Barack Obama hasn’t received any bounce yet from picking Joe Biden as his running mate. Gallup Poll tracking from Aug. 23 to 25 “shows 46 percent of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44 percent supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week’s standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.”
Now this is scary: the idea of a Halloween without the elaborate sights and sounds of Broadview Avenue in College Hill.
For more than a quarter century, residents of the 100 block of North Broadview have transformed their street into a Halloween extravaganza for kids, with streets festooned with lights and elaborate yard decorations and spooky sound effects. It’s a must-see experience.
But the event has grown so large in recent years — an estimated 3,500 people visited in 2007 — that it’s become a safety concern, and police say about $1,800 is needed to help pay for barricades and officers to work the event.
This is a wonderful neighborhood tradition that has become a community tradition. It’s well worth saving.
Let’s hope city officials and College Hill leaders work something out that will both keep the event going and enhance the safety of participants.
An anonymous “Obama insider” was quoted on the American Spectator’s Washington Prowler blog as saying that Barack Obama “really wanted (Kansas Gov. Kathleen) Sebelius, and if our European tour had played better here at home, she might have been the pick.” The source said that post-tour polling indicated “we needed the foreign policy on the bottom of the ticket more than we want to admit.”
The Wichita City Council acted wisely Tuesday in voiding, if only temporarily, the tax increment financing designation for 30 blocks around the Intrust Bank Arena. In doing so, it was responding to understandable concerns raised by Sedgwick County Manager William Buchanan about the broader fiscal impact of the TIF district. The split over the issue must to be resolved in a way that funds needed projects and spurs private development without drawing down too much of the tax base. And the sparkling new arena must not end up a diamond in the rough of its neighborhood.
Michelle Obama’s uplifting, poised speech to the Democratic convention Monday night was terrific, and should silence GOP critics still trying to paint her as an America-hating radical.
Instead, she came off as an all-American Horatio Alger story, someone who rose from a working-class background on the south side of Chicago to the pinnacle of success by adherence to old-fashioned values of hard work and faith and family. It’s a story even Obama’s conservative opponents should admire.
She helped show the human side of Barack, too, with a touching account of how he drove her and their newborn daughter home from the hospital, nervously moving along at a snail’s pace and looking in the rearview mirror. And the Obama kids were adorable when they took the stage.
What’s not to like about this family? The Republicans will have a hard time making Michelle Obama a liability after Monday night, or calling the Obamas “elitists.”
“Until the end, aides said, a small team inside the Chicago headquarters planned for four possibilities: Mr. Biden, Mr. (Evan) Bayh, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas. Speeches were written, media plans were made and private planes were at the ready to take any of the four to Springfield, Ill.” — New York Times story on the final stages of Barack Obama’s decision to pick Joe Biden as his running mate
It’s encouraging that Hawker Beechcraft Corp. and Machinists union leaders have agreed on new contract terms. Here is hoping that union members also agree when they vote Thursday. The strike is in its fourth week, and a long work stoppage isn’t in the best interest of anyone — Hawker Beechcraft, its employees or the community.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who’ll speak at the Democratic National Convention tonight, began her week in Denver by being the good soldier for party unity on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. She tried to reassure Hillary Clinton die-hards that women’s issues would be a priority of an Obama-Biden administration. And in light of the John McCain house-counting flap, she suggested the Republican nominee is “totally out of touch” with the home foreclosure crisis. “We still don’t have any idea how many homes John McCain owns,” she said. “And I don’t begrudge him seven, 10, whatever the number is, but I think it’s an indication that he has no idea. . . . John McCain has lived the American dream, but he somehow doesn’t feel that that should be opened up to all Americans.”
If the Wichita City Council wants to ensure the future of the historic Broadview Hotel with a name franchise flag, it probably should bite the bullet today and approve the incentives package for Drury Southwest, including up to $25 million in industrial revenue bonds and a five-year property-tax abatement. Doing so would allow for the $6 million sale of the long-bankrupt hotel to close Sept. 9. Unlike an earlier proposal by New York-based PAZ Management, this deal has the advantage of not involving a city handout for renovations. Even so, Missouri-based Drury Southwest intends to spend up to $19 million on upgrades and transaction costs over the next five years. The Broadview badly needs financial stability and renovation if it’s to be a key piece of downtown Wichita’s slow but sure rebound. This 86-year-old riverfront jewel deserves better than a sheriff’s sale.
It’s refreshing that Barack Obama tries not to offer simple solutions to complex issues. But as Charles Blow of the New York Times noted, Obama shows “an unsettling penchant for overly nuanced statements that meander into the cerebral. Earth to Barack: to Main Street America, nuance equals confusion. You don’t have to dumb it down, but you do have to sum it up.”
Now it’s John McCain’s turn to make his vice presidential pick. Dan Schnur, communications director for McCain’s 2000 campaign, is arguing for Sen. Joe Lieberman. His reasons include Lieberman’s foreign policy experience and his close relationship to McCain. But one of his main arguments is that Lieberman would allow McCain to be a maverick again, which he hasn’t been for most of this campaign. “There is nothing that John McCain treasures more dearly than his nonconformist reputation, the idea that he’s a different breed of politician,” Schnur wrote.
However, several of McCain’s campaign advisers said last week that McCain was unlikely to pick a running mate who wasn’t pro-life.
Beloit College’s Mindset List for the class of 2012 has some mind-blowing revelations for those of a certain age. Among its 60 points about the life experience of this fall’s college freshmen: “Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.” “Films have never been X-rated, only NC-17.” “Clarence Thomas has always sat on the Supreme Court.” “IBM has never made typewriters.” “Radio stations have never been required to present both sides of public issues.” “‘The Tonight Show’ has always been hosted by Jay Leno.” And (my favorite) “Wayne Newton (in photo) has never had a mustache.” The college in Beloit, Wis., has released these lists for professors for the past 11 years, “a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.”
If Senate President Steve Morris, R-Hugoton, is holding a grudge against Gov. Kathleen Sebelius over the coal-plant fight, he didn’t let it show in a New York Times profile of the governor last week. The article described her as “a darling of environmentalists” for blocking the Holcomb plant. “That’s the only major disagreement we’ve had since she took office,” Morris said. “She knew she would have to work with Republicans when she came in, and she’s done pretty well doing that.” He also noted that she’s “taken advantage” of the ideological split in the Kansas GOP.
At a recent western Kansas meeting to promote wind energy, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., remarked that he’s considering installing a small wind generator at his Topeka home.
“I want to do it,” he said. “But I don’t want to do it stupid.”
If Brownback wants a smart way to do home wind in Kansas, then he should support a net metering law, which allows residential wind users to sell their excess energy back to the utility and makes residential wind much more economically feasible.
Kansas is one of only six states without some kind of residential net metering for wind. And we’re supposed to be a leader in wind power?
As he visited Johnson County last week, National Republican Congressional Committee chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said that state Sen. Nick Jordan, R-Shawnee, is the best candidate the GOP has fielded against Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa, who has served the heavily Republican 3rd Congressional District since 1998. Cole’s estimation sets Jordan apart from the likes of fallen Moore challengers Phill Kline (2000), Adam Taff (2002), Kris Kobach (2004) and Chuck Ahner (2006). Jordan’s top issues are energy, taxes and health care, and his campaign is working hard to mention Moore as often as possible in the same breath as Nancy Pelosi and Jimmy Carter.
Good for John McCain and Barack Obama for deciding not to run negative ads on Sept. 11, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks. (McCain’s campaign said he won’t run any ads at all.) All local and state candidates should do likewise that day, and heed the call by MyGoodDeed.org to make Sept. 11 a national day of voluntary service. Too bad it’s too much to hope for a moratorium on attack ads that would last through Nov. 4.
“I no longer think city and state government officials in Topeka have cornered the market on ways to blow tax money.” — Topeka Capital-Journal’s Ric Anderson, on the lackluster results of the city of Wichita’s investment in Old Cowtown Museum
So it’s Obama-Biden ’08. With the choice, Barack Obama can be seen as going for experience, especially on foreign policy, and calculating that having a 35-year Senate veteran on the ticket won’t cancel out his “change” message. The highly respected Biden will be a formidable campaigner and debater for the fall and, if the Democrats win, a seasoned, pragmatic presence in the administration. He’s also one of the few members of Congress who is interesting and frank in interviews. Of course, Biden is prone to foot-in-mouth disease, such as that comment in 2006 about Obama being “clean,” and expect to hear more about that plagiarism incident two decades ago. Kansans feeling let down because Gov. Kathleen Sebelius didn’t get the nod can expect her to be high on the list of possible Cabinet members in an Obama White House. In any case, it’s nice to have this bracket of the veepstakes decided at last.
A small school district in Texas has become the first in the nation to approve teachers and staff carrying concealed firearms. Teachers with pistols — what a great learning environment for kids.
The policy change is intended to thwart school shootings, such as the one that occurred Thursday at a school in Tennessee.
But as a Dallas Morning News editorial argued, the district is courting disaster: “Injecting firearms into a school setting opens the door to tragic but avoidable accidents. And there are no certain safeguards to prevent an angry student — or teacher — from getting hold of a gun that was carried into the classroom.
“Parents depend on educators to provide a safe learning environment for their children. Allowing teachers to be armed and potentially dangerous is a frightening prospect.”
Barack Obama hasn’t received any bounce yet from picking Joe Biden as his running mate. Gallup Poll tracking from Aug. 23 to 25 “shows 46 percent of national registered voters backing John McCain and 44 percent supporting Obama, not appreciably different from the previous week’s standing for both candidates. This is the first time since Obama clinched the nomination in early June, though, that McCain has held any kind of advantage over Obama in Gallup Poll Daily tracking.”
