Candy Crowley was the first woman in two decades to moderate a nationally-broadcast presidential debate when she hosted Oct. 16. 

With her postelection analysis, Crowley spoke Tuesday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union.

More than 500 people crowded in early, and the event staff rushed to set up more chairs for everyone in the crowd to hear to the CNN anchor speak.

Zachary Bauer, sophomore in political science, explained why he came to hear Crowley speak.

“I watched the debate that she moderated and I thought that was really interesting,” Bauer said. “I’m interested in the whole election process, so I thought that being that this was such a monumental election, she would have some really good insight about the structure behind it.”

Crowley began by talking about what happened in the election. She talked about what voters saw throughout the campaign and then a look forward to what is in store.

“This is the first president who has won a second term with less popular votes than he had received when he ran for his first term,” Crowley said. “Romney won the suburbs, and that’s where elections are won. … The reason it wasn’t enough is because Obama received more votes in the cities than usual, around 69 percent, and minorities and young people turned out in far higher numbers.”

Crowley gave her reasoning on why she believed Obama won the election.

“When it got right down to it, it was ‘who do you like? who understands you most? who are you more comfortable with?’” Crowley said. “People tend to lean toward the incumbent because that’s who they are used to.”

Crowley talked about what she thinks is going on inside the Republican Party now that the election is over.

“There are those now arguing that the Republican Party was too conservative,” Crowley said. “There are those that think that the candidate wasn’t conservative enough. I think there is going to be a real blood bath inside the Republican Party. The problem, I think, is that there is no party leader.”

Crowley ended her speech by explaining her favorite parts about democracy.

“One of the things I love about democracy [is how] election night almost makes me cry because its amazing,” Crowley said. “No. 2 is that the real democracy is in the loser, in these men who give the speeches that are uplifting, encouraging, and they are gracious. The loser is the first person to call their opponent the president-elect.”

Andrew Hayes, junior in journalism and mass communication, gave his thoughts on Crowley’s lecture.

“I thought it was great,” Hayes said. “I thought she was very informative and I thought she made a lot of good points on the election and answered my questions I had coming in.”