Opinion
Lawrence Journal-World l LJWorld.com l Saturday, October 17, 2015 Lawrence City Commission Mike Amyx, mayor 2312 Free State Lane 66047 843-3089 (H) 842-9425 (W) mikeamyx515@hotmail.com Leslie Soden, vice mayor 715 Connecticut, 66044 (913) 890-3647 lsoden@lawrenceks.org Stuart Boley, 1812 W. 21st Terr., 66046, 979-6699 sboley@lawrenceks.org Matthew Herbert 523 Kasold Dr., 66049 550-2085 matthewjherbert@gmail.com Lisa Larsen, 1117 Avalon., 66044, 331-9162 llarsen@lawrenceks.org
Douglas County Commission Jim Flory, 540 N. 711 Road, Lawrence 66047; 842-0054 jimflory@sunflower.com Mike Gaughan, 304 Stetson Circle, 66049; 856-1662; mgaughan@douglas-county.com Nancy Thellman, 1547 N. 2000 Road 66046; 832-0031 nthellman@douglas-county.com
Lawrence School Board Vanessa Sanburn, president 856-1233 765 Ash St., 66044 vsanburn@usd497.org Marcel Harmon, vice president; 550-7749 753 Lauren Street, 66044 mharmon@usd497.org
Game over; Clinton is the nominee Washington — I repeat: Unless she’s indicted, Hillary Clinton will win the Democratic nomination. I wrote that six weeks ago, amid fevered dreams of a Clinton collapse and a Joe Biden rescue. That those were a mirage is all the more obvious after Tuesday’s debate. The reason, then as now, is simple: Clinton has no competition. She’s up against three ciphers and one endearing, gesticulating, slightly unmoored old man. If Joe Biden was ever thinking of getting into the race, he’d be crazy to do so now. It’s over. Indeed, even before the debate, Clinton’s numbers had stabilized. It began with Kevin McCarthy’s gaffe of the decade. That gave her a perpetual getout-of-jail-free card that she adroitly deploys whenever the email issue arises. Her technique is flawless: a few meaningless phrases about having made a mistake, taking responsibility and being transparent, blah blah, followed by (I paraphrase) “but look at the larger picture, even Kevin McCarthy admits it’s a partisan witch hunt.” QED. At the debate, Bernie Sanders sealed the deal with a thunderous “the American people are sick and tired of hearing about your damn emails.” That rendered the issue officially off-limits to all Democrats. File closed. End of story. Of course, it will be featured in the general election, but we’re talking here about her getting the nomination.
Charles Krauthammer letters@charleskrauthammer.com
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She’s up against three ciphers and one endearing, gesticulating, slightly unmoored old man. If Joe Biden was ever thinking of getting into the race, he’d be crazy to do so now.”
In gratuitously granting her absolution, Sanders garnered points for high-mindedness. But he’d already cornered the highmindedness market. Sanders was right to call this move dumb politics. His declaration simply and definitively conceded the race to Clinton. Leo Durocher said nice guys finish last. Sanders will finish second, which in this case is the same thing. Clinton won the debate because it didn’t change the dynamic. It froze the race and she’s far in the lead. It doesn’t matter that her lead has shrunk from 50 points to 20. Twenty points is a landslide. She remains a lousy candidate but she is an excellent de-
bater — smart, quick, strategic and extremely practiced. Eight years ago, she debated Barack Obama 25 times. Tuesday night, she successfully bobbed and weaved and pivoted. She was at her most impressive, however, when she whacked Sanders upside the head — twice — right out of the box. He didn’t know what hit him. At the very start, she attacked from the left on gun control, from the right on capitalism. She simply said the magic words — small business, too? — and he beat an unsteady retreat. In general, Sanders was wild and wavy and loud and not very nimble. After all, how much practice do you get when for 35 years you’ve been campaigning as a social democrat in Vermont, America’s Denmark? Sanders is good on an empty podium taking on invisible billionaires. Put him up against a Clinton and he’s lost. He did make history of a sort, however. Every debate has its moment — the sound bite that lives forever (or until the next debate, whichever comes first). His “damn emails” thunderbolt is the first such immortal line to be delivered by one candidate that seals victory for another. The other three candidates hardly registered. Lincoln Chafee, currently polling at 0.3 points (minus-10 Celsius), played Ross Perot’s 1992 running mate, Adm. James Stockdale, who opened his vice presidential debate with: “Who am I? Why am I here?”
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Jill Fincher, 865-5870 1700 Inverness Dr. 66047 jfincher@usd497.org Rick Ingram 864-9819 1510 Crescent Rd. 66044 ringram@usd497.org Shannon Kimball 840-7722 257 Earhart Circle 66049 skimball@usd497.org
Area legislators Rep. Barbara Ballard (D-44th District) Room 451-S, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Lawrence: 841-0063; Topeka: (785) 296-7697 barbara.ballard@house.ks.gov
Rep. John Wilson (D-10th District) 54-S, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Topeka: (785) 296-7652; john.wilson@house.ks.gov Rep. Ken Corbet (R-54th District) 179-N, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Topeka: (785) 296-7679; ken.corbet@house.ks.gov Sen. Marci Francisco (D-2nd District) Room 134-E, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Lawrence: 842-6402; Topeka: (785) 296-7364 Marci.Francisco@senate.ks.gov Sen. Tom Holland (D-3rd District) Room 134-E, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Lawrence: 865-2786; Topeka: 296-7372 Tom.Holland@senate.ks.gov Sen. Anthony Hensley (D-10th District) Room 318-E, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Topeka: (785) 296-3245 Anthony.Hensley@senate. ks.gov
— Charles Krauthammer is a columnist for Washington Post Writers Group.
From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Oct. 17, 1915: “Foreshadowing an unprecedented increase in the price of years drugs which already had quaago drupled since the beginning of IN 1915 the war in Europe, a druggist jobbing salesman in Lawrence received a wire from his house today notifying him to stop quotations entirely on glycerine and quinine. Not only is an increase in price imminent, but the question will shortly be one of getting a supply of the drugs at all, in the opinion of this salesman.... The inquiries indicate that the visible supply of these chemicals is becoming exhausted, and that it will shortly be necessary to gather up all that can be procured and use them only for the most necessary purposes. This indicates also that the price at which they will be sold will be almost prohibitive and will be much higher than were ever heard of before.”
Jessica Beeson, 691-6678 1720 Mississippi St. 66044 jbeeson@usd497.org
Rep. Dennis “Boog” Highberger (D-46th District) Room 174-W, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Topeka: (785) 296-7122 BoogHighberger@house.ks.gov
Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz came out a winner. She insisted, despite the squawking of Martin O’Malley and others, on no more than six debates. Who needs the other five? Tuesday night settled the issue. When there’s a knockout in the first round, you stop the fight. This is not to say that by objective standards — i.e., against minimally competent competition — Clinton did so brilliantly. After all, to prepare the ground and pre-empt any attack from the left, she preceded the debate with a supremely cynical abandonment of both the Keystone XL pipeline and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which as secretary of state she’d pronounced “the gold standard” of trade deals. It did smooth her debate night. But by so transparently compounding her inauthenticity problem, the flip-flops will cost her in the general election. But that’s for later. Right now, game over. Amid the playacting between today and Clinton’s coronation next summer, we can joyfully savor the most delightful moment of the debate, when we were reminded by Anderson Cooper that Sanders had honeymooned in the Soviet Union. Springtime for Brezhnev in Yaroslavl. Attention: Mel Brooks.
OLD HOME TOWN
Kristie Adair, 840-7989 4924 Stoneback Place, 66047 kadair@usd497.org
Rep. Tom Sloan (R-45th District) Room 149-S, State Capitol, Topeka 66612 Lawrence: 841-1526; Topeka: (785) 296-7654 tom.sloan@house.ks.gov
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— Compiled by Sarah St. John
Read more Old Home Town at LJWorld.com/ news/lawrence/history/old_home_town.
PUBLIC FORUM
Voting issue To the editor: I look forward to Secretary of State Kobach’s explanation of how requiring proof of citizenship for voter registration will prevent people from double voting. Judy Roitman, Lawrence
Parking hammer To the editor: The disaster that is the Here @ Kansas development near Memorial Stadium deepens (Journal-World, Oct. 15). “At this point,” the acting city manager doesn’t “know that we have received a definite answer” from the developer “to understand the status of things.”At this point. Ah, the camel’s nose. To further reassure us, she said that any modification to the parking plan would have to receive City Commission approv-
al. And for even further reassurance, Chad Lawhorn writes, “the city ultimately holds the hammer on this project. … (The development) can’t be used until the city issues an occupancy permit.” Vastly reassuring — until one recollects how many times, while holding the hammer, the city has swung it. None? My suggestion is that they swing it promptly, letting the developer know immediately that, without onsite parking to the number earlier agreed on, there will be no occupancy permit, thus giving the developer the chance before more construction takes place, to change design plans if necessary to provide onsite parking. Oh, sure, it might be nice to rescind the tax rebate, but therein lies another Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. Probably best to let that City Commission mistake stand but not commit another by fudging the parking. Bill Mitchell, Lawrence
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W.C. Simons (1871-1952); Publisher, 1891-1944 Dolph Simons Sr. (1904-1989) Publisher, 1944-1962; Editor, 1950-1979
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To the editor: I would like to see the Journal-World impose a temporary moratorium on “religious witness” in its letters to the editor section. If these missives were few and far between, the discriminate reader might consign them to the category of contrary opinion that enriches a diverse community such as ours. Unfortunately, though, they abound, particularly on the part of one writer whose jury-rigged jeremiads appear with the frequency of a regular column. And too often they reveal a blatant or thinly veiled subtext of homophobia, which attributes our supposed condemnation as nation and community to the presence of certain citizens among us. Now, many of us think that this country is indeed going to hell in a handbasket, but because of issues that can
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No mixing of editorial opinion with reporting of the news. l Safeguarding the rights of all citizens regardless of race, creed or economic stature. l Sympathy and understanding for all who are disadvantaged or oppressed. l Exposure of any dishonesty in public affairs. l Support of projects that make our community a better place to live. l
be documented and discussed in rational secular terms without casting aspersions on the personal lives of our neighbors. I realize that there might be an issue of free speech involved here. That is why I am proposing a brief moratorium rather than an outright ban. So no censorship, please! Just exercise your editorial prerogative to give us a breather from our local Bible-thumpers. Bill Getz, Lawrence
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The Journal-World welcomes letters to the Public Forum. Letters should be 250 words or less, be of public interest and should avoid name-calling and libelous language. The Journal-World reserves the right to edit letters, as long as viewpoints are not altered. By submitting letters, you grant the Journal-World a nonexclusive license to publish, copy and distribute your work, while acknowledging that you are the author of the work. Letters must bear the name, address and telephone number of the writer. Letters may be submitted by mail to Box 888, Lawrence, KS, 66044 or by email to: letters@ljworld.com
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