With the political season in its early stages across the country and the Democrats gearing up to challenge President George W. Bush in November, Penn students voiced mixed opinions yesterday following Sen. John Kerry's victory in the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
Kerry (D-Mass.) won the primary with 39 percent of the vote, while former Vermont Governor Howard Dean came in second with 26 percent, former Army Gen. Wesley Clark came in third with 12 percent and Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) came in fourth with 12 percent, with 97 percent of precincts reporting.
Although students were intrigued by Kerry's comeback victory and recent gain in momentum, most were unsure of the implications that victory holds.
"Kerry's victory was impressive," said Rich Eisenberg, president of the Penn College Democrats. "But the race still has a lot to go."
Eisenberg also stated that results will be more clear in two weeks when other states around the country hold their primaries.
Kenneth Stark, a Wharton and College sophomore, echoed Eisenberg's sentiments. Stark acknowledged that Kerry is gaining momentum, but also said that it is too early to tell who will win in the national primary.
College sophomore Brian Levy said that Kerry's victory is in part due to "a lot of the Gephardt support going to Kerry."
He added that he thought that part of the reason Kerry's win was so overwhelming in New Hampshire was that residents perhaps voted for Kerry based on his recent win in Iowa.
However, some students, such as College senior Elizabeth Todd, felt that the New Hampshire primary was "not particularly representative of the rest of the country."
Todd, like many other students, said that she has not been following the election very closely due to the large number of remaining candidates.
She stated that, although it is hard to follow with so many candidates, she is "definitely not surprised" by the results based on projections and the results of last week's Iowa primary.
Some students were not following the primary at all. Alexander Kent, a freshman in the School of Engineering, was "not aware of the results."
