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THE TIMES LEADER
KEVIN BLAUM
New year nears and our hope holds strong
Kevin Blaum’s column on government, life and politics appears every Sunday. Contact him at kblaum@timesleader.com.
Reggie Smith Local head of the United Auto Workers union
MCT PHOTO
Barbershop owner Jermaine Johnson discusses President Barack Obama in Charlotte, N.C., which will host the Democratic National Convention next year.
STRONG SUPPORT Loyal black base backs Obama to win second term By MARK Z. BARABAK
F
LINT, Mich. — Growing up poor and black in
Mississippi,
Gerri
Hall
learned there was a meanness in the world, a set of laws and customs aimed at people like her, which her mother tried to explain once when they were forced to stand aside and let a white lady use the sidewalk.
Los Angeles Times
“Honey,” Hall remembers her mother saying, “that’s just the way it is in Mississippi.” But there was also love and pride and determination in rural Greenwood, along with a belief that things could and would eventually change — and the way to change them was within her grasp. “In order to make a difference,” Hall says her father often told her, “you’ve got to understand politics and get involved.” Fifty years later, there is a black man in the White House and Hall is firmly rooted in the middle class, with a nice home in a leafy neighborhood, a pension from her
30-year job at General Motors and enough savings to help her grown son buy a starter place of his own. “Things have definitely gotten better,” she allows, “in terms of tolerance and coexistence and people getting along.” Hall is not, however, satisfied. For the next year, she has one overriding goal: to see that President Barack Obama wins a second term, to show his victory was no fluke, to silence his critics and give him more time to implement the policies she sees thwarted, heedlessly and incessantly, by his ReSee SUPPORT, Page 7E
N.H. relishes role as political proving ground By TODD J. GILLMAN The Dallas Morning News
PETERBOROUGH, N.H. — Just about this time every four years, voters from New Jersey to Oregon wonder why New Hampshire gets such an outsized say in picking the next president. Candidates turn up at diners, living rooms, factories and country clubs. It’s hard to find a voter who hasn’t met a future president. “I don’t know why it’s OK. It just seems to be,” said Tom O’Malley, 50, an insurance agent in Peterborough, the picturesque village that playwright Thornton Wilder used as the model for “Our Town.” The state’s partisans insist that voters earn its disproportionate influence every four years, by tirelessly interro-
The state’s partisans insist that voters earn its disproportionate influence every four years, by tirelessly interrogating candidates and debating their relative merits.
seurs at a recent Peterborough Rotary Club meeting to size up Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor. Still, he said, “it’s a very highly educated populace.” Had Wilder been more politically inclined, he might have worked a few would-be presidents into the plot as he sketched the fictional Grover’s Corners, because like most of the state’s towns and hamlets, Peterborough gets plenty of traffic. Then-Sen. Barack Obama ordered chocolate pie at the Peterborough Diner four years ago, avoiding the “Hillary wrap,” named for his rival. Sen. John McCain held key town hall events in 2000 and eight years later in the city.
gating candidates and debating their relative merits. Given how fiercely New Hampshire defends its spot at the front of the line, no other state ever gets a chance to show it would be a better proving ground. “Demographically, we’re what, 97 percent white? It is a little bit of an oddball,” conceded retiree David Simpson, one of a few dozen political connois- See PROVING, Page 6E
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2011
“He came from where the majority of minorities came from, from meager beginnings. He can relate like no other president before, and that’s what keeps him strong in the African-American community.”
IN THE ARENA
AS A bumpy 2011 plays out the final moments of its remaining six calendar days we see American servicemen and women returning home from Iraq, a stubbornly high unemployment rate showing faint signs of receding, while friends and neighbors make steady progress against the Susquehanna’s September rampage. On this day of days, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” – Alexander Pope. In March a cataclysmic earthquake launched a mountainous tsunami upon the island nation of Japan claiming upwards of 20,000 lives. And in December we received NASA’s stunning announcement that it had discovered “a planet in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star.” NASA went further to state that its discovery of “Kepler-22b” — 600 light years away — brings it “a step closer to finding Earth-like planets.” In 2011, this planet lost Nobel Peace Prize nominee, poet, philosopher and former President Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia, Steve Jobs of Apple and Andy Rooney of CBS; but Seal Team-6 found the leader of al-Qaida and made the entire world a bit safer. We said goodbye to Jane Russell, 89, Elizabeth Taylor, 79 and the acclaimed saxophonist of the E Street Band, Clarence Clemons, at 69. But today we can still wish singer, sailor and songwriter Jimmy Buffett a very happy 65th birthday. “Hope is the dream of a soul awake.” – Aristotle Yes, the Luzerne County commissioners, faced with an expiration date of Dec. 31, drafted a phony and cynical budget to make things more difficult for the new county government about to take office. But most members of the new councilelect are intelligent and conscientious individuals, mindful of the magnitude of the mess awaiting them. Yes, the congressional redistricting plan approved last week by the Republican state Legislature does disservice to Northeastern Pennsylvania by gerrymandering and diluting the once compact and influential 10th and 11th districts. The lawmakers did so to protect one Republican congressman in the 11th District who in April voted to eliminate the Medicare guarantee and replace it with a coupon, forcing future recipients (now 55) to go hat in hand in an attempt to get health insurance at 65 with a coupon that won’t buy the care seniors require. They did so by thrusting the northern tip of the 17th District, which now includes the city of Harrisburg, up into the heart of Northeastern Pennsylvania simply to remove from the 11th District the traditionally Democratic cities of Wilkes-Barre, Pittston and Scranton. But on Monday prominent attorney Matt Cartwright told “In the Arena” that Northeastern Pennsylvania deserves to have a strong voice in Congress and that he is seriously considering a run for the Democratic nomination in that 17th congressional district. Cartwright, 50, is a graduate of Hamilton College and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He studied for a year at the London School of Economics. A resident of Moosic, Cartwright and his wife Marion Munley are the parents of two sons: Jack, 19, and Matthew, 16. Well-known and respected throughout the region, Cartwright lives in Lackawanna County on the border with Greater Pittston. He maintains the law offices of Munley, Munley and Cartwright in Plains Township immediately adjoining the city of Wilkes-Barre. A brilliant advocate for working families, Matt Cartwright immediately would become a very formidable candidate. “Hope is the ability to work for something because it is good.” – Vaclav Havel On this special day of celebration and prayer, family and friends, Santa and lights, presents under the tree and enduring hope for a better and brighter 2012, I wish each of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah. “God bless us, every one.” – Charles Dickens
SECTION
COMMENTARY DICK POLMAN
A quiz on 201 1’s politics of the absurd WAS 2011 WACKY, or what? See what you remember, and no fair peeking at the answers! 1. Donald “The Donald” Trump, commander in chief of “Celebrity Apprentice,” said that if he ran against Barack Obama, “there’s a good chance I won’t win.” He said that he would be victimized by: a. “A mystery president who was weaned on dirty tricks as a child in Kenya.” b. “Bloodsucking politicians.” c. “A stupid, stupid cabal of wimps who wouldn’t last a day in the casino business.” d. “Bloodsuckers and their celebrity acolytes, like Robert DeNiro, who’s not the brightest bulb on the planet.” 2. An Obama flip-flop, true or false: In 2010, he opposed anonymous campaign donations, but in 2011, he has stayed mum while his Democratic allies have taken anonymous campaign donations. 3. Rick Perry told Parade magazine, “Yes, ma’am, right in the shoulder.” Which of these references is correct? a. A flesh wound he received while flying an Air Force plane during the ’70s. b. A serious wound he inflicted when he shot a burglar with a .357 Magnum. c. A fatal wound he inflicted on a coyote that he shot while jogging with a .380 Ruger. d. A stab of pain he felt while trying to remember which federal agencies he wanted to kill. 4. Newt Gingrich told a Christian broadcasting network that his serial adulteries were: a. “A lot more inexpensive than shopping at Tiffany’s.” b. “A welcome break from worrying about the profound existential threat of Islamic fundamentalism.” c. “An inexcusable opportunity to not think about the science of cyber warfare.” d. “Partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country.” 5. An Obama flip-flop, true or false: Even though his health-care-reform law requires Americans to buy health coverage, and even though his government lawyers are preparing to defend the concept in the U.S. Supreme Court, he actually opposed the concept during the ’08 campaign. 6. Tea party darling Christine O’Donnell, who cost the GOP a winnable Senate seat last year in Delaware, has resurfaced with a ringing endorsement of Mitt Romney. Which statement is correct? a. “He’s been consistent since he changed his mind.” b. “I’m not a witch, and neither are his Mormons.” c. “He’s as deeply knowledgeable about the Constitution as I am.” d. “I would tea-party with Mitt anytime.” e. All of the above, except b. 7. Someone stood at a lectern this year and said, “If you are looking for any deep explanation, I don’t have one.” Name the politician. a. Congressman Christopher Lee, on his decision to send shirtless photos of his manly chest to a woman he’d met on Craigslist. b. Sen. John Ensign, on his decision to sleep with an aide’s wife and then have his dad pay $100,000 to the cuckolded aide. c. Sen. Harry Reid, on his DOA proposal to ban prostitution in the libertine state of Nevada. d. Congressman Anthony Weiner, on his decision to tweet photos of his crotch to women he’d never met. 8. Complete this sentence with the accurate quote. Alleged Herman Cain extramarital paramour Ginger White said that, during sex with the pizza mogul: a. “He would talk incessantly about the various drafts of his 9-9-9 plan.” b. “We would playfully debate the pros and cons of deep dish vs. thin crust.” c. “I was telling myself, ‘This was immoral behavior for the future leader of the Free World.’” d. “I was looking up at the ceiling, thinking about, ‘What am I going to buy at the grocery store tomorrow?’” 9. An Obama flip-flop, true or false: During the ’08 campaign, Obama said he was fine with state legalization of medical marijuana (“I’m not going to be See POLMAN, Page 6E