The spin doctors - -those partisan commentators who, following the debate, worked the makeshift press center in the Athletic Complex -- would have been out of work in Brown Hall on Sunday evening. The decision was unanimous among debate-watchers attending a reception there: Washington University in St. Louis was the evening's big winner.
Those gathered at Brown Hall included current and former members of the Board of Trustees, the Alumni Board of Governors and the National Councils.
Before adjourning to watch the debate on a giant television screen in Brown Auditorium, attendees ate a light supper in Brown Lounge, against a background of red, white and blue balloons. Television monitors displayed pre-debate activities on the major networks, CNN and C-Span.
While there was some political talk in Brown Lounge, most of the conversation centered on how the University would be impacted by holding the first 1992 presidential debate on campus.
Robert L. Scharff Jr., Alumni Board of Governors chair, said he was jubilant that the first debate coincided with Preview Weekend, the annual fall weekend that draws prospective students and their families to the University.
Scharff joked, "When we hired Harold Wingood (Washington's new dean of admission), we told him we'd do everything to support him -- so here we are, the first presidential debate, and it's on our campus!"
Commenting on the week's whirlwind of events on campus, Murray L. Weidenbaum, Ph.D., Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor in the School of Business, said, "All of this gives students a much better feel for the very practical nature of presidential politics." Weidenbaum served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan administration.
"I think the fact that Bill Danforth gave all the University's allotment of debate tickets to students is very reflective of the spirit of Washington University," said Roma B. Wittcoff, another former trustee.
Martin H. Israel, Ph.D., dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, said with delight that he'd been watching one of the television monitors in Brown and that, "'Washington University in St. Louis' keeps coming up on the screen over and over again!"
"It's a bonanza -- has anybody used that word, because that's just what it is, a bonanza -- for Washington University," said Thomas F. Eagleton, LL.B., University Professor of Public Affairs and former U.S. Missouri senator. "For once and for all, Washington University in St. Louis has its place in the sun."
Eagleton and Weidenbaum, a duo affectionately dubbed "Eaglebaum" by students in their jointly taught courses at Washington, conducted a post-debate analysis in Brown Auditorium and then fielded questions from the audience. The highly credentialed pair was joined later in the proceedings by Sen. John C. Danforth (R-Mo.), fresh from his visit to "Spin Alley."
The senator, who was instrumental in bringing the debate to campus, told an appreciative audience, "This has been a wonderful day for Washington University and for St. Louis. Washington University has been on the map for some time, but today's events have put a big star next to it."
In his closing remarks, Chancellor Danforth, who had viewed the debate with his wife, Elizabeth, and students in Edison Theatre, confirmed the feelings in Brown: "Who won? In Edison, it was Washington University that got the major applause."