You all know their positions. If you don't, the links are on the right. I'll just be going over a few nitpicks along with some serious spin coming out of Admin VP candidate Fernando Ascencio.

Nitpick #1: The "sold-out 14,000 show."

Admin VP candidate Fernando Ascendio wasn't afraid to mention that he was President of the ASUA Speakers Board during the year. I had been a critic of the board last semester for its lack of political bias in choosing speakers. He mentioned numerous people before mentioning a certain "sold-out 14,000 show."

I wonder who that was...

So I called him on it. Ascencio attempted to explain that he didn't want to be "defined as the guy who brought Michael Moore to campus," but his argument falls short. Why would he omit that? Was he simply not proud of it? If he's ashamed of it, he either needs to tell us or simply not run. If he's proud of it, let him say it and take the heat. This was spin.

The bad response actually came shortly after Ascencio directly criticized fellow candidate Cassiopeia Sonn, currently ASUA's marketing director, for not doing a good enough job as marketing director such that ASUA marketing had become a campaign issue. Sonn declined to respond to Ascencio's accusation, which became the only direct candidate-to-candidate question of the day (at least until I left).

Nitpick #2: Bad speaking technique

Mr. Franklin, don't read your speech. Mr. Hill, take off the sunglasses. Mr. Bernsen, I know your face is completely red, but that doesn't mean you have to speak like it. And for pete's sake, it must have been 85 degrees out there! GENTLEMEN, TAKE OFF YOUR COATS!

Nitpick #3: Loaded questions?

After I called Ascencio for what's cited in Nitpick #1, another student went up and asked how much money that ended up costing us. Well, that would be negative $20,000, actually.

But even worse was the unsolicited comment from a guy in the front row who asked the debate moderator (presumably ASUA elections commissioner Adam Falck) if he would ban "loaded questions." To his credit, the moderator explained that this isn't "softball", this was "hardball." Kudos to the moderator.

Nitpick #4: O'Hara left when it wasn't over yet! What a jerk!

For pete's sake, I had a midterm at 1300. Give me a break, you. I didn't even get to fire a question at any of the presidential candidates.