Barack Obama is expected to announce his vice presidential pick Saturday, and the veepstakes talk has reached fever pitch. The media are focusing mostly on Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine and Kathleen Sebelius, who is staying mum. But is it possible that Obama still has a surprise in store?
Ralph Nader, for one, thinks Obama is planning to pick Hillary Rodham Clinton — and that it would be “dumb” not to. “The polls show 25 percent of her supporters have not gotten on board,” Nader noted.
If Clinton and Obama can get past their personal animosity and primary wounds, the pairing still might make sense, with Clinton bringing undeniable excitement to the ticket and uniting the party in a way that a Biden or Bayh pick couldn’t. Not to mention that she’s a tough, seasoned campaigner.
I wouldn’t count it out.
While Barack Obama is running national campaign advertisements during the Olympics that stress positive messages, he has quietly started airing negative ads in key swing states. “It’s a pretty smart, high-low, good cop/bad cop strategy,” one media analyst told the New York Times. One ad mocks McCain economics: “Support George Bush 95 percent of the time; keep spending $10 billion a month for the war in Iraq.” The other unfairly uses some older clips of McCain to paint him as out of touch about the economy.[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/hyqe7Kjb0Nw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
During this presidential campaign, John McCain has been pretty selective in touting his reputation as a political maverick. But if he goes with either Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge as a running mate, he’ll be living up to that label and asking a lot of the GOP base: Ridge is pro-choice. Lieberman is both pro-choice and a Democrat (or “independent Democrat,” as he calls himself, eight years after he was the latter half of the Gore-Lieberman ticket). And does anybody think it makes sense for McCain to announce his pick on his birthday, Aug. 29? Maybe he can curtail whatever post-convention bounce Barack Obama gets, but McCain also will be reminding voters that he’s 72. On that subject, the reporters covering McCain’s campaign should affirm or debunk reports that McCain “frequently forgets key elements of policies, gets countries’ names wrong, forgets things he’s said only hours or days before and is frequently just confused.”
Two requests for Wichita’s second city manager citizens committee of 2008, as the 16-member panel convenes today at City Hall under new chairwoman Misty Bruckner to try to replace Pat Salerno (in photo), who was supposed to replace City Manager George Kolb: Be as transparent and open with the public as possible (something that may be more difficult given the larger role this time of a national search firm). And please — please — identify and interview more than one finalist for the job.
With the state’s revenue picture uncertain and state responsibilities mounting, K-12 school funding could become a target for legislators. Already, there are observations that more state aid (39 percent higher than four years ago) isn’t sufficiently translating into more student achievement. “I’m sure we’re disappointed the results aren’t more dramatic,” House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, told Associated Press. “We’re looking for dramatic increases, because of what we’ve already spent, in the future because the system should start producing a better product over time.” But Neufeld and company need to be aware that the demands of the No Child Left Behind law are rising, too — calling on all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Trying to squeeze schools to balance the state budget also would invite more lawsuits over inequity.
Thoughts and prayers go out to the loved ones and co-workers of Jeff Hart, the Hawker Beechcraft worker who was struck and killed Monday morning on the way to a strike rally. As a letter writer suggests in today’s Reader Views, the driver of the pickup involved in Hart’s death deserves the community’s support as well. The tragedy illuminates the stakes and risks for workers, whose health care benefits ran out Aug. 4. And it provides another reason to hope the parties get back to the table soon, so the Machinists can get back to work.
Reducing the $9.5 trillion national debt should be a top priority of the presidential candidates. But the tax plans of both candidates would make the debt even worse, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center. Barack Obama’s tax plan would lower federal revenue by $2.7 trillion by 2018. John McCain’s plan would reduce revenue even more — by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. Most of this decrease would result from extending President Bush’s tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2010. Obama supports extending tax cuts for low and middle-income taxpayers, but not extending some of the cuts benefiting the wealthy. McCain, who voted against the Bush tax cuts, supports extending all the cuts and adding others.
Barack Obama is expected to announce his vice presidential pick Saturday, and the veepstakes talk has reached fever pitch. The media are focusing mostly on Evan Bayh, Joe Biden, Tim Kaine and Kathleen Sebelius, who is staying mum. But is it possible that Obama still has a surprise in store?
