This year’s 25th anniversary Caulfield Lecture was interesting and exciting. Speaker Ari Shapiro, a NPR White House Correspondent worker basically told a long story about last fall’s presidential campaign as he travelled throughout the United States. I liked the view he took on politics. He seemed more neutral, with perhaps a little more favor toward the liberal side.
Shapiro was an excellent speaker, probably the best lecture I’ve heard so far at Loyola. For the most part, he was able to captivate the crowd of mostly college students on a beautiful spring afternoon. Being not the biggest fan of politics, I was still able to understand the gist of the story because he presented it in a clear, concise manner. I found it interesting how he ran into the same person twice and continued to interview them. Ari had the courage to ask U.S. citizens their explicit opinion and when they responded harshly or ignorantly, he kept what they said, even if it did cause controversy.
Shapiro was able to keep me engaged through about an hour lecture. He was also pretty funny. An example is when he paused to take a sip of water and referenced Marco Rubio, causing the crowd to burst out laughing. He also joked about some responses he got from citizens like, “No first lady should wear cut off sleeves and do pushups.” I also found it interesting when he explained how politician purposely try to skew the details and take quotes out of context. This is a creative tactic performed by both campaign teams that creates an endless cycle of back and forth verbal attacks. Shapiro’s mannerisms and hand gestures added to his presentation and his overall tone got me to think about the past presidential election and how much really goes into the various campaigns.
The Loyola Maryland Reporter 