Bush or Kerry?
October 26, 2004 08:39 PM | General
October 26, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Are you still trying to sift through all of the political ads to determine which presidential candidate is the best man for the job? Well, you’re not alone. Several members of the Mountaineer football team are trying to make up their minds, too.
 |
||
| Shehl |
Next Tuesday, many West Virginia football players will join millions of Americans in determining who our next president will be. And just like the daily polls showing a tight race between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry, the football team is also split right down the middle.
Senior wide receiver John Pennington and junior holder George Shehl admit they already have their minds made up. They’re George W. Bush men.
“My dad is a dentist and Bush is really helping small business professionals like my dad with tax breaks. I’m kind of more of a Republican type guy anyway,” Pennington said.
“John and I are kind of conservative Republicans,” added Shehl, who says he might be interested in a career in politics if his plans of becoming a football coach don’t work out.
Junior defensive back Mike Lorello is siding with the incumbent, too.
“I like Bush because he’s always been consistent. I’m more for somebody who is consistent in their beliefs,” Lorello noted.
Lorello says when he goes over to Marc Magro’s house for dinner he often debates Magro’s mother Suzanne, a staunch Kerry supporter.
 |
||
| Rose |
Perhaps the biggest Kerry backer on the football team is redshirt freshman offensive lineman Hampton Rose, whose older sister Caroline works for the Kerry campaign in Charleston.
“Getting a great education at West Virginia University, especially getting a political science degree, you learn that a lot of the stuff that people worry about doesn’t have a lot to do with who is elected president,” Rose said. “Sometimes you’ve got to stick with what you believe in.”
Senior quarterback Rasheed Marshall is also leaning toward the challenger: “The word is out that Kerry is the man,” he said.
Junior defensive back Jahmile Addae admits that he is headed toward the Kerry camp as well. “From what I gather and what I hear Kerry would be the better guy,” Addae said.
However, many more Mountaineer players fall into the undecided category – like senior defensive tackle Ben Lynch.
“I’m still debating hard on it,” he said. “The stuff that has come out about the war and the imperfections we’ve seen from Bush … and then there are also things about Kerry. I like some of the health care things that Kerry talks about doing and I also like the toughness of George Bush and some of the guys around him.”
Junior defensive back Anthony Mims is sitting next to Lynch on the fence. Mims says his most important criteria for the next president is putting someone in office “who is going to do the right thing for our country and keep everyone safe.”
Addae says a good commander-in-chief must have “confident-assertiveness.”
“If you see your leader has confidence then it carries over,” Addae said. “As long as your leader is confident and at least acts like he knows what he’s doing then it’s always a good thing.”
 |
||
| Hardee |
Senior defensive end Jason Hardee, a San Mateo, Calif. native, is on the fence for other reasons. He is a registered Democrat but admits to being a big Colin Powell fan.
“I don’t know?” Hardee said. “Plus, I’ve still got to fill out my absentee ballot.”
Other Mountaineer players simply wish the election was over.
Senior linebacker Scott Gyorko, an avid hunter, says his main issue is having a president who is anti-gun control. He admits to being turned off by all of the ads flooding the airwaves.
“There is way too much campaigning right now; it’s annoying,” said Gyorko. “If I see it on TV I just change the channel and keep going.”
Redshirt freshman defensive back Ridwan Malik says he has tried to stay away from politics altogether. Asked which political party he preferred he declined, saying he was a member of the human race and neither a Democrat nor a Republican.
Hardee actually enjoys all of the commotion and has an interesting analysis of our political process.
“It’s only once every four years so I’m okay with it. If it was a thing where they do it all of the time it might get old but it’s kind of like the Olympics every four years. And it’s interesting to see what different people think,” he said.
Those with firm convictions say their mind is already made up.
According to Shehl, the war in Iraq proves the president is taking the fight to the terrorists. “Something is not going to be done today but it’s better to do it now than in 20 years,” he reasoned. “I think it is important to continue to attack: the best defense is offense which kind of goes with football, too.”
Of course Rose disagrees, “You can’t look past the war in Iraq,” he said. “I’d say my number one thing is that I’m a straight constitutionalist. I read Senator (Robert) Byrd’s book and it’s appalling to me what people do by throwing caution to the wind.”
Even though Shehl says most of his friends are conservative in nature, he admits the football team is “probably split down the middle between liberals and conservatives.”
Now doesn’t that sound familiar?
