The Eagle congratulates all of the newly elected Student Government executives. While we originally chose to endorse other candidates, both President-elect Andrew MacCracken and Vice President-elect Alex Prescott were fine candidates, and we are confident they will do their jobs well.
We cannot help but be disappointed that Jacque Martin - hamstrung by her inability to campaign from Hong Kong - is not the new vice president-elect. She was an extremely qualified candidate and her vision for AU was one that all students should have been able to get behind. But, as we have said previously, Alex Prescott is a solid choice, and we hope he is able to successfully execute his platform.
We also wish the best of luck to Andrew MacCracken, who though we believed him to have grown out of touch with the student body, is clearly a qualified candidate who will be effective on day one of his administration. He will have the opportunity over the next year to prove our previous endorsement wrong, and we hope he does. Thanks are also due to both Mike Mayer and Zack Solomon for running good campaigns and giving the students other viable choices.
As for the accusations of unfair or unethical practices on the part of this newspaper in our endorsements: These accusations are utterly false and baseless. The Eagle's editorial board took time to meet with every candidate running for office and also had each submit written answers to a questionnaire prepared by staff. After reading these questionnaires and listening to the candidates speak, the editorial board voted on which candidates we chose to endorse. Disagreeing with our choices is fine, understandable and expected - accusing this newspaper of shoddy journalism is not. As with any publication, we will make mistakes - but we do our best, every day, to uphold the highest standards of integrity.
Further accusations that this newspaper somehow deviated from standard form for endorsing candidates are similarly off base. We welcome our critics to check The New York Times' endorsement of Barack Obama and accuse The Eagle of dirty politics. In the Times' endorsement, you will find far more negativity than was found in The Eagle's endorsements of any candidate.
Lastly, Comptroller-elect Matthew Handverger's claim that we "slandered" him is completely false. His claim that he never "blamed" the students for the Student Government's failures but merely "faults" them is an exercise in petty semantics.
A simple dictionary could have cleared up the confusion about the similar meaning of "blame" and "fault." Webster's Dictionary's first definition for blame is "to hold responsible; find fault with; censure." The two words in question are clearly interchangeable synonyms and we have no regrets for picking one word over the other.
On a related note, The Eagle cannot "slander" anyone as Handverger has claimed. We are a print publication and if we defame someone, we libel. He should keep this in mind the next time he accuses this newspaper of misrepresenting him.
