By MIKE CAPUTO
The East Meadow resident was one of a lucky few who had a seat reserved in Hofstra University's David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex for the final presidential debate between Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain Wednesday night.
"I'm proud to be an East Meadow resident and to have gone to Clarke High School and now to be taking part in getting one of the hottest tickets in town," Brookmeyer said on Monday, two days before the event. "It was unbelievable."
Brookmeyer, a senior at Hofstra, was among a handful of students selected to be volunteer ushers during the debate. An additional 100 students nabbed tickets through a highly competitive lottery. Brookmeyer was well aware that thousands of people hoped for a chance to watch the debate in person.
"There are so few students inside of the arena," she said. "There are even very few [elected officials], so I felt fortunate to get in."
Brookmeyer's fall semester has gotten off to a politically eventful start. The broadcast journalism major kicked off the academic year in early September with a visit to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. As a producer, news anchor and reporter for WRHU Radio Hofstra University and the on-campus Hofstra News Now, Brookmeyer covered the entire convention. She provided the stations with live updates from the Xcel Energy Center.
"I don't know what other 21-year-old really had that opportunity to get inside the Xcel Center," she said.
At one point, Brookmeyer scooped many of the national media outlets when she phoned in a report about an incident involving protesters in the arena. "I saw the protesters one night coming down, racing down and charging the stage, and it wasn't on any of the TelePrompTers," she said. "Yet I got to see that first, before anyone nationally saw it. You get those experiences when you're there on the scene."
Brookmeyer, who lives only five minutes from the Hempstead campus, on Erma Drive, graduated from Clarke High in 2005, never envisioning what she would experience during her time at Hofstra. "I had no idea of what I wanted to do," she said.
Three and a half years later, she has interned for ABC and its New York City affiliate, WABC-TV; won several student journalism awards, including the Hearst Journalism Awards National Radio Competition, two Long Island Press Club awards and a New York Associated Press award; and seen the presidential candidates up close. As a participant in the university's extensive Educate '08 program, which invited several notable guest speakers and lecturers to campus during the run-up to the debate, Brookmeyer scored exclusive interviews with notable political analysts including New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd and James Carville.
Although she is trained to be objective in her reporting, Brookmeyer admitted that she supports McCain in the upcoming election. As she looked forward to the debate, however, she made it clear what she wanted to see from the candidate. "I really would like McCain to be more aggressive in his debate, to stand his ground and to not come across as grumpy - he just comes across the wrong way," she said. "I'm a McCain supporter, and yet I was so attracted to Obama because his whole delivery is so much smoother and so much more relatable.
"So I hope McCain connects with the public," she continued. "Whether he can do that or not, I'm not sure, because he obviously hasn't done that in the past, but I'd really just like to see a good show."
Next week: Read about Brookmeyer's experience at the debate.
Comments about this story? MCaputo @liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 287.
