A funny thing happened on the way to the expected Barack Obama blowout in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton won.
The stunning victory for Clinton instantly propels her back into front-runner status and again emphasized just how volatile and wide-open this presidential primary season is on both sides.
Modern political polling has become something of a science and is highly accurate in many cases, but New Hampshire proved that anything can happen when voters cast their ballots.
How did Clinton do it? Among other things, she won back the women’s vote that she lost in Iowa (her last-minute show of unguarded emotion probably helped) and aggressively went after Obama, raising doubts about his ability to deliver change.
For whatever reason, voters weren’t ready to write her political obituary, and they weren’t ready for the Democratic race to be over.
And that’s good for democracy. An extended nomination fight sharpens and tests the candidates further and gives millions of Americans more of a say in the process.
Republican John McCain, also once written off as finished, enjoyed a huge comeback victory in New Hampshire and could do well in Michigan next week — a make-or-break state for Mitt Romney. But it’s anyone’s guess who the GOP front-runner is.
It will be fascinating to watch.
One thing is clear: Voters, not polls and pundits, will have the final say.
Sedgwick County is getting $14.75 million for naming rights for its new arena: $8.75 million from Intrust Bank for the arena name and a skybox, $3 million from Spirit AeroSystems for the concourse name, and $3 million from Cessna Aircraft Co. for the outdoor plaza name. That’s more than many people expected and better than several other Midwest arenas. As several county commissioners said, it is also nice that the three companies have strong associations with Wichita.
As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said during a hearing on Kentucky’s lethal injection procedure, “there is no painless requirement†in the Constitution regarding punishment for one’s crimes. But surely the justices heard enough testimony Monday to conclude that the three-drug execution protocol can be cruel, something that is prohibited in the Constitution. As Justice John Paul Stevens said, “I’m terribly troubled by the fact that the second drug is what seems to cause all the risk of excruciating pain, and seems to be almost totally unnecessary.†If a single barbiturate can cause death painlessly, why hold out for the three-drug method? Scalia suggested that sending the case back for more study would cause “a national cessation of executions†for years. But the court should favor what’s constitutional over what will expedite executions.
State Sen. Peggy Palmer, R-Augusta, said that legislation she is proposing to crack down on illegal immigrants “will protect Kansas against the foreign invasion that undermines our national security and drains the resources of legal aliens and U.S. citizens.†But as a recent Wall Street Journal editorial noted, such overwrought, fear-based rhetoric doesn’t match reality.
Statistics and studies have shown that illegal immigrants neither increase the crime rate nor the welfare rolls in the United States. And “for all the talk about the ‘invasion’ of million upon million of job-consuming immigrants,†the editorial noted, the nation’s unemployment rate remains low, which indicates that immigrants aren’t stealing jobs but filling them and contributing to the overall economic growth.
During a speech to the Hays Rotary Club this week, Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, sounded down on the partisan atmosphere in Washington, D.C., but upbeat on its capacity to change. “The politics I see in the capital isn’t what’s best for the country,†he said. “It’s about the Republican or Democrat team. My goal is to be on the Kansas and America team.â€
The independent-minded Republican also said: “What I hope happens in 2008 is putting aside partisanship. I hope this is a year we see Congress and the president work together. I hope to see an America that wants what’s good for America, not what’s good for the Democrats or Republicans.â€
“I’m getting tired of Change. I think it’d be nice, for a change, if a candidate came out against Change, maybe with a catchy slogan like, ‘Remember: It Could Get Worse,’ or ‘Hey, at Least You’re Not Dead.’â€
– Dave Barry, covering the New Hampshire primary
A funny thing happened on the way to the expected Barack Obama blowout in New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton won.
