Apparently today is the day to make extraordinarily optimistic predictions.
John McCain declared that by the end of his first term as president, the war in Iraq would be won, most U.S. troops would be home, Iraq would be a functioning democracy, Osama bin Laden would be captured, and the United States would have had several years of robust economic growth. Asked afterward if his outlook was a “magic carpet ride,” McCain responded: “I don’t think it has anything to do with fantasy. I think it has everything to do with setting goals and achieving.”
Meanwhile, President Bush, speaking today to the Israeli parliament, made even rosier projections for what the Middle East would be like in 60 years. He foresees “free and independent societies” across the region; that Iran and Syria “will be peaceful nations”; that al-Qaida, Hezbollah and Hamas “will be defeated”; and that “overall, the Middle East will be characterized by a new period of integration and tolerance.”
John Edwards’ endorsement of Barack Obama isn’t a game-changer, and it won’t cause white, lower-income voters to abandon Hillary Clinton for Obama. But the endorsement is another blow to Clinton’s efforts to persuade superdelegates to support her. Today, four of Edwards’ delegates came out in support of Obama, as did the United Steelworkers Union.
Hillary Clinton’s big win in West Virginia wasn’t the most significant election news Tuesday. Rather, it was Travis Childers (in photo) winning a special election for a U.S. House race in Mississippi. The Democrat’s victory in this very conservative, formerly safe GOP district could spell problems for Republicans in November. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, certainly thinks so.
“The results in MS-01 should serve as a wake-up call to Republican candidates nationwide,†he said in a statement. “As I’ve said before, this is a change election, and if we want Americans to vote for us we have to convince them that we can fix Washington. Our presidential nominee, Sen. McCain, is an agent of change; candidates who hope to succeed must show that they’re willing and able to join McCain in a leading movement for reform.â€
John McCain’s age could be an issue in the fall campaign. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 39 percent of Americans are uncomfortable with the idea of a 72-year-old first-term president, while 16 and 12 percent, respectively, are uncomfortable with the idea of a female or African-American president.
House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, keeps discrediting himself in his push to expand a coal-fired power plant near Holcomb. He repeated to Wichita Independent Business Association members this week a falsehood about how developers of a proposed oil refinery “were told they’d never get a permit†in Kansas, and that “they’re looking at South Dakota now.â€
The Dallas-based company announced last June that South Dakota was the finalist for its refinery, months before Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby denied Holcomb’s permit request. The company did look at northeast Kansas as one of several fallback sites in case it ran into problems in South Dakota. But after it received zoning approval there, the company notified Kansas that it was dropping its option to buy land here.
Getting an air permit in Kansas was not a problem. Bremby told the company in a letter in February that Kansas was “open for business†and that if the company made the same proposal it had in South Dakota, he didn’t foresee any problem issuing the permit.
Apparently today is the day to make extraordinarily optimistic predictions.
