A USA Today article noted that Kansas Republicans comes in “two shades of red that often clash” – for social conservatives and pro-business moderates.
But John “McCain has really bridged that divide,” said Thomas Frank, author of “What’s the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.” “The country club set really like McCain, and values voters really like (Sarah) Palin.”
As a result, and despite Barack Obama’s familial ties to El Dorado, as Kansas State University political scientist Joseph Aistrup told the newspaper, “The question is not whether McCain wins, but by how much.”
Recent days have brought excellent news out of Iraq, which should be doing more to help surge-champion John McCain’s presidential campaign:
With the U.S. military’s handoff of the central province of Babil to Iraqi security forces on Thursday, two-thirds of Iraq is now being secured by the Iraqi army and local police, with backup from U.S. troops. That means Iraqis finally have stood up, allowing Americans to stand down, in 12 of 18 provinces. Babil is part of the area once known as the “Triangle of Death,” which averaged 20 sectarian attacks a week last year.
On a somewhat lighter note, less violence and more cell-tower construction has resulted in reliable cell phone coverage, meaning, as U.S. News & World Report put it, “BlackBerries are back in Baghdad.”
If health care is a responsibility, not a right, as John McCain said in the second debate, “why do we pay for the treatment of anyone who shows up at an emergency room door?” asked columnist John Young. “If it’s a responsibility, why call an ambulance when a beggar passes out, hits his head on a curb and goes into convulsions? We know he hasn’t a dime. If health care is his responsibility, isn’t it ours to walk away? Why doesn’t this happen? Because health care is a right. Only the politics of self-interest and self-delusion hold otherwise. The delusion is that we think we’re saving money within today’s system. In fact, we pay dearly for the health care of the uninsured, just not in ways that would spare those in need much suffering and would deliver us all from higher costs.”
Nothing to do this weekend? Mix it up with the John McCain and Barack Obama soundboards assembled by Slate, which were patterned after a famous array of Arnold Schwarzenegger sound clips. Favorite utterances from the Slate soundboards include McCain’s “I do know this: Jamming gaydar is not a federal responsibility” and Obama’s “If it’s not this, then it would be something else.”
“It’s ridiculous that this needs saying, but: Fake Americans are Americans,” columnist Leonard Pitts wrote about comments by Sarah Palin and other Republicans about certain “pro-American” or “real” parts of the country. “And if we disagree with so-called Real Americans politically, our passion is nevertheless rooted in the same place theirs is. Love of country.
“Many Real Americans won’t believe that. For them, love of country and social conservatism are inextricably linked, one and the same. Me, I don’t care for the straitjacket of ideology, preferring the freedom to accept or reject ideas on their merits. So when social conservatives championed, say, individual accountability and responsible fatherhood, I was happy to join them. But that was back when I knew what ‘conservative’ meant.”
“Just like that, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden has given voters the single reason why they should not elect Barack Obama president of the United States,” wrote columnist Cal Thomas. “In rambling remarks in Seattle, Biden guaranteed that if Obama is elected president there will be an international incident to ‘test him’ less than six months after his inauguration.”
Thomas cited as historical examples the two Russian tests of John F. Kennedy and, on the flip side, the reaction by the Iranians when Ronald Reagan was elected.
Thomas’ conclusion: “Why shouldn’t a President Obama be tested by the world’s tyrants? And wouldn’t it be better if they feared a President McCain and decided not to put him to the test? Not having a president tested in this way would benefit America, the fragile economy and world order.”
In statements on today’s Opinion pages, two candidates accuse Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, of breaking a promise to serve only 12 years in Congress. Tiahrt told The Eagle editorial board that he doesn’t think he ever made that pledge. Though he supported the GOP “Contract With America” when he was first elected in 1994, Tiahrt said that it only called for holding a vote on amending the Constitution to impose term limits, which occurred in 1995 but didn’t get the required two-thirds majority support. A Nov. 8, 1994, Eagle news article reported: “Describing himself, Tiahrt said he stood for ‘common sense’ and such Republican ideas as a line-item veto, term limits, a balanced budget amendment and requiring welfare recipients to work.”
Political observers are unsure of the prospects of the Nov. 4 ballot initiative on whether Johnson County District Court judges should be elected rather than appointed. To demonstrate the dangers of partisan election of judges, defenders of the status quo in Johnson County have erected a billboard saying, “Keep Phill Kline Off Our Court.” But such a future for the controversial Kline seems unlikely, given that he was clobbered by Johnson County voters in the 2006 attorney general’s race and then in August’s GOP primary for district attorney. Voters have long picked judges in Sedgwick County and about half of the state.
Congratulations to Wichita Habitat for Humanity for beginning work on its 100th home. What an achievement, and what a blessing to families in our community. It has been a big group effort. In the past 22 years, 500,000 people have helped build these homes. The Rev. Linda Stewart, executive director, summed up the organization’s mission as “building lives, building families, building homes and building a community.” Well done, good and faithful servants.
The following satirical headlines come from borowitzreport.com:
MCCAIN SENDS BIDEN TO KEY SWING STATES; ‘Just Keep Talking,’ Says McCain
MCCAIN SAYS OBAMA’S ACTUAL FIRST NAME IS ‘THAT’; Raises Fresh Questions About Senator One
PALIN BLASTS OBAMA’S TIES TO WEATHER CHANNEL; ‘Palling Around With Meteorologists,’ Governor Claims
O.J. SEEKS BAILOUT; Juice: Incarceration Would Hurt Cable Networks’ Bottom Line
John McCain warned during the presidential debate last week that ACORN, a group that he praised when he was its keynote speaker in 2006, was “on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history” and “may be destroying the fabric of democracy.” But columnist Bob Herbert argued that “when it comes to voting, the real threat to democracy is the nonstop campaign by the GOP and its supporters to disenfranchise American citizens who have every right to cast a ballot.”
Herbert wrote: “In one politically crucial state after another – in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, you name it – the GOP has unleashed foot soldiers whose insidious mission is to make the voting process as difficult as possible – or, better yet, impossible – for citizens who are believed to favor Democrats. For McCain to flip reality on its head and point to an overwhelmingly legitimate voter-registration effort as a threat to the ‘fabric of democracy’ is a breathtaking exercise in absurdity.”
Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is doing her part to boost the economy. The Republican National Committee spent $150,000 just in September to clothe and accessorize Palin and her family, including nearly $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue and nearly $5,000 on hair and makeup. “With all of the important issues facing the country right now, it’s remarkable that we’re spending time talking about pantsuits and blouses,” a McCain spokeswoman said. Yeah, we could be talking about former 1960s radicals.
Meanwhile, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll found that 55 percent of voters say Palin is not qualified to be president, up from 50 percent two weeks ago.
John McCain’s plan focuses on encouraging energy production, while Barack Obama offers only limited support for boosting domestic production of oil and natural gas. Worse, Obama wants to increase taxes on energy companies, a sure path to reducing domestic energy production and raising costs. Similarly, McCain’s plan recognizes the vital importance of coal, which we use to produce half our electricity, to America’s energy future. We are frequently called the “Saudi Arabia” of coal because we have 29 percent of world coal reserves. By contrast, the Obama campaign has sent at best conflicting signals on coal. McCain also endorses increased nuclear energy production, a subject on which Obama waffles. McCain’s emphasis on providing incentives for increasing domestic production and choice of a running mate who has successfully carried through energy initiatives contrast favorably with the Obama-Biden plan’s vague promises. – Andrew P. Morriss, professor of law and business and professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Barack Obama’s strategy is more sound and promises better environmental stewardship. Obama says “use it or lose it” to companies that aren’t using their drilling rights. Obama is aware of the challenges, and he has pledged to help companies overcome these obstacles. In contrast, John McCain’s plan would open more of the continental shelf to drilling than would Obama’s, but he wouldn’t pressure oil companies to work harder to explore and develop resources on already leased properties. Obama calls for investing $150 billion over 10 years in renewable energy technologies. The heart of McCain’s plan for renewables calls for “rationalizing the current patchwork of temporary tax credits” for energy sources like solar, wind and hydro. Obama’s plan, while no panacea for an oil-addicted America, breaks more boldly with lackluster policies of recent presidents. – Matthew R. Auer, professor at Indiana University
The city of Wichita and Sedgwick County appear to be working through their differences over how to pay for needed improvements to the neighborhood around the Intrust Bank Arena. The County Commission approved its $9 million portion of the projects Wednesday, to be paid by arena sales-tax revenue. The city would be responsible for $2 million in related sewer and water responsibilities, to be considered by the City Council at a special meeting today. Another proposal for tax-increment financing for the arena neighborhood also is on the table, two months after the county balked at a larger TIF district. The progress comes as a relief. The city and county have a shared responsibility to ensure that the prime venue will anchor a prime neighborhood.
“The truth few wish to utter is that the GOP has abandoned many conservatives, who mostly nurse their angst in private,” wrote columnist Kathleen Parker about Christopher Buckley’s decision to endorse Barack Obama and resign from National Review, the publication that his father, William F. Buckley, founded. “Years of pandering to the extreme wing – the ‘kooks’ the senior Buckley tried to separate from the right – have created a party no longer attentive to its principles.”
Though many conservatives have treated Buckley as a traitor, Parker contends that he is demonstrating his father’s swashbuckling, defiant spirit in reminding Republicans of how far they have strayed off course.
John McCain’s efforts to distance himself from President Bush appear to be making some progress, the Washington Post reported. Among independents, 54 percent now see him as offering a new direction. That’s up from 44 percent before the third presidential debate, when McCain declared that “I am not George Bush.” McCain has been airing a campaign commercial in which he looks into the camera and says, “The last eight years haven’t worked very well, have they?”
When ABC’s “Nightline” visited El Dorado, hometown of Barack Obama’s maternal grandfather, as part of the “50 States in 50 Days” series, it found no one willing to predict Obama would beat John McCain there on Nov. 4. Republican Mike Cooper told ABC that when Obama visited Butler Community College in January, “I had several customers that I had talked with who lived in the area, and three or four of them said anybody with the name Barack Hussein Obama shouldn’t even be here.”
Teachers have the right to express their political preferences so long as their doing so does not interfere with their job and the education of their students. A good argument can be made that political buttons and the like can spark classroom discussion about the candidates, politics and government. It can be educational for students to know what the issues are, and to form their own opinions about the election. It is hard to see how wearing a campaign button would disrupt education, Such expression would be more likely to enhance it. Suppression of political views sends the wrong message to students. – Watertown (N.Y.) Daily Times editorial
If teachers are using them as political billboards – announcing their partisan identifications from their chests – the question of the intrusion of politics in the classroom cannot be avoided. One way of answering it is to claim that teachers who wear campaign buttons are performing a valuable educational purpose. But you don’t have to be overtly partisan in order to proclaim the virtue of participating in the political process. You can get that message across with a button that reads “I will vote on Nov. 4.” But what about a faculty member’s rights? This is the most often voiced objection to a button ban. It curtails the constitutionally protected speech of teachers. When faculty members are not in class, they remain free to sport their buttons, and when they leave the campus, the employer has no say at all about what they do or do not wear. – Stanley Fish, New York Times
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius is testing Kansans’ patience with her frequent campaign trips for Barack Obama. Or at least that was one interpretation of the one-month drop of 7 percentage points in her approval rating among those Kansans surveyed by Rasmussen Reports. As we argued in our Monday editorial, it’s natural for Kansans to feel slighted by her travel, which has been via planes paid for by the Obama campaign. Another concern is “Sebelius’ newly unabashed partisanship, which clashes with the best of her six-year record as a Democratic governor of a heavily Republican state.”
Last week she was in Nevada. And today, according to the Washington Post, she is in Arlington, Va.
Joe Biden predicted Saturday that Barack Obama, if elected president, would quickly face a challenge from some hostile power or terrorist group. “Watch, we’re going to have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy,” Biden said. The McCain camp is trying to capitalize on the comments and argue that the United States can’t afford to elect an untested chief executive.
A USA Today article noted that Kansas Republicans comes in “two shades of red that often clash” – for social conservatives and pro-business moderates.
