Nationally, the numbers of Americans without health insurance decreased during the most recent reporting period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the good news doesn’t extend to Kansas, where the percentage of Kansans without health coverage rose from 11.3 percent in 2005-06 to 12.5 percent in 2006-07. Only nine other states saw increases over the latest two-year period. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, recently said of the Legislature’s efforts toward health reform. But it also should be a growing priority for lawmakers.
As the results of a state audit on the impact of the state’s $1.3 billion investment in economic development since 2003 were presented to a legislative panel Tuesday, state Rep. Tom Sawyer, D-Wichita, asked a question worthy of debate: “What if we just lowered business taxes by $1.3 billion? Would that have more of an impact?” Of course, if Kansas hesitated to offer generous cash and tax incentives to business, other states wouldn’t hesitate to steal those companies and jobs away.
As Mary Prewitt, the state director of the Humane Society of the United States, argued in a commentary on the Opinion pages last week, it’s a problem that cockfighting is a misdemeanor in Kansas and a felony in neighboring states. As evidence that Kansas is now the “jurisdiction of choice” for cockfighters, Prewitt cited the recent cockfighting bust in northeast Sedgwick County, which led to 12 arrests. The current ban was viewed as the best the Legislature could get in 2002, when one lawmaker referred to cockfight ringleaders as “some misguided guys who want to kill a chicken on Sunday afternoon”; lawmakers need to take another look at the law. Sedgwick County Commissioner Kelly Parks also was right to urge residents to report such activity: “If you see a pickup full of roosters going kind of slow down your township road, they’re not going to Colonel Sanders.”
Kudos to former Wichitan Bill Koch for sparing the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame from eviction by the city with a generous $100,000 donation, which will allow the hall to cover the rent on its Old Town building. Let’s hope the funds also buy the attraction the time to develop a firm funding plan for the future, which should involve coaxing the rest of the state into realizing its role and responsibility to the hall.
Among other effective notes in Barack Obama’s convention address, he took on directly the GOP’s attacks on the Democratic Party’s patriotism, saying:
“The times are too serious, the stakes are too high for this same partisan playbook. So let us agree that patriotism has no party. I love this country, and so do you, and so does John McCain. The men and women who serve in our battlefields may be Democrats and Republicans and independents, but they have fought together and bled together and some died together under the same proud flag. They have not served a Red America or a Blue America — they have served the United States of America.”
He’s not going to let McCain get away with questioning his patriotism.
As this blog notes, John Kerry — in his strong speech, which didn’t get as much attention as it deserved — also said important things about the meaning of patriotism, and he challenged those who, four years ago, turned his Vietnam protest into something un-American:
“Years ago when we protested a war, people would weigh in against us, saying, ‘My country right or wrong.’ Our answer? Absolutely, my country right or wrong. When right, keep it right. When wrong, make it right. Sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power.”
Amen.
Denver wasn’t all politics for Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. The Wall Street Journal captured some of her moves.
John McCain has chosen Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Sarah who? Most people won’t know a thing about the little-known first-term governor. That said, she is an outgoing, telegenic rising GOP star, a reformer with a Western individualistic streak and maverick image, like McCain.
At the very least, this is an interesting, surprising choice that will get people talking and position McCain as being for change and against status quo Washington. It also appears intended to appeal to women, including disaffected Hillary Clinton supporters.
The most obvious question about this veep pick, especially for a candidate of McCain’s age: Is Palin, age 44 (three years younger than Barack Obama), ready to be president?
The significance of Barack Obama’s nomination transcends partisanship — and buoys hopes for an America free of racial prejudice, discrimination, injustice and violence and truly limitless in opportunity and freedom, our editorial today argues.
Obama projected a compelling seriousness and sense of purpose in his acceptance speech Thursday night, laying out a view of the nation and the presidency that surely resonated for many Americans: “Our government should work for us, not against us. It should help us, not hurt us. It should ensure opportunity not just for those with the most money and influence, but for every American who’s willing to work. That’s the promise of America — the idea that we are responsible for ourselves, but that we also rise or fall as one nation; the fundamental belief that I am my brother’s keeper; I am my sister’s keeper.”
That said, Obama remains a long way from closing the deal with American voters. If he is to deny John McCain the White House and return the presidency to the Democrats after eight years of President Bush — if “eight is enough,” as he had the crowd chanting Thursday — he must still reassure people that he has the resume and judgment necessary to be president, and that his expansive agenda is realistic and fiscally responsible.
Barack Obama gets more media attention than John McCain does. But contrary to gripes about liberal bias, that coverage tends to be more negative.
During six weeks of network TV news coverage this summer, opinions expressed about Obama were 72 percent negative and 28 percent positive, according to a study by George Mason University’s Center for Media and Public Affairs. McCain also got more negative coverage than positive, but not nearly so much, with 57 percent negative and 43 percent positive.
Also, McCain’s flubs are less likely to receive media attention than Obama’s miscues. “Even McCain’s most blatant confusions, memory lapses and outright lies still barely cause a ripple,” New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote, “whether he’s railing against a piece of pork he in fact voted for . . . or falsifying crucial details of his marital history in his memoirs, as the Los Angeles Times uncovered in court records last month.”
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius scored only a C-plus in Time magazine’s grade card of the Democrats’ convention speeches: “The veep also-ran took the podium with a delivery as flat as Kansas and no apparent training on a teleprompter. She offered a mild-mannered, monotone attack on John McCain (his multiple homes, his Bush connections), and some general platitudes about Barack Obama and change. Despite her dignified, executive mien and impressive political family, history and resume as the Democratic head of a Republican state, the lack of fire from the stage and the minimal response from the audience suggested that Sebelius is not ready for the no-holds-barred surrogate role of running mate.” Ouch. Other results: Evan Bayh, B-minus; Bill Clinton, A-plus; John Kerry, B-plus; Joe Biden, A-minus; Mark Warner, D; Ted Strickland, B-plus; Deval Patrick; B; Brian Schweitzer, A; Hillary Clinton, A; Caroline Kennedy, A; Ted Kennedy, A-plus; Michelle Obama, A.
Could Sedgwick County see a real district attorney race this fall? In a SurveyUSA poll of 1,000 adults last weekend for KWCH, Channel 12, 19-year incumbent Democrat Nola Foulston garnered 51 percent support, compared with 45 percent for Republican Mark Schoenhofer. Beyond partisanship, the poll showed a strong preference for Foulston among women, 50-plus and pro-choice voters.
It’s no big deal that Wichita businessman George Fahnestock doesn’t live in the Wichita school district but will take a lead in advocating that district voters approve a proposed $370 million bond issue. As owner of Fahnestock Plumbing, HVAC & Electric, Fahnestock is a Wichita employer who pays USD 259 school taxes and will pay more if the bond issue passes Nov. 4. And the more Wichita or any city grows, the more likely its prominent citizens will live in its burgeoning suburbs. But the discussion of Fahnestock’s Andover address demonstrates that, to be successful, the pro-bond campaign will need a broad range of business leaders on its side.
Barack Obama gives his much-anticipated acceptance speech tonight, and his biggest challenge might be meeting mile-high expectations.
Obama reportedly is modeling his speech on three previous ones: JFK’s in 1960, Ronald Reagan’s in 1980 and Bill Clinton’s in 1992.
He will have an oversized stage and oversized audience of 75,000. The stakes are high: If he rises to the occasion, it could cement his status as the new leader of the Democratic Party and give him fresh momentum heading out of the convention. If he fumbles, Republicans will be all over it.
Former President Bill Clinton’s full-throated endorsement of Barack Obama Wednesday night should finally end the political soap opera and speculation about whether the Clintons support Obama and want him to win. After calling on the 18 million people who voted for Hillary Clinton to vote for Obama in November, he laid out a case for why Obama was ready to be president and why America needs him to be president. “Everything I learned in my eight years as president and in the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job,” he said. And as for Obama’s first presidential decision, the selection of Joe Biden as his running mate, Clinton said that Obama “hit it out of the park.”
Talk about a touchy subject. Eyebrows are raising about John McCain’s use of the “POW card” to defend himself about not knowing how many houses he owns. On Monday, for example, he answered Jay Leno’s quip about it with “I spent 5½ years in a prison cell. I didn’t have a house. I didn’t have a kitchen table. I didn’t have a table. I didn’t have a chair.” The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Dick Polman suggested “McCain’s candidacy is basically a noun, a verb and POW.” Even before McCain’s latest “Tonight Show” appearance, the New York Times’ Maureen Dowd wrote: “His campaign is cheapening his greatest strength — and making a mockery of his already dubious claim that he’s reticent to talk about his POW experience — by flashing the POW card to rebut any criticism, no matter how unrelated.”
Wichita scored another big win with Wednesday’s announcement that Spirit AeroSystems will build the fuselage of the Cessna Citation Columbus in a new 375,000-square-foot factory in Wichita. Spirit estimates that the project and other new programs will create about 700 jobs. The final assembly of the airplane will be done by Cessna at its planned new plant in Wichita.
These new plants could have been built almost anywhere, and other states offer generous incentives to lure the work away. Kudos to the aircraft companies and to city, county and state officials for keeping this work in Kansas.
Time to place bets on which role Gov. Kathleen Sebelius might be asked to fill in an Obama-Biden administration. Christian Morgan, Kansas Republican Party executive director, guesses Environmental Protection Agency administrator, because of the Sebelius administration’s fight to keep new coal-fired plants out of western Kansas. The Roll Call newspaper notes that she and other governors with experience running their states’ Medicaid programs “could be strong candidates” to head the Department of Health and Human Services, also mentioning her as a possible education, agriculture or energy secretary. Sebelius’ eight years as Kansas insurance commissioner would favor her to lead HHS, too. Or Sebelius could serve out her second term in Topeka, then run in 2010 for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sam Brownback. Roll Call also raises the possibility that Kansas Health and Environment Secretary Rod Bremby might head Obama’s EPA.
FYI: Eagle reporter Dion Lefler is at the Democratic National Convention. Click here to check out his blog postings.
The task had to be bittersweet, but Hillary Clinton did an outstanding job Tuesday night in Denver of reaching out to her disappointed supporters. In a lengthy speech, she made an upbeat, direct plea for Democrats to rally behind Barack Obama and, most important, defeat Republican nominee-to-be John McCain. “You haven’t worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership,” Clinton said to convention delegates. “No way. No how. No McCain.” And no question that Clinton did her part Tuesday night to try to unify the party after the primary fight. Now, will her delegates — her “sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits,” as she called them — fall in line, or cause a ruckus during tonight’s roll call vote?
We know that Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, pumped gas at an Overland Park convenience store Tuesday because the Kansas City Star caught it on video. Tiahrt was stumping for 3rd Congressional District candidate Nick Jordan, who blamed high gas prices on a partisan Congress that can’t find a solution to our energy crisis.
Nationally, the numbers of Americans without health insurance decreased during the most recent reporting period, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But the good news doesn’t extend to Kansas, where the percentage of Kansans without health coverage rose from 11.3 percent in 2005-06 to 12.5 percent in 2006-07. Only nine other states saw increases over the latest two-year period. “This is a marathon, not a sprint,” Rep. Brenda Landwehr, R-Wichita, recently said of the Legislature’s efforts toward health reform. But it also should be a growing priority for lawmakers.
