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Professors of Government Richard Skinner, Alan Cafruny and Peter Cannavo participated in a brown bag lunch sponsored by the Hamilton College Democrats on Feb. 17. As that day's Wisconsin primary continued to solidify Massachusetts Senator John Kerry's status as the Democratic nominee to challenge President Bush, the professors discussed the issues surrounding the upcoming election with Hamilton students and staff members.

Professor Skinner noted the importance of personality characteristics in a contest between President Bush and Senator Kerry. While both come from similarly privileged backgrounds, Bush is very personally popular with Americans, and has previously gained an advantage with his image as honest and straightforward. Skinner also mentioned gay marriage, which he said will be a polarizing social issue that the Republicans will try to milk and the Democrats will try to avoid. Since Kerry is from Massachusetts, the state in which the issue of gay marriage has recently emerged, Skinner said it will be difficult for him to escape talking about the controversial issue.

Professor Cafruny pointed out many of the similarities between Kerry and Bush, such as their shared support for the Patriot Act, an imperial foreign policy agenda, and the continued importance of the military-industrial complex. In fact, both have been attempting to present a military image, as shown by Bush's now infamous appearance on an aircraft carrier in a flight suit, as well as the presence of Kerry's Vietnam comrades at his campaign events. The main area of difference between the candidates then, Cafruny said, is culture, though Democrats would prefer to make the state of the economy a main issue. Cafruny also discussed how a change of power in the White House may affect foreign policy, with the overwhelming animosity towards President Bush in Europe.

There is another difference between the candidates, according to Professor Cannavo, and that is the environment. According to him, environmentalism has recently become a "wedge issue," polarizing the parties. Cannavo said that the Bush administration has been consistently anti-regulatory, and has done nothing to decrease U.S. dependence on fossil fuels, possibly because of its ties to the oil industry. While Kerry did vote against the Kyoto Climate Treaty, he has expressed interest in negotiating a new treaty on global warming, as well as focusing on demand-side energy policy that would attempt to reduce energy use and dependence on oil. Cannavo said that while stances on the environment will certainly affect the perception of the candidates, it may not prove a decisive issue in the election, even though attacks on Republican environmental policy did erode the GOP's congressional majority in the mid-90s. Cannavo also pointed out that the Democrats may be able to benefit by bundling their issues into a greater theme of "fairness" concerning the economy, the military, and marriage.

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