About 50 students and faculty members gathered at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm’s Wednesday night to watch the debate.
A small congress of young voters sits around tables in the auditorium at St. Anselm’s as the first of three showdowns between President Barak Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney begins.
As the debate rolls on, the room is unusually quiet for a college crowd as kids text, browse the web and chat online with friends.
Lyndsay Robinson is a junior from Tewksbury, Massachusetts. She’s glad she’s watching the debate away from her dorm.
"I absolutely love the atmosphere down here. Being with students and faculty is helpful to me because I can learn a lot from other students. I’m really impressed with both of the candidates’ performances. They have different styles of debate. One is more fast paced and talkative and the other is mellow and low-key. It says a lot about the candidates as people and who they’ll be as presidents."
Robinson adds she’s not sure she believes the barrage of facts the candidates are tossing out.
But what’s she’s hearing tonight will lead to more debates among St. Anselm students.
And with five weeks to go before the election, she can expect a lot of friendly confrontation on campus before the young voters go to the polls.