As nasty and divisive as national politics has become lately, isn’t it refreshing to know there’s one thing political candidates can all agree on during this time of year?
I’m talking, of course, about college football.
No matter where politicians stand on political issues — or important policy issues such as funding for higher education — you can always count on them to root, root, root for the home team.
Here in my home state, the two candidates for the U.S. senate seat — Republican Roy Blunt and Democrat Robin Carnahan — are firmly on the same team when it comes to Missouri Tigers football, as evidenced by their recent rah-rah tweets on or just prior to today’s season opener against the University of Illinois.
Carnahan staked her claim to fandom first with this tweet on Friday:
@RobinCarnahan Enjoyed being on campus yesterday and meeting with talented faculty and staff at University of MO. Go Tigers!
But Blunt got on board earlier today with a pre-game tweet that even name-checked Ol’ Mizzou’s quarterback.
@RoyBlunt @BlaineGabbert returns to his hometown to make it 6 in a row. Go Tigers! #Mizzou
How refreshing to see politicians set aside the mud to cheer their state’s biggest football program on to victory. They stand side-by-side with thousands of other fans, many of them registered voters.
College football is indeed a political game-changer — at least on opening day.
Andrew Careaga 