C-SPAN paid a visit at Fresno City College last Wednesday in an effort to educate students about the 2008 Presidential campaign.

According to Marketing Representative, Erin Patton, C-SPAN was on FCC campus because they wanted to promote their coverage of the 2008 presidential election, and talk about the campaign.

The bus was parked in the parking lot, next to the library from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The tour bus made a stop at CART earlier in the day. The CSPAN tour bus had been in the Fresno area for three days.

Students had the opportunity to tour the bus and were guided through the small but nicely furnished bus.

Three and five filming cameras were scattered throughout the bus and in the back there was a table used for interviews.

The C-SPAN tour bus has made many stops at different colleges around the country. The goal is to get opinions from college

“We’re here to talk about the 2008 election,” stated Patton, “A lot of you [young voters] are voting for the first time.”

Because of lack of publicity, many students were unaware of C-SPAN’s pit stop on campus.

Business major, Sopj Sokhon was one out of thousands of students who didn’t know the tour bus was on campus.

“College students have so much going on that they are unaware of politics,” said Anisa Hagi-Mohamed. “It’s good when someone educates you on politics briefly, like who the candidates are and what they stand for.”

According to Dr. James Joseph, political science instructor, C-SPAN’s presence is a good thing.

“Because the primaries process is so lengthy students are more likely to get turned off to politics, more so for older voters,” he said.

Because Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have been in the spotlight, experienced candidates like Joe Biden and Chris Dodd got lost in the crowd and did not have the opportunity to participate in “Super Tuesday”.

Dr. Joseph said he likes C-SPAN because they give the viewers the choice to make up their own mind by airing unfiltered speeches and congressional meetings.

“We’re are on the road eleven months out of the year.” Patton said

C-SPAN has covered different primaries and caucuses, including the primary in Wisconsin and most recently the California.

The bus has been used to conduct many interviews with candidates including Mitt Romney, Elisabeth Edwards and Mike Huckabee. According to Patton, interviews are broadcast live.

The bus is scheduled to make stops at Stockton and San Francisco for the California Republican State Convention.

Anyone interested in learning more about the C-SPAN 2008 campaign bus can go to www.campaign2008bus.org