I noticed a surprising lack of coverage from WSN regarding the semiannual College Democrats/Republicans debate held at Palladium residence hall last Thursday evening. This omission was particularly striking as both clubs are among the most active on campus and are known for their intense rivalry. So I sat and thought about it. And I thought about it some more, and here is what I came up with.

The debate wasn't press worthy because, for all intents and purposes, it wasn't a debate at all. The Democrats had obviously spent time preparing their arguments on education and immigration; the Republicans seemed drastically less organized. While the Democrats presented each of their arguments in a coherent and efficient manner, the Republicans spent a significant portion of their time fumbling for words and prefacing plainly prejudiced comments with statements like, "I'm not racist."

The Republican team seemed to be full of revealing insights. Their blatantly xenophobic stance in regard to immigration policy was almost as startling as their position on gender. Strangely, the topic wasn't gender rights - it was education.

Nevertheless, while both groups had a male and female representative, there was only one voice coming from the Republican table. The only thing remarkable about the female Republican team member was her lack of remarks. When she was finally given the opportunity to speak, reading the closing statements on Republican education policy, her last words were followed by the boastful exclamation, "I wrote that!" from her male teammate. That said, I understand why nothing was published about Thursday's debate. It was a nonevent.