Press,” was joined by well-known journalist Curtis Wilkie. A former Boston Globe reporter and Brokaw’s longtime friend, Wilkie is the first fellow of UM’s Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics and an associate professor of journalism.
“The program was a terrific engaging conversation between one of the best journalists in the country and our students,” said Overby Center founder Charles Overby. “I think so far it was the highlight of this debate week.”
Original plans had called for both Brokaw and the late Tim Russert, a correspondent for NBC News, to share the stage Thursday night before Russert’s untimely death earlier this year.
“He volunteered to help out, and he would have loved coming here,” Brokaw said, adding that the university encapsulates many of the things that Russert held dear, including history and football.
The program is among dozens of campus events planned around the first 2008 presidential debate, set for 8 p.m. Friday (Sept. 26). Thursday night’s presentation marked Brokaw’s third trip to Oxford. He has visited the campus for two football games and has spoken publicly of his respect for the university and for Chancellor Robert Khayat. Brokaw, who will serve as moderator of the second presidential debate in Nashville, remarked that Ole Miss has become a model because of the work done to heal the scars of past racial discord.
“I view this institution as an example, as I go around the country, of the great progress we have made,” he said, pointing to both the selection of the university as the site for the first presidential debate and the selection of Rose Flenorl, an African-American woman, as president of the UM Alumni Association.
“That is remarkable progress,” he said.
In response to a student question, Brokaw said he believes race is an unavoidable factor in this election, just as gender would have been a factor if Sen. Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination.
“Race is still a social issue in America,” he said. “We ought not kid ourselves. Race will be a factor in this election.”
However, it will be a much greater factor for the older generation than younger people who have grown up in a time in which African-Americans have held positions of respect and authority.
Brokaw, who reflected on past presidential debates and campaigns, also said he thinks Friday night’s debate will be a “series of pirouettes” and that ultimately the people will vote for the person who they view the best head of the American family.
There is no doubt that the first debate tends to be important in elections, but much of the long-term impact depends on where the candidates stand going into the debate, he said. “Most people think John Kerry won the first debate (against George W. Bush in 2004), but that only got him onto the playing field again,” he said.
As for the economic crisis, Brokaw said he believes Americans are less interested in the details of who controls what and are more interested in overall solutions to the turmoil.
“I think there is a lot of confusion in this country about what is going on in Washington,” he said, adding the issue could be an explosive one for both candidates.
Khayat said the program was engaging and an incredible opportunity for students.
“I think he was so eloquent and so thoughtful, and this was such a wonderful experience for the community,” Khayat said. “There was no hedging, no vague responses. He was quite respectful of our students, and our students truly had impressive questions.”
Elizabeth Googe, a sophomore journalism student from New Albany, was among more than a dozen students who had the opportunity to ask Brokaw a question during the open discussion and found his answer on the economy’s role in the election to be insightful.
“I thought it was very informative, not just from the perspective of a respected journalist, but also in the role of political science,” she said.
John Miles, a junior art and journalism major from Tupelo, said, “It was great. He has a lifetime of experience to draw from, and he has so much knowledge about politics and history.”
Brokaw, a best-selling author, retired from his post as anchor of “NBC Nightly News” in 2004 after more than 30 years with the network. He covered such events as the Watergate scandal and the opening of the Berlin Wall. He has interviewed every president since Lyndon Johnson and has covered every presidential election since 1968. Following Russert’s death in June, Brokaw took over Russert’s post as anchor of “Meet the Press” and will hold the position through the presidential election.