Some Hillary Clinton supporters are saying that sexism has played a key role in her faltering campaign.
But if anything, Clinton showed that the nation is ready to vote for a woman for president. She began as the odds-on Democratic favorite and has come close to winning the primary process.
As presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin told the New York Times, the Clinton campaign’s own mistakes have been decisive – “strategic, tactical things that have nothing to do with her being a woman.”
Sexism didn’t defeat Clinton. Barack Obama did.
In vetoing the bill to require Kansas voters to show photo identification, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius suggested the rule would deter turnout. But state Sen. Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler, thinks she has it backward – that more secure elections would mean more voters. “If people don’t trust the system, they’re not going to vote as much as they would,” Huelskamp said.
It’s a relief that the Kansas Supreme Court saw fit Friday to uphold the conviction of Gavin Scott in the 1996 murders of Doug and Beth Brittain of rural Goddard, even as it overturned his death sentence. That spares the victims’ family, as well as taxpayers, of having to go through another trial. But with the third man convicted under Kansas’ 1994 death penalty now awaiting resentencing before completion of his case, something that could take several years, Kansans are left to wonder about the point of having a death penalty so complicated, costly to prosecute and prone to technical errors.
Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, and Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Wash., sent a letter Monday to the assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition requesting an independent cost assessment of the tanker proposals from Boeing and from Northrop Grumman/European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. “The United States Congress and the American people have a right to know the true cost of each proposal,†the letter said.
But J.D. Crowe, editorial cartoonist for the Press-Register in Mobile, Ala. (where the Northrop tanker would be assembled), has a different take on the congressmen’s advocacy.
The trucking industry says there’s an easy way for Americans to save on gas — slow down.
Former Kansas Gov. Bill Graves, head of the American Trucking Associations, recently presented a proposal to slash fuel use by 86 billion gallons and carbon dioxide emissions by 900 million tons over the next decade — roughly the amount of CO2 emitted by the population of Chicago in one year. Among the recommendations:
Reduce the national speed limit to 65 mph for all vehicles. Install engine governors to limit new trucks to 68 mph. And reduce congestion by investing in highway improvements.
Graves called the proposals “practical, reasonable and doable,†and he called on Congress to help support the program.
Good luck on that. In 1995, Congress repealed a national speed limit, and 32 states, including Kansas, now have speed limits of 70 mph or higher on some highways.
No lawmaker has stepped forward to endorse the ATA proposal. How serious are we about conserving energy?
The Republican Party lost a fierce defender when Jack Ranson died last week at age 78, after complications from heart surgery. During six years as Kansas Republican Party chairman, 10 years on the Republican National Committee and a lifetime in the thick of high-level politics, the Wichita investment banker not only influenced the Kansas GOP’s choices of candidates and promoted their candidacies but also championed the party as he saw it — inclusive, fiscally conservative and victorious on Election Day. His “big tent†approach put him at odds with the socially conservative leadership of the Kansas GOP in recent years, but many of his warnings about divisive issues have proved prophetic.
Some Hillary Clinton supporters are saying that sexism has played a key role in her faltering campaign.
