If you want to read the interview with the President of College Republicans at UCI, Jeremy Jang, click here.
Jose Quintana is just 24 years old but he is already very involved in politics. In fact, apart from being a Senior Political Sciences and Sociology Majors, he’s the President of the College Democrats at University of California Irvine and was the one who opened the Bill Clinton meeting at UCI. Just a few days before the American Presidential Elections, Adria’s News interviews him to talk about the main campaign issues, some controversial facts and the expectations of both Republican and Democratic parties finding out that Jose Quintana supports Barack Obama from the very beginning, he really likes the Castro Brothers and his favorite President is Franklin D. Roosevelt. In addition, when he is asked if he can imagine himself ending up in the White House he answers with a clever smile: “I don’t know, maybe, depends if I end up becoming a politician, and if I do, how far do I want to go, and how much time and effort do I wanna invest in my political career”.
Jose Quintana is just 24 years old but he is already very involved in politics. In fact, apart from being a Senior Political Sciences and Sociology Majors, he’s the President of the College Democrats at University of California Irvine and was the one who opened the Bill Clinton meeting at UCI. Just a few days before the American Presidential Elections, Adria’s News interviews him to talk about the main campaign issues, some controversial facts and the expectations of both Republican and Democratic parties finding out that Jose Quintana supports Barack Obama from the very beginning, he really likes the Castro Brothers and his favorite President is Franklin D. Roosevelt. In addition, when he is asked if he can imagine himself ending up in the White House he answers with a clever smile: “I don’t know, maybe, depends if I end up becoming a politician, and if I do, how far do I want to go, and how much time and effort do I wanna invest in my political career”.
First of all, what is this election mainly about?
For the most part I
think the economy is the issue number one for the American voters. In
California, specifically, we have Proposition 30 that’s affecting the
University of California and the Community Colleges. That is an economic issue,
but in a local context; so in California that’s the major issue right now. Economy
is definitely the main thing.
Do you think Barack Obama will win?
I think so, yeah.
Will he have many more votes than Romney?
Well, my prediction is he’ll
win between… because there are two components to winning the Presidency: you
have to win the popular… well, you don’t necessarily need to win the popular
vote, but that’s usually how that goes: you win the popular vote and by
extension you win the Electoral College vote. I think Obama is gonna take
probably 50.5% to 51% of the popular vote and he will win between 290 and 300
of the Electoral College vote.
How has President Obama changed since 2008? How
different is the new Obama who is running for the White House in 2012?
The Obama who is
running today, he’s more in the center, politically, than he was in 2008. What
happens is that when you’re running against an opponent in the primary, you’re
running for the base of the party so you have to appeal to… you have to go away
from the center to the, you know, to whatever political aspect you belong. So
in 2008, Obama had more of the liberal, more of the left standing. Now, in this
election, because he needs to win a lot of independent voters who have gone
away from him, he’s moved more to the center. This means he’s more liberal than
Mitt Romney, obviously, but he’s definitely moved more to the center in terms
of economic policy, immigration policy… he’s trying to increase the number of voters
by going to the center.
Obama said: “There are no red states or blue states,
just the United States”. Why now the situation is so polarized?
I think it has to do
with the fact that the United States right now is going through a tough
economic cycle, and when it affects people’s pocketbooks, when it’s money,
people have very sharply contrasting views on how the economy should be fixed,
and because the economy is such a big issue, and it’s really divisive, people
are really, really focused on what they think the right solution is, and the
candidates personify those views. That’s one of the reasons candidates keep
repeating the same things again and again.
Election “The economy is the issue number one for the
American voters”
Let’s suppose Obama loses, whom do you think that
should run for the White House in four years time?
Yeah, I have a few. I
think that in the Democratic Party there are a few people who come to my mind,
such as the former Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom. Another person would
be Hillary Clinton, but it’s not… you know, not a lot of people think she’ll
run, realistically. There’s also the Mayor of, I think it’s Newark, in New
Jersey, Cory Booker. So these are the ones who I think are charismatic and
substantial enough to actually become the President eventually.
You have mentioned Hillary. Did you support Obama or
Hillary Clinton in last elections primaries?
I supported Obama.
Why do you think Hillary Clinton has refused to be
Secretary of State for the next for years?
I think because she has
other political ambitions, partly and also because Bill Clinton, he’s running
the Clinton Global Initiative. And so I know Bill Clinton wants… He’s gotten
Chelsea involved a lot and Hillary might want also to get very involved and
probably get away from politics.
Two weeks ago Bill Clinton came to University of
California Irvine (UCI) to give a speech to the students and you were the one who
opened the meeting. How did you feel?
I was a little nervous,
but for the most part excited to speak to a large portion of the student body
here at UCI and I was excited just to have such a big event, a high profile
event for UCI here, because our school isn’t known to be the most active and
hopefully that can change that perception.
How was meeting Clinton, personally?
Ah, it was incredible.
He’s a very charismatic person, and whenever he’s in a room he’s always the
focus of the room. When he talks to you, you feel like you’re the only person
in the room he’s talking to at that moment. He doesn’t acknowledge anybody, you
know? He’s a very captivating speaker.
Yeah, in fact Bill Clinton is a very popular President
in the USA. Does people have forgotten the Monica Lewinski’s scandal or just
they don’t give much importance to it?
I think when people
think about Bill Clinton they remember him now more for the way the economy was
working. The Monica Lewinski scandal is kind of… I mean, people would remember
so, but it’s in the past. I talk to people informally about Bill Clinton and
they always think of Bill Clinton, not of Monica, and they remember that the
nineties were good so…
Bill
Clinton “People think of Bill Clinton,
not of Monica Lewinski, and they remember that the nineties were good”
When the Republican Primaries ended what did you think
of Governor Romney as the opponent of President Obama?
Well, my answer to that
is kind of confusing, maybe, hopefully not but… I think Mitt Romney before the
Primaries was definitely more moderate. But like I said: whenever a candidate
is trying to win the Primaries, he will move more to the right or to the left
depending on which party he’s in. And so, because Mitt Romney wanted to win the
Republican Nomination, he had to move more to the right, to win Tea Party’s
support, to win all these other people’s support. So, that kind of shows Mitt
Romney’s character in one sense because he knows what he needs to say to win
the prize and then, move on to the general election and go again to the center.
So the Mitt Romney from before I wasn’t too against, but the Mitt Romney that
came out of the Primaries, all the things he said… he kind of showed his very
negative character. But I understand why he said the things he had to say, it’s
just that he went a little too far, maybe.
Would you have preferred another Republican candidate to
be Obama’s opponent instead of Mitt Romney?
I think so, because I
mean, maybe with someone like Rick Santorum or, you know, what’s her name… Michelle
Bachmann, Obama would have had an easy chance, so I would have preferred an
easier candidate.
And then, few weeks ago you had the Democratic
National Convention. Did you go to Charlotte?
No, I did not go to
Charlotte. I wish I would have, but I had a lot of stuff going on.
Mitt Romney said that: “If last night was the party,
this morning is the hangover” after the National Democrats Convention,
referring to the unemployment rate over 8%. Do you think Obama should have
handled better the unemployment issue?
President Obama cannot
do a lot of things to deal with unemployment, I mean, his options are really
limited. You know, he can’t just say, “I’m gonna hire all these people”. He can
meet with business leaders, he can kind of create economic strategies with
these business leaders, and he can kind of go out and use the media to propose
new ideas for how to get the economy working.
To set the proper mood…
Yeah, and functionally
he can use his power as the executive to use the federal bureaucracy, to cut
regulation... So I think that within the guidelines that he’s had to work with,
as a President, I think he’s done a pretty good job. I mean unemployment has
gone from I think 10.2% in 2010 down to about 7.8% today, so we’re not back to
full employment but we’re kind of going in the right direction.
Republicans
“Republicans can of be a little
bit crazy proving their point”
The American Vice-President, Joe Biden said this quote
in the Democrats National Convention: “Bin Laden is dead, General Motors is
alive!” Don’t you think it’s a little bit rough to proclaim the death of a
person, even if it is Bin Laden?
I think that American
politics involve so many morbid details like that because… I think part of the
reason why American politics are like that because of September 11th.
We saw destruction of such a huge scale that Americans are not gonna forget
that for a very, very long time. They’ll probably never forget it. And for them
is a huge psychological trauma, a step towards kind of regenerating what was
lost… They wanna have a closure, and the way to have closure is bringing the
people who perpetrated the act to justice. And the killing of Osama Bin Laden
represents a former closure for a lot of Americans, and Americans are very
desensitized to death and destruction. We had wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and
we were can of used to that sort of thing.
Do you agree with the decision of keeping Joe Biden in
the Vice-President charge or would you suggest another person to substitute
him?
I think Joe Biden has
done a pretty decent job staying in relatively low-profiled and raising his
profile when he needed to support the President, so... A Vice-President should
never hurt the President, obviously, in terms of standing and that kind of
things. He’s made mistakes but I think overall he’s a good Vice-President and
he should stay.
Did you see the Republican National Convention on TV?
I didn’t actually see
the whole thing but I saw some pieces, specially the Clint Eastwood’s part.
What do you think about his speech?
That’s emblematic of
the Republican Party today. It doesn’t really show you any substantive policy consideration,
all that shows you that Republicans can of be a little bit crazy proving their
point.
He said: “Politicians are our employees”. Do you
agree?
I do agree with that.
But do you really have the sense they are working for
us?
No. That’s the thing. I
don’t think they work on our interest all the time. They also worked for the
people who gave them the money to run their campaigns, so I do agree with
Eastwood in that point. However I was a little bit surprised he said that and I
think the Republicans, specially, were even more surprised.
Bin Laden
“Americans will probably never
forget the 9/11”
A controversial fact about Obama is he has not keep
his word to close Guantanamo.
Yeah, that’s for me a
big point and I think Obama should have closed Guantanamo Bay, I think he
probably will at some point if he gets reelected but the reason I think he
hasn’t closed this is because we’re still fighting the war of Afghanistan. Were
do you put all the people form Afghanistan? But I really wish he could have
closed it.
Obama also promised to do an immigration reform but he
actually didn’t.
Yeah, I think that the
reason why is because he prioritized things when he became the President. His
first priority was his Stimulus Act to get the economy working again; his
second priority was health care and, you know, between health care and the stimulus
issue where the car companies getting destabilized. Immigration is partly an
economic thing but it’s also a social issue and it’s very divisive. So he didn’t
want to touch that at that point. In fact, I think what he wanted with the
immigration reform was to strengthen his Hispanic portion of the base.
Do you think that base will vote Romney now?
No. I think the
Hispanic base in the United States is still very solidly Democratic. Maybe as
not as 2008 but a big part will vote Democrat.
You have Julian Castro and Joaquin Castro. People
called them the Hispanic Kennedy’s. Somebody compare Julian Castro with Obama, as
Castro opened this year convention and Obama did the same in Boston 2004.
There’s a parallelism,
definitely. In 2016, among the group of people that probably should run for the
White House, I think the Castro brothers, either Julian or Joaquin, are gonna
be good candidates for that.
The United States opposed Gaddafi’s dictatorship and
interfered in the Libya war. Why he did not move a finger for Syria?
I think a reason behind
that is because… when we went to Libya we were not personally best friends; we
got a security counsel authorization to impose a no-fly zone over there and this,
in the eyes of China and Russia was very strict. So now the analysis is very
reluctant to go into Syria because we don’t have enough flights from
authorization. And to get more flights we need China and Russia. But we have to
think Syria is an important region for them in geopolitics. They need Syria and
they need Baixar al-Assad and they are not gonna support any no-fly zone over
Syria. And by extension, if there is no fly-zone over Syria, France, United
States, England, are not gonna go and support the rebels. That’s partly why I
think there is a kind of ambiguity there.
There was a lot of controversy about Obama winning the
Nobel Prize. Do you think he deserved it?
That’s an interesting
question. I am not sure and there was a big controversy politically. Here, in
the USA, people thought it was too soon. I think the Nobel Prize Committee was
maybe making a statement that anybody who wasn’t George Bush was gonna change
the path of the country.
Guantanamo “I think Obama should have
closed Guantanamo”
After Bengasi and Cairo attacks Mitt Romney told
reporters the next: “I think it’s a terrible course for America to stand in
apology for our values, that instead when our grounds are being attacked and
being breached, that the first response of the United States must be outrage at
the breach of the sovereignty of our nation. An apology for America’s values is
never the right course.” How would you reply him?
I would say that we can’t
jump to conclusions about what the facts on the ground are and which was
apparently what Mitt Romney did, he jumped to conclusions and he kind of made a
statement prematurely before he knew which all the facts on the ground were and
so I think that making him having such a prominent standing because the
American Election are watched everywhere and what a candidate says goes a long
way, he should be careful to say statements like this because he could
potentially be President and then all his statements will come back to him.
How do you judge the way Obama has treat the EU
crisis?
You know, I think the
options in the USA are limited in dealing with the European crisis. If it were
the 1990s, USA would be in a better position to help, but we’re also in a very
poor situation. Even in China they’re expecting 7% growth but they use to grow
more than this. So Europe is a really complicated thing. You have Greece,
Italy, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, who are facing very top fiscal problems but we
have to face ours, too.
The Democrats want to make Medicare stronger and have
also approved the sanitary reform. Why, then, the Republicans have much more
older voters?
Because the Republicans
are good at doing two things with elderly voters. Older voters are generally
making any new income anymore, so they don’t want any new taxes in the income
they made in the past and secondly, they’ve created a very good perception
within the elderly community that the Democrats want to take away their
Medicare and use the money that they take from Medicare to give it to younger
people. Those are the two things that Republicans are very good at doing with
elderly people.
Romney “Romney should be careful because he could
potentially be President and then all his statements will come back to him”
Michelle Obama said, regarding the American Dream: “Change
is hard, and change is slow, and it never happens all at once.” Do you agree
everyone can achieve the American Dream?
I think so, still, the
United States still have a pretty strong educational system, even though it’s
not where it used to be, but still pretty strong, our economy is not as good as
before, but it’s still pretty strong as well. I think then, if you work hard
you can make it. That comes with the additional side that you have to have the
right immigration status also, you can’t be undocumented here and achieve the
American Dream. It’s impossible. There was a time, not so long ago, where you
could come as an undocumented immigrant, work hard, earn residency and move to
the steps to achieve citizenship and progress. Right now it’s a very tough
proposition, so I think the American Dream is still there and if it was a track, the American Dream used to
be a mile, now it’s a mile and a half.
The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, said
this after Colorado shooting: “The President has spent the last three years
trying to avoid the issue of gun control.” Do you agree?
No. I mean, President
Obama has done virtually nothing to restrict guns laws. He’s done anything, so
the notion that the President is trying to take away people’s guns is to me
ridiculous because he’s done nothing for taking guns away.
Is it an important issue?
No. Not in this
election. Guns are they’re very far away in people’s minds.
Hispanic
Vote “The Hispanic base in the United
States is still very solidly Democratic”
Who is your favorite politician of the Democratic
Party at the moment?
Obama is definitely the
standard-bearer of the Democratic Party. There are definitely some rising
stars, such as the Castro Brothers. It’s funny, because when you say Castro
brothers we used to think about someone else, but now we can say the ‘American
Castro Brothers’. Gavin Newson. Cory Booker, Hillary Clinton. I don’t have a
favorite, but I have a group of favorites.
Have you met President Obama?
No. I wish, but not
yet. Hopefully soon, but not yet.
Tell me something Romney has done well.
I think Mitt Romney
he’s done well moving to the center after he won the primary nomination because
that’s where he naturally is. I mean, I don’t think he is a severe conservative
like he says. One of the things he did well as Governor of Massachusetts was
the Health Care Reform. It’s really popular in Massachusetts.
Tell me something Obama has done badly.
I think they’re several
things Obama could have done better. For instance, what I think was handled
very poorly was the health care debate in 2009-2010. I think if he had set his
ground a little bit better, he could have definitely achieved more policy
preferences rather than having to adopt the generally Republican idea.
Name a United States President.
For me Franklin Delano
Roosevelt. He’s definitely one of my favorites.
Do you see yourself running for President eventually?
I don’t know, maybe,
depends if I end up becoming a politician, and if I do, how far do I want to
go, and how much time and effort do I wanna invest in my political career.
Julian
Castro “When you say Castro Brothers we
used to think about someone else, but now we can say the American Castro
Brothers”
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