In continuing the history-making theme of Election ’08, news broke that Arizona Sen. John McCain chose a woman as his running mate. Whether or not the addition of Alaska’s Sarah Palin to the Republican ticket brings in more student support is not certain. As of September 1, McCain and Barack Obama supporters on the Facebook Web site is approximately 250,000 versus 1,500,000 respectively. Between the VPs Palin and Delaware’s Joe Biden, the visible number of supporters are 37,000+ versus 36,000+ respectively.
Those numbers, despite only reflecting those Facebook users willing to show who they support, seem to give the idea that Obama is clearly winning. While they may be hard to find or come in small numbers, WCU has its share of McCain supporters. For their own reasons, some WCU students have chosen to go to the polls for McCain instead of for Obama.
“I will admit, I am not happy with some of McCain’s positions,” John Lalli said, adding that he is in the WCU education department. Lalli said that he is reading up on some of McCain’s positions on that topic and does not like most of them.
Lalli considers himself to be an unselfish person who cares about America’s well-being rather than himself as an individual.
“The only issue I agree with Obama is he is against gay marriage,” Lalli said. “However, Obama has nowhere near enough experience to run a country.”
Lalli said that Obama has no idea about what President Bush is doing overseas, using the point of view from a soldier Lalli knows.
“I talked to a marine that I know and I asked him a lot of questions about the presidential race and the media,” Lalli said. “He told me everyone hates the media.”
Lalli added the marine’s comments that the media never shows the good things the soldiers do, only how many soldiers were killed.
Lalli added that the Marine estimated 90 percent of the marines do not like Obama because they want to finish the job.
“McCain on the other hand is well informed about what happens in war,” Lalli said, adding that McCain has been there, fought for his country and is a great American.
Lalli said that his final issue with Obama involved the controversy regarding the Democratic nominee’s ties to Reverend Wright.
“He attends a white-hate, anti-American church for 20 years,” Lalli said. “Now that he is running for president, he all of a sudden doesn’t agree with anything Wright has to say.”
Lalli said that while Obama is all about change, he is just like every other politician and therefore sees a win for McCain.
“I expect McCain to win by almost as much votes as President Bush did running against John Kerry,” Lalli said.
Adam Anders, a sophomore political science major, also had a great deal to say on the 2008 election year and the candidates. Anders describes himself as a strong Republican since the election of 2004 between Bush-Cheney and Kerry-Edwards campaigns.
“I worked for the Bush campaign to get him re-elected,” Anders said, adding that his view on the current election is simple.
As a fan of Mitt Romney, McCain wasn’t the first choice for Anders as the Republican frontrunner of 2008. However, Romney support aside, Anders said that McCain would be the best choice to lead our country.
“No matter who wins the election, though, I feel that our country needs to come together because we are too far split,” Anders said.
Anders pointed out how privileged we are, touching on the things that Americans have and others in many countries lack.
“I just don’t think Senator Obama is experienced enough to lead our country,” Anders said, adding that he also did not agree with many of Obama’s views.
The views of Obama on which Anders didn’t agree with the senator included abortion, the economy and the war.
“Truthfully, I think that there are many candidates out there that would be better choices then Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain,” Anders said. “But with those two choices, Senator McCain will most likely get my vote due to his experience, his wisdom, his views and his courage.”
Anders added that what bothers him the most is the Bush and McCain comparison going around this election year.
“People automatically relate and assume that every Republican is identical to President Bush,” Anders said. Anders added that he wished more people would listen and research candidates.
Besides the issue of choosing a candidate, Anders related his opinion to having the opportunity to decide who governs America.
“Whoever you vote for or whatever you believe in, get out there and vote on November 4th,” Anders said. “It’s very important to realize how lucky we are to have the right to vote.”
Carol Dwyer is a fourth-year student majoring in English and communication studies. She can be reached at CD660170@wcupa.edu.