Although their names won't appear on the ballots this November, visiting political veterans on campus put in their two cents about voting in the 1996 election.
Unlike the candidates and voters years ago, today's campaign participants understand the sensitive nature of the political process, former House Speaker Thomas Foley said at "The Trouble with Washington" conference yesterday at the Gerald R. Ford Library.
Americans know the correlation between votes cast and issues addressed, Foley said after the conference.
"The political system is supposed to be responsive to voter participation - that's the idea," Foley said.
The fact that candidates, political analysts and voters know this connection exists can help combat the "imbalance" the system creates, Foley said. Recent emphasis on issues of concern to senior citizens - the largest and possibly most powerful voting block- may be one of the reasons for a push to register young voters on college campuses across the country.
"What element in our society has the worst voting record? Eighteen-to-21-year-olds," former President Gerald Ford said.
Registering voters is a logical first step, he said. "Until you take that step you're not talking on an academic level about issues."
Although some worry uninformed voters may flock to the polls Nov. 5, candidates aren't making the same mistakes they did years ago, said former Democratic Sen. George McGovern.
"That is where we failed in '72 - we had the students fired on the issues, on the war in particularly in Vietnam, but they failed to get registered," McGovern said.
McGovern said his 1972 presidential campaign suffered because his student supporters didn't register to vote. That election was the first time 18-year-olds could vote, and they weren't familiar with the registration process, McGovern said.
Ford, who chose Bob Dole as his running mate in the '72 presidential election, said he is putting his faith - and his vote - in Dole once again this year.
"I'm gonna vote for him and I'm gonna campaign for him," Ford said.
Ford warned that looks can be deceiving in this election, and that Dole is physically and politically stronger than political analysts predict.
"He may not be as articulate as President Clinton ... but on tough issues and in tough crises I have a great deal of faith in Bob Dole's abilities to make decisions domestically," Ford said.
Foley, however, predicted that Clinton would defeat Dole in November.
"The odds are probably that ... we are going to see the re-election of a Democratic president," Foley said.
JENNIFER BRADLEY-SWIFT/Daily
Former House Speaker Tom Foley speaks with Michigan Student Assembly Vice President Probir Mehta at yesterday's "The Trouble with Washington" talk.