Outgoing White House adviser Karl Rove predicted Sunday that Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee for president, but that she wouldn’t win because she "enters the general election campaign with the highest negatives of any candidate in the history of the Gallup Poll."
Clinton responded during Sunday’s Democratic debate by warning that anyone who wins the Democratic nomination would end up with high negatives. "The idea that you’re going to escape the Republican attack machine and not have high negatives by the time they’re through with you, I think, is just missing what’s been going on in American politics for the last 20 years," Clinton said.
Clinton said that she found it interesting that Rove is obsessed with her. "And I think the reason is because we know how to win," she said.
But some political strategists think the opposite — that Rove is trying more reverse psychology with Democrats in hopes that they reflexively rally around Clinton rather than choosing Barack Obama or John Edwards. Rove’s team used a similar strategy during the 2004 primaries when they criticized John Kerry in hopes that it would help keep Edwards from getting the nomination.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
In the wake of the tragedy at the Utah mine, it’s worth asking whether better safety rules or mining procedures could have avoided the cave-in that doomed six miners and also led to the deaths of three rescuers.
Under the Bush administration, critics charge, the Mine Safety and Health Administration has been lax in enforcing mining safety, reports the Washington Post.
At the Crandall Canyon mine, Murray Energy was extracting easy-to-reach pillars of coal that previous owners had left intact to help hold up the roof. The practice, known as "retreat mining," is common in the industry. But it’s especially dangerous out West, say experts, where mountain mass overhead, called "overburden," can exert tremendous downward forces.
With coal fetching premium prices, there are tremendous economic pressures to take risks — and the MSHA isn’t doing enough to discourage dangerous practices, argue some miners and industry experts.
"We may be turning back the clock on mine safety rather than going forward," said J. Davitt McAteer, MSHA director during the Clinton administration.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
I love it when readers take off in lots of unexpected directions in response to a cartoon. When I drew this week’s caption contest toon, I thought the captions would have to do with the end of summer, maybe some jokes about school starting so early, that sort of thing. And there were some good captions along those lines. But lots of you jumped right out of that lane and made with the wise cracks on other subjects. Bekki Gardner of Benton was the winner. Click on the cartoon to see her entry. Among the other caption-writers who took on the same subject, Alan McMillan of Snoqualmie, Washington (!) said: "I knew I shouldn’t have bought season tickets from that cowboy out front this morning." From Blanchard, Oklahoma came Amanda Stillwell’s entry: "Tom Etheredge owned this too? Who knew?" Brian K. Frye of Wichita sent in "Maybe calling this place ‘Wild Water World’ wasn’t such a good idea." Shawn Steward of Wichita said, "I didn’t realize Wild West World operated the city pools too." From Karl Ganoy came "That’s the last straw! Come on, kids, we’re moving out of Park City!" Bruce Cole of Wichita had this one: "Just like Daddy’s job at the Greyhound Park – down the drain!" Jon McGlaun submitted "Get used to it, kids. This is Wichita. Hopes for a casino for me to play in have dried up too!" Margaret Stevens was succinct: "Got water?" Dean Kerr said "The city can afford to spend $500 on downtown projects, but they can’t afford to keep water in the swimming pools for us residents!" Chris Lunt speculated that "All the water is now being used to grow corn for ethanol." From Galen Rothman of Wichita came "If water rates keep increasing this may be as good as it’s going to get." Here’s Kathy Barniger of Wichita’s take: "And the pro-casino folks think they got hosed…we should be so lucky." Susan K. Teel of Wichita said, Ok, we can play ring-around-the-road-cones." Amber Helm of Kingman sent "Looks like they’ve implemented ‘No Water Left Behind.’" Maize’s Judy Grisham submitted "Too bad the ‘Vote No’ campaign didn’t include the starting of school in August." Among Karen Wallace of Wichita’s entries was "Drat! Back to car pooling." James Richards of Wichita said, "Don’t worry, kids, you’ll be swimming in ‘in-service days’ before you know it!" Beckky Garwood of Wichita had this take: I’m sorry there’s no water in the pool, Jimmy, but it just wouldn’t be safe. Our floaties made in China." Cpl. Kevin Groenhagen of the USMC smacked us down with this one: "My, this pool is as empty and shallow as the head of a Wichita Eagle editorial board member." Oh, and there was this one from Jeff Duckworth: "Why is Richard Crowson such a radical left wing lap dog for the Democrat party and why do I continue to subscribe to such a left leaning rag such as the Wichita Eagle that professes unbiased journalistic integrity?"
Posted by Richard Crowson
The conventional wisdom is that the Bush administration is over and it is just a matter of waiting out its last 18 months. But John Podesta, President Clinton’s chief of staff from 1998 to 2001, wrote a Washington Post commentary offering advice on how to stay productive and not be a lame duck. His advice to the Bush White House: Keep your agenda positive and robust. Find common ground. Find ways to use appropriations to move the ball forward. Use executive power wisely.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Polls show Hillary Clinton with a comfortable double-digit lead on Barack Obama at the moment, but polls don’t mean a lot at this point. Obama could have an edge in the nomination fight if black voters move decisively behind him, according to a Newsweek article.
“Even though polls show that blacks still have doubts about Obama, he weathered similar skepticism in the 2004 Illinois Senate primary before winning nearly all of their votes. ‘He soared with elites initially,’ says Mark Blumenthal, who polled for Obama’s chief rival. ‘But it took until the last week of the campaign for blacks to decide.’ If they break his way again, says Blumenthal, Obama could ride a new black-upscale majority to the nomination.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Professors Frank and Deborah Popper were nearly tarred and feathered two decades ago when they advocated turning large swaths of the Great Plains into a Buffalo Commons to counter rural economic decline.
But a USA Today feature says the Poppers’ alternative ideas for making a living in the region are catching on, and the couple is feeling some vindication.
Montana is looking at setting aside millions of acres for a bison reserve. In Kansas and elsewhere, agriculture producers are pursuing agritourism, wind energy, sustainable ranching and other ideas that might have been dismissed in the past.
Such new thinking has “got to be better economically, even if it’s a gamble, than the continued slow-leak decline,” Frank Popper said. “It’s got to be better than things like casinos, prisons and hazardous waste dumps. . . . What we’ve got is a Plan B for a region whose Plan A has been failing it for well over a century.”
Posted by Randy Scholfield
