Amid all the controversy about Barack Obama’s pastor, the Washington Post reported this week that white men are now the crucial swing constituency in the Democratic primary. Blue-collar white males helped give Hillary Clinton the edge in the Ohio primary earlier this month, and could do so again in the Pennsylvania primary April 22. And unlike in states such as Wisconsin that Obama won, working-class white men in Ohio said that race was a factor in how they voted, according to polls. Is the timing of this controversy or Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks merely coincidental?
Was it a simple fatigue-related mistake or a crack in his status as an expert on the Iraq war? “Al-Qaida is going back into Iran and is receiving training and are coming back into Iraq from Iran,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Tuesday during a news conference in Jordan. After Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., whispered in McCain’s ear, McCain said: “I’m sorry; the Iranians are training the extremists, not al-Qaida. Not al-Qaida. I’m sorry.” Iran is a predominantly Shiite country believed to be funding Iraqi Shiite militants. Al-Qaida fighters belong to the Sunni sect of Islam. Shouldn’t a presidential candidate have that fundamental rivalry straight? “We all misspeak from time to time,” McCain later said.
The controversy about his pastor could actually be good for Barack Obama, because “too much idealism can blind a leader to reality as surely as too much ideology can,†wrote New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd. Also, his supporters had placed Obama on such a lofty pedestal that “any kind of blemish — even a parking ticket — was regarded as a major failing.†Obama “should be congratulated on the disappearance of the pedestal,†Dowd wrote. “Leaders don’t need to be messiahs.â€
Kansans’ famously strong faith surely affects their presidential preferences, right? Not necessarily, according to a new SurveyUSA poll, sponsored by KWCH-TV, Channel 12 in Wichita. In the poll, timed to the flap over Barack Obama’s pastor, 39 percent said religion would play no role in their choice of a president, compared with 30 percent each who said it would play a minor or major role. And 56 percent said it was unfair to judge those in a church’s congregation by a religious leader’s controversial statements.
A Wall Street Journal article summarizes Kansas’ energy war, as the state awaits Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ expected veto of the bill to overrule Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby and allow two coal-fired plants near Holcomb. “For an unelected person to decide on his own to make this kind of decision without any input from the legislative branch is a huge mistake,†Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, is quoted as saying. “When you hear about China putting a new coal plant on line every week and so many other sources of pollution around, to try to single out one (project) as the magic bullet to offset the emissions of tens of thousands of other emissions producers doesn’t make a lot of sense.†The article also quotes Bremby, the man it puts at “center stage in the national debate over energy and the environment,†as saying, “I can’t do anything about what’s going on in China, but I know this decision means we won’t be contributing to that impact of climate change.â€
The Legislature should follow the recommendation of the Kansas Medical Society and make it easier for the state Board of Healing Arts to discipline doctors after one case of negligence. As it is, there must be three confirmed offenses before the board can suspend a doctor’s license. The board needs to respect the due-process rights of doctors, but flagrant abuses need immediate action.
Amid all the controversy about Barack Obama’s pastor, the Washington Post reported this week that white men are now the crucial swing constituency in the Democratic primary. Blue-collar white males helped give Hillary Clinton the edge in the Ohio primary earlier this month, and could do so again in the Pennsylvania primary April 22. And unlike in states such as Wisconsin that Obama won, working-class white men in Ohio said that race was a factor in how they voted, according to polls. Is the timing of this controversy or Geraldine Ferraro’s remarks merely coincidental?
