Comedy duo registers students, support Obama’s plans
Published: Monday, August 27, 2012
Updated: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 18:08
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Left to right: John Cho and Kal Penn answer questions concerning President Obama’s policies in front of a crowd of volunteers Friday outside of The Blue Mug at Margie’s.
Unsuspecting students and freshmen opening up new checking accounts outside of Wells Fargo in the University Center, were treated to a visit from the comedy duo of Kal Penn and John Cho Friday on the UNC campus.
Penn and Cho, more commonly known as Harold and Kumar from the “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” comedy trilogy, visited with Obama For America volunteers at The Blue Mug at Margie’s before heading across campus, registering students to vote in the upcoming election.
They were part of a two-day youth vote swing that started in Greeley, registering new voters and encouraging students to volunteer for the Barack Obama campaign. They also emphasized how Colorado is considered a swing state and will be important for either presidential nominee to win.
“Colorado in particular is a battleground state; your vote matters and is weighted a lot more than in other places around the country,” Penn said. “A lot of people that I have met in non-battleground states are actually pretty jealous of Colorado.”
The actors spoke to students about the progress the country has made during President Obama’s term, highlighting the doubling of Pell grants, financial aid becoming more available and bringing troops home from Iraq.
“The top issues I think a lot of people care about, regardless of whether they're Democrats, Republicans or independents, are things like financial aid, things like jobs and the president has a really strong record on both of those,” Penn said.
The two stressed the importance for students to become registered and understand that President Obama is fighting to provide young Americans access to affordable and quality education.
“It’s what distinguishes us as a nation, the access to education. There is no way to solve anything else without being an educated citizen,” Cho said.
Penn campaigned for President Obama in 2008 in 26 different states and is currently serving as a national campaign co-chair. He has also served on the National Arts Policy Committee. Cho campaigned for President Obama’s bid for The White House in 2008 as well.
The University of Northern Colorado was the first of a three-school tour around Colorado. They visited Colorado State University and Colorado University later in the day.
“A lot of folks just turned 18,” Penn said. “They are not registered to vote yet so we’re making sure that they are registered with a website called gottaregister.com. So no matter where you are in the country, if you go there you can sort of see what you need to do to register to vote where you are.”
Gottaregister.com is paid for by the Democratic National Committee but is non-partisan and will inform people on how to register, regardless of what party they affiliate with.
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