Editorial

By Kim Manahan (Whetstone editor)

I made a new enemy Friday night.

And it’s not a college student.

I’m talking about Christine O’Donnell, the Republican candidate for the Delaware Senate.

It happened while I was conducting a one-on-one interview with O’Donnell after she spoke to the Wesley College community, and after I asked her several questions she didn’t want to answer.

I had attended the debate between her and Chris Coons at Widener University earlier last week, and she mentioned that she paid her mother $3,000 to work as their bookkeeper for seven months.

So, I was curious and asked during my interview with her how many volunteers they have versus how many people they pay.

“We have a lot of volunteers,” O’Donnell responded. “What’s the relevance?”

I told her the relevance was how her campaign was spending its money.

I didn’t know her campaign guy was involved in this discussion, but he chimed in saying, “You’re going to have to research that.”

I let them know that I had tried, and couldn’t find it.

“I’m not going to do your homework for you,” O’Donnell told me. “Especially when you’re trying to find a gotcha moment.”

For the record, I wasn’t looking for a “gotcha” moment. I was trying to get an answer.

At the Widener debate, O’Donnell made rude remarks about the News Journal several times.

We’re reporters. Of course we want to know everything. This is my aspiration.

But after watching O’Donnell at Widener say she didn’t know what the Fourteenth Amendment said, I don’t think I could trust her to do any of my political science homework.

“I’m not trying for a gotcha moment,” I told her. “I’m just trying to clarify the things you avoided at Widener and during the speech today.”

Her campaign goon cut in again.

“We’re done,” he said. “Go ahead and just research it.”

During all of this, she said, “Obviously you may not have enough experience.”

That’s when I made a big mistake. I told O’Donnell that she didn’t have my vote.

That was wrong. I admit that, and I apologize to Wesley College, the SGA, and, of course, to my adviser, Professor Victor Greto, for making such an unprofessional mistake.

After I said this, her goons told me the interview was over.

“I’m asking for questions that you would not give a direct answer to,” I argued.

“But as a journalist, you’re being very unprofessional,” O’Donnell said.

She was right, but as a politician, she was being just as unprofessional.

Wesley College invited O’Donnell to speak here. We gave her publicity. And in return, she decides to say things like this to a STUDENT journalist.

“All right, we’re done,” the guy who stood beside her said again, at one point putting his arm up between me and his candidate.

Yes, we were done, as SGA vice president Bryan Zarou escorted me away from the interview.

But, understand, this is what I am all about: I’m a double major – media arts and political science.

And know this: I want to be a journalist. I AM a journalist.

Thus, I want to know the answers. Sometimes, I will go to whatever length I think is ethical to get them.

For example, before I was escorted out, I asked O’Donnell about her views on homosexuality, and how her sister, who is gay, felt about her own sister’s belief that she had an “identity disorder.”

First, O’Donnell directed me to her sister, who sat across the room, and said, “Well, she’s right there, you can ask her.”

As I turned my head to ask, however, I was cut off by both her and her goon, both of whom told me that her family was not to get involved.

This, after she told me to ask her sister. Once again, she didn’t answer the question.

At both Widener and at Wesley she had to be cut off by moderators who told her she wasn’t answering the question.

In fact, Wesley moderator Zarou was cut off by the same campaign goon during the Q & A in Wells Theater.

“The reason I yelled out a few times, is because you were badgering Ms. O’Donnell,” he told Zarou afterward.

But he wasn’t.

In our student media perch up top of Wells Theater where O’Donnell spoke, everyone surrounding me often sighed and said, “Why won’t she just answer the question?”

But the clincher to all of this, for me, was that O’Donnell told me she thought I would be better suited as an activist, not a journalist, and that I should consult with the career adviser.

I did.

And Ms. O’Donnell, he does not agree with you one bit.