Lessons for Obama in Kansas

Gerald F. Seib, a native Kansan and executive Washington editor of the Wall Street Journal, notes the Kansas connections of Barack Obama and potential running mates Kathleen Sebelius and Tim Kaine, and sees lessons for Obama in the state’s history and capital politics: “As it happens, Kansas has been through an extreme version of national political trends: a rise of social conservatives; a searing internal Republican debate; and a bit of a Democratic resurgence. It isn’t mere happenstance that it has emerged as a state that is still reliably Republican yet with a highly popular Democratic governor.” He concludes: “The partisan minefields of Topeka, the state capital, aren’t all that different from those of the nation’s capital. The Sebelius experience in navigating them may be the example of Kansas values Sen. Obama finds most useful.”

5 Comments

  1. JWink
    Posted August 11, 2008 at 7:08 am | Permalink

    This whole story of Barack Obama’s connection to Kansas is a bit hazy in my mind. I did read parts of his book, “From dreams of my fathers,” or something to that effect.

    His grandparents seemed to have El Dorado connections but might have lived here in Wichita about the beginning of WWII. Barack’s grandmother reputedly worked at one of Wichita’s airplane manufacturers as a “Rosie the riveter” while her husband was in military service.

    Sometime after WWII, the grandparents moved to the west coast and then on to Hawaii. Barack was born in 1961 when Barack’s mother was 18, his father was a very bright Kenyan but left not long after. He died in an auto accident in Kenya.

    Not long after, Barack’s mother married an Indonesian fellow and moved to Indonesia, a country on which Barack’s mother focused her scholastic pursuits for some time.

    From my examination, Barack probably did not visit Wichita/El Dorado until in his mid-20’s while traveling east to attend college.

    This whole Obama and Kansas connection needs to be examined by an enterprising Wichita EAGLE reporter.

  2. ksfarmgrrl
    Posted August 11, 2008 at 8:49 am | Permalink

    I had the privilege of knowing Gerry Seib during his one year as a student at Ft. Hays. He’s a native of Ellis, and he was as brilliant in 1974 as he is now. He went on to study at KU, and has been making Kansans proud since he left the state. He’s a good example of a small town boy doing good and doing well.

    You go Gerry!!!!!!

  3. Franklin
    Posted August 11, 2008 at 10:59 am | Permalink

    The Eagle will NOT investigate Obama.
    The Eagle will hype the nearly non-existant “Kansas Connection” while the Eagle covers up all of the connections, to radicals and thugs, that the Eagle does not want us to talk about.

  4. Kaden Owen
    Posted August 11, 2008 at 11:35 am | Permalink

    I feel the west coast sick from eating too much cake. But its a very big city you would need his one year to see it all. His one year of waiting — This whole story seems to be quite a smoggy and gray place.

  5. Rage
    Posted August 11, 2008 at 2:36 pm | Permalink

    You go Gerry!!!!!!

    Wow. I remember when he laid out, in painstaking detail, the contradictions in Reagan’s public statements about Iran-Contra. Not something you expected to see in the WSJ!

    At the time I speculated his time in captivity might have influenced his perspective a bit.