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Monday, November 9, 1992
OPINION UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
IN OUR OPINION
Perot brought skeptics back to political process
Despite the fact that he was a bit eccentric and ran a rather odd campaign, Ross Perot played a positive role in the 1992 election and deserves some recognition.
First, the number of voters that went to the polls on Election Day was an all-time high, more than 100 million. This figure represents 54 percent of the eligible voters. While still low, it is a 4 percent increase over 1988 and, in fact, the first significant increase in turnout since it began declining in 1964.
Perot deserves much of the credit for this. His 19 million votes represented those who for many years had lost their trust in government. He truly did represent a change from politics as usual.
Perot also did an outstanding job of focusing the issues of the election. Other than his accusations against President Bush late in the campaign, he ran a strictly issue-oriented campaign: no lies, no misrepresenting statistics and barely a word about his opponents. He offered his plan, told people that it wasn't going to be easy and then said that if you liked his ideas, to vote for him.
Meanwhile, Bill Clinton was promising us everything he could get his tongue on, and Bush was calling his opponents Slick Willie, the Ozone Man and, in general, the two bozos.
Not to be forgotten, however, was the low point of the entire campaign. Just a week ago, Dan Quayle was throwing waffles into a crowd to prove what a "waffler" Clinton was. And experts can't figure out why people are disgruntled about politics.
Ross Perot did. And his reward was the best third-party performance since 1924. We can hope our reward will come within the next four years.
JEFF REYNOLDS FOR THE EDITORIAL BOARD
OUOTES OF THE WEEK
"Each one of you get five people, and it's a slam dunk home run, 50-state win."
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ROSS PEROT AT A KANSAS CITY, MO. RALLY. PEROT FAILED TO CARRY A SINGLE STATE IN THE ELECTION.
"I have furniture that is more responsive to people than Bob Dole."
-RAY MENDENZE, FIELD MANAGER FOR SENATE CANDIDATE GLOHA O'DELL. DOLE WAS RE-ELECTED TO A XIXTH TERM.
"Ive never voted Democratic in my life. But it was necessary this time."
BALCHANDER JAYARAMAN, ORGANIZER OF THE KU REPUBLICANS FOR CLINTON.
"We'll be saying 'told you so' for the next four years."
—DAVID OLSON, CHAIRPERSON OF THE COLLEGE REPUBLICANS, ON
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.
"Joan Finney is an albatross around the neck of the Kansas Democratic Party. She blew her first two years, now the Democratic Party has no real leadership."
- STATE REP. GARY BLUMENTHAL, DEM-WYANDOTTE, ON WHY THE
DEMOCRATS SUFFERED SIGNIFICANT LOSSES IN THE STATE ELEC TION.
"We were confident last year, but when things got bad, we didn't know how to bounce back. This year we're so confident that when things start going bad, we're still confident that we can win."
JUNIOR DEFENSIVE TACKLE CHRIES MAUMALANGA BEFORE THE
LAWHAWS 49.7 LOSS AT NEBERASKA
JAYHAWKS 49-7 LOSS AT NEBRASK
COMPILED FROM KANSAN STAFF REPORTS THE WEEK OF 11-2-92
KANSAN STAFF
ERIC NELSON SCOTT HANNA
Editor Business manager
GREG FARMER BILL LEIBENGOOD
Managing editor Retail sales manager
TOM EBLEN JEANNE HINES
General manager, news adviser Sales and marketing adviser
BILL SKEET, Technology coordinator
Business Staff
**LOTIONS**
Aest. Managing ... Aimee Bianhard
News ... Alexander Bloehlen
Editorial ... Stephen Martin
Campus ... Gayle Osterberg
Sports ... Shelly Solen
Photo ... Justin Knapp
Features ... Cody Holt
Graphics ... Sean Teas
Business Staff
Campa sales mgr ... Angela Clevergor
Regional sales mgr ... Malissa Tenft
National sales mgr ... Brian Welsh
Co-op sales mgr ... Amy Stumbo
Production mgr ... Brad Bron
Marketing director ... Ashley Langford
Creative director ... Valerie Spher
Classified mgr ... Judith Standley
**Letters should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 200 words. They must include the writer's signature, name, address and telephone number.riters affiliated with the University of Kansas must include class and hometown, or faculty or staff position. The writer should be typed, double-spaced and fewer than 700 words. The writer will be photographed.**
The Kansas reserves the right to reject or edit letters, guest columns and cartoons. They can be mailed or brought to the Kansas newsroom, 111 Staffer-Flint Hall.
Parents dread toys for their tots that make more noise than the kids
This is a public service announcement. If it is heeded millions might be spared emotional misery. It was sug*gested to me by a man who is the father of two children, ages 5 and 1.
We will call him Jim. He doesn't want his identity revealed because he doesn't want to hurt the feelings of well-meaning friends and relatives.
"But if you write about this problem, "he said, "maybe they will see it and get the message."
It is about toys.
"Basically, there are two kinds of toys," Jim said. "There are noisy toys, and there are toys that are not noisy.
"All you have to do is go into a toy store and watch people. Those who are parents are buying quiet toys. Soft dolls, board games, coloring books.
"Then go look at the people who are buying noisy toys. Things that require batteries, and when the child presses a button it makes a sound like World War III is breaking out. I'll tell you who they are. They are friends or relatives of somebody who has a child, and they are buying a noisy toy for that child, the dumb (deleted).
"Now, who buys noisy toys? Do parents buy noisy toys? Of course not. When you have to have the child is he不爱 that makes him buy something that makes more noise?"
"Then they come over and give the kid the toy, and they laugh at how happy the kid is because when he
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presses a button it makes a noise like a fire engine, and when he presses another button, it makes a noise like a 747 that is landing on the roof. And they say: 'Look, he loves it.'
"You'll get in the car and be pulling out of the driveway, when all of a sudden you hear machine-gun bullets blasting next to your ear, so you almost run into a light pole, and it is your kid in the back seat pressing the
"Of course he loves it. He'll love it even more when he notices that his parents hate it. It will become his favorite toy. But they go home and leave you there with the kid and the noisy toy. So what are you going to do? Take it away from him and put it on the floor and jump on it and crush it? Of course not, because you'll traumatize him. It is now his favorite toy. To tell him the quiet jigsaw puzzle.
MIKE ROYKO
button with the thing next to your ear.
"And drums. No sane parent would buy his kid drums. The people who gave him drums or screechy boxes won't hear them. They bring misery into your life, then they move on.
I'll try. But they aren't doing it to be cruel. They believe they are bringing the child on.
"So they come over — these friends who buy the noisy toys — and they give your kid a big box and there is a picture of the toy on the box. It shows racing cars going around this track.
"I never buy toys that I have to put together because I end up stabbing myself with the little kitchen knife that I'm using because I can never find the Phillips screwdriver. There is a conspiracy, you know. The companies that make these toys also make the world's Phillips screwdrivers.
"Another one is the plastic tricycle that goes clickety-clack. Yeah, someone dropped one of those on us. On each of the back wheels, there is something that goes clickety-clack when the wheels turn. You can hear it bend. We don't see it in the past people sitting on their porch, they look at you like you are an idiot.
"And what makes this even worse is that you have to put it together yourself. Which reminds me of something else. Did I say there are two kinds of toys? No, there are four. The other two kinds are toys that you don't have to put together and toys that do you have to put together. You have to be a damn engineer to figure them out.
"So tell people, don't do it. Be nice, Buy blocks, or log cabins. Things that are soft or made of wood."
No, I bought my kids educational toys. A starter set of burdgey tools.
But when you open the box, what you have is a bunch of disconnected pieces, with 150 plastic screws, and you have to get down on the floor to put it together. After 15 minutes, your knees hurt and your kid is sitting there saying: 'Are you done yet?' And you can't go to bed until it is done.
"I know I'm sounding emotional, but after my oldest child's last birthday, I almost cut off my thumb trying to attach wheels to a Wacky Whirly. After I got it together, I found out that it needed four batteries.
"That's another thing. I was wrong, There aren't four kinds of toys. There are six. Those that need batteries and those that don't. My wife and I never buy toys that need batteries. I hate them. Chances are they're noisy.
"It wasn't like this when I was a kid.
And I'll bet you didn't buy noisy toys,
or disassembled toys or battery toys,
for your kids, did you?"
"I know that. And you should say so,
That they are good-hearted, well-
meaning (deleted-deleted)."
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist with
the Chicago Tribune.
KU Democrats savor success of'92 campaign
I couldn't help but laugh at College Republicans President David Olson's statement in the Kansan, in which he expressed "sympathy" for the KU Democrats and that for all their hard work, they weren't able to sway the vote in Kansas.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
ty.
Had Olson bothered to check the Douglas County results, he would have realized that for the KU Democrats, the election was a smashing success.
Although the KU Democrats are flattered by Olson's baffling overestimation of our influence across the state, we would like to point out that we operate exclusively in Douglas Coun-
Bill Clinton won Douglas County by more than 6,400 votes, capturing 46.3 percent of the vote.
George Bush mustered only 30.8 percent, a scant 2,300 votes more than Clinton.
In addition, although we did not get a clean sweep of local offices as we had hoped, we helped send Barbara Ballard, Forrest Swall, and Betty Jo Charlton to the Statehouse and Jim Chappell to the County Commission.
Many of these races were incredibly
close; we believe that by sending volunteers to walk the streets of Lawrence every weekend this semester, the KU Democrats helped make the difference for some of these candidates.
Admittedly, we were disappointed that the rest of the state didn't follow Douglas County, but I doubt that Mitchell, Trego, Butler, Chase, Barber or any other Kansas county thought much about the KU Democrats or the College Republicans when they voted.
Thanks to the unselfish hard work of our members, the KU Democrats have had a successful semester. Our meetings have been well attended. We had more than 200 people at one
meeting
It is amazing that an organization like the College Republicans, which was inoperative until just a few weeks before the election and expressed such glee when they drew 35 members to a meeting, can take such an attitude toward the KU Democrats.
According to the Kansan, "Olson said that even though his organization's members were unhappy, the KU Republicans had done their job."
I'm not sure what *job* "he" is talking about, but I sure hope they keep it up.
Matt All
President, KU Democrats
501 Bluez