U.S. Senate hopeful Rodney Glassman, as well as several other Democrats running for office this year, were at the University of Arizona yesterday for a rally. It didn't go well.
It went so bad, in fact, that the university's newspaper, The Daily Wildcat, wrote a scathing editorial with the headline "AZ Dems: Show Your Constituents Some Respect."
Glassman, as well as state Senate candidate Paula Aboud and Chris Deschenes, a candidate for secretary of state, gave stump speeches in the university's mall and each candidate did something to get under the skin of the Wildcat's editorial board.
From the Wildcat:
"Almost every candidate's speech made some reference to a stereotype of UA students, a weird conglomeration of assumptions Democrats seem to have decided represents their target audience."
Glassman, who holds several degrees from the university, came across as a patronizing, the paper claims.
When the audience wasn't cheering loudly enough, Glassman scolded students, saying "we could go to class if we wanted to sleep - we don't need to be doing it out here."
The candidates basically tried to play the I'm-still-hip card and it apparently didn't work. The Wildcat felt banter about the UA football team and bashing UA's rival ASU was demeaning to young voters.
While school spirit is a vital part of UA life, it's certainly not all college students are capable of talking about. The candidates' speeches by and large gave the impression that they had recently seen a raunchy movie about college life; they seemed out of touch with young people to an embarrassing and somewhat offensive degree. Several, like Aboud and Glassman, went so far as to undermine the education students receive at the UA by implying that their speeches were more important than attending class. Joking or not, their comments were inappropriate and poorly received.
Word of advice to political candidates visiting the University of Arizona: don't mention football.
Check out the full Daily Wildcat editorial here.
