January 21, 2005
 
INTERVIEW ON INAUGURATION DAY: Marshall Students Rachel and Kenneth Spontaneously Debate State of Nation, Presidential Election, Bush’s Second Term
 
by Tony Rutherford
Huntington News Network Writer
 
Editor's Note: The reporter had originally intended to ask a small sample of MU students and faculty about their opinion concerning the second term of the Bush Presidency. However, the first couple asked broke into a spontaneous debate about the pros and cons of the current President. The opinions and ‘facts’ are those of the students, who spoke while sitting and doing homework. No one had the convenience of checking sources to confirm or disregard a particular allegation.
 
Huntington (HNN) — Rachel Slone, a sophomore molecular biology major at Marshall University, believes that George W. Bush is “a great president” who has “morals, values and character.”
 
Kenneth Carper, a sophomore business management major, voted for John Kerry because no one “could have done any worse than Bush,” who “went to the wrong place to pick a fight.”
 
What follows is a slightly edited transcript of their discussion.
 
Rachel: “I think he’s a great President. He’s been true to his word. He hasn’t lied outright to the American people. 50% of the American people are against the war, but I think he will pull through...he’s a leader who doesn’t change his mind.
 
Kenneth: “He doesn’t change his mind, but how many times has he changed religions?
 
Rachel: What does it matter?
 
Kenneth: Everybody said Kerry was the flip-flopper, but Bush has changed his mind so many times.
 
Rachel: I don’t think he’s great, but he did what he could do September 11. I don’t think many Presidents’ could pull us through. Clinton was a great President financially. He brought this country out of a deficit. I don’t think he would have...
 
Kenneth: ...went to war with the wrong person? And he would have picked the right country.
 
Rachel: Clinton would not have gone to war period. He and Hillary would have done everything in their power to make sure we didn’t go to war.
 
WHERE ARE THE WMD’S?
 
Kenneth: How many weapons of mass destruction has Bush found over there?
 
Rachel: He said, “Hey I was wrong.”
 
Kenneth: The President isn’t supposed to guess. We had the capability of finding out without doing what we did.
 
Rachel: He had a horrible first term... from the beginning, it was like whoa , you’re into it. You’re slammed with something like 9/11... it takes a long time in remission to build up a country... and the next president will still be rebuilding. The amount of money we’re in debt because of this. It’s going to be years. I hope he stands for what he says, like no draft. If he does institute a draft, I will lose every bit of respect for him.
 
HALF THE BLEACHERS EMPTY
 
Kenneth: I think watching that inauguration... did you watch it today?
 
Rachel: Some of it.
 
Kenneth: Like half of the bleachers were empty, when normally it’s a big thing. Oh , great, he’s back! I think if we can hold out four more years and get someone in there who knows what they’re doing...
 
Rachel: Are you Democrat or Republican?
 
Kenneth: I’m a Democrat., but I didn’t vote a straight ticket. I’m just saying we picked the uneducated man over the educated man at the worst time.
 
Rachel: Uneducated? You can be the smartest person in the world and still be ignorant.
 
Kenneth: If you’re the smartest person in the world , you should be able to speak without reading from....
 
Rachel: You name me a President that hasn’t had somebody write his speeches and say basically everything for them.
 
Kenneth: Somebody writes his speeches, yet he can’t read it! If somebody writes my speech, I’m at least going to read it ... not sound out the words while speaking to the American people! Figure that stuff out before. That gets you some respect.
 
KERRY A CATHOLIC WHO BELIEVES IN ABORTION...’OH MY GOD!’
 
Rachel: Kerry said he was Catholic and the next sentence in his debate was ‘I believe in abortions.’ Every Catholic is sitting there going, ‘oh my God!’
 
Kenneth: Everybody says Bush has not changed his mind ONCE, yet he’s switched religions....
 
Rachel: He believes in a Higher Power. You name me another person who hasn’t questioned their faith. I’m one of them. That’s personal [his faith] . If it’s not affecting the American people directly what relevance is that?
 
Kenneth: Why was Clinton impeached? Was that not his personal life?
 
Rachel: Clinton got on television and said, ‘I did not have an affair with Monica Lewinsky’ and lied. Then, three weeks later, he said, ‘I had a sexual affair.’
 
Kenneth: What’s worse, how ever many troops has died or having an affair? He’s not our pastor ... if I want religious beliefs, I’ll go to church. If I want a President, I’ll pick somebody who can...
 
Rachel: You can’t be President and not have religious beliefs. When you try to separate it, it doesn’t work... you can’t have one without the other. If you want to go all the way back to Plato and Aristotle, politics and religion went together. They’re religion was like god. I don’t understand what the relevance is questioning his personal beliefs . We should have gone to war a long time ago. Right when it happened! We should have just gone, we shouldn’t have waited.
 
WHAT HAS BUSH ACCOMPLISHED?
 
Kenneth: What did Iraq have to do with the Towers? What’s he accomplished?
 
Rachel: Social Security, No Child Left Behind. He’s accomplished trying to get us out of debt — but he’s still trying to put us in debt by going to war — he’s still trying to create new jobs...
 
Kenneth: How many students at schools like Marshall could have been put through college with the money he’s spent in Iraq?
 
Rachel: ...he’s still sending money out to our states so the people who are less fortunate than us can go for free.
 
Kenneth: How many more could have been put through with the money spent in Iraq.
 
Rachel: That money would have gone somewhere else. I don’t agree with his tax cut for people who make over $100,000. I do agree with everything else, his morals , his values, his character. I voted for Bush because he stands for righteousness.
 
BUSH WOULD BE A DECENT THIRD WORLD LEADER
 
Kenneth: For a leader of a Third World country, Bush may be decent! For America, we need somebody who can do the job. He’s got too much power than he should have access to.
 
Rachel: If he was so bad, he would not have gotten re-elected. It was close but it wasn’t that close...the American people had to like something about his character. I think that’s what everyone seen in him. He may be absolutely unintelligent, but the fact is his character speaks more to the American people than anything.
 
THE WRONG PLACE TO PICK A FIGHT
 
Kenneth: I feel he’s gone to the wrong place to pick a fight. Pick someone that’s going to be a threat. Don’t pick a fight to get people’s mind off the threat.
 
Rachel: But what of the intelligence ... You don’t want to mess with something greater than you.
 
Kenneth: [Are you saying] if who ever was responsible for 9/11 was greater than us, we needed to pick a fight with somebody we know we could beat?
 
Rachel: That’s why we need intelligent people surrounding him. He may not be the smartest person in the world...didn’t he go to Harvard? You have to be somewhat smart to graduate from Harvard.
 
HARVARD GRAD WHO DIDN’T ATTEND CLASS
 
Kenneth: ...give [Harvard] several million dollars and see if I don’t graduate at Harvard without going to class.
 
Rachel: He surrounds himself with very intelligent people. I am almost convinced ... I don’t even want to think he makes half of his decisions. The people he surrounds himself with make the decisions.
 
Kenneth: Who has on Jay Leno about a week ago? The “Fahrenheit 9/11” guy, Michael Moore [who had] cut out a part of his film because he didn’t know who the CIA director was going to be. He had women interview the guy who turned out to be the new CIA director. And in the interview, [the man said] ‘no, I couldn’t be the CIA director because I’m not up with technology. I’m not capable of doing it.’ Now, that’s where he’s at. Look who we got as President, so I guess it doesn’t really matter.
 

The writer, Tony Rutherford, can be reached by email at trutherford@huntingtonnews.net.