ANSAN
2008
OPINION
7A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 8,2008
What everyone is saying about Palin
No sooner had the echoes stilled from Sen. Barack Obama's stirring acceptance speech in Denver than Sen. John McCain made a bold move. He picked as his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, who was not much known outside her home state and represents a maverick's gamble if ever there was one.
The (Toledo, Ohio) Blade
WHAT THEY SAY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Still, there's no denying her appeal. A mother of five and staunchly anti-abortion, she will bring Christian conservatives into the McCain camp.
Give Sen. John McCain his due. He's not afraid to take chances. He took a big one while injecting yet more history in this presidential campaign Friday in naming Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
There's nothing in her paper-thin resume to suggest she knows anything about foreign affairs, which Republicans have insisted was essential, and the issues that matter to America's great urban centers, given that Alaska is not typical of the rest of the country.
The Manhattan Mercury:
Whether her right-wing views will attract white working-class women who supported Hillary Clinton is debatable. In her introductory speech, she explicitly said: "The women of America aren't finished vet."
On the issues, there is much to dislike about Sarah Palin — and other Clinton, not to mention Obama, supporters will be the first to point that out. But her candidacy is exciting.
Rather than decide immediately whether she's a great pick or something else, we suggest voters of both parties learn about her, give her a chance. Certain she deserves more of a chance than
Gov. Palin, not unlike Sen. Obama, is something of a mystery. That's fine. To her credit, she has been willing to take on the political establishment, including members of her own party in Alaska. And she seems to be something of the maverick that Sen. McCain was until he began running for president.
If Sen. McCain chose her out of weakness, that will become apparent soon enough. And if he chose her because of her strengths, our country might be the stronger for it.
Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, was willing to give her on Friday.
Sen. McCain hasn't done that. If she ends up a heartbeat away from the presidency, it will be because voters in November think highly enough of Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin to elect them. That said, we're not suggesting that voters blindly buy into the Republican superlatives about Gov. Palin, who is the GOP's first female vice presidential nominee. Yes, she might siphon off some of the women who had supported Sen. Hillary Clinton and are trying to warm up to Sen. Obama. Gov. Palin seems more than willing to shatter the glass ceiling that she says was weakened by the "18 million cracks" Sen. Clinton's candidacy left in it.
editorials around the nation
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Taxpayers footing the conventions' bills
As voters watch the expensive sets and glitz of the national political parties' conventions, they may wonder who's paying for all this. The answer: They are.
There's really no reason for this expense when money is tight and the federal
Taxpayers are footing a large share of the bill for the conventions, and they shouldn't have to. To begin with, each convention will get more than $16 million in federal money to help pay for convention operations. To make matters worse, Congress voted to appropriate $50 million in Homeland Security funds to pay for security.
The conventions are no longer a decision-making part of the election process. Nominees have long been set. The conventions have become nothing more than political theater. They are scripted campaign commercials on free network television time.
government operates at a tremendous deficit.
While the federal government is operating in the red, the campaigns are awash in revenue. Both presidential campaigns are raising tens of millions of dollars each month. They and their parties should pay for their conventions.
The (Lakeland, Fla.) Ledger Sept. 2 editorial
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CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Poorly planned routes dangerous for cyclists
The bike lane along the newly repaved 19th Street comes to an abrupt hat just west of Lawrence High School, sending cyclists into oncoming traffic or onto the sidewalk. This is the city's most recent addition to the hodegope area of bike trails that have to form a cohesive path.
Last Friday, BBC Radio broadcast a special report highlighting Kansas City, Mo., as the least bicycle friendly city in the United States.
You're out of luck, buddy.
In the entire city, there are no more than six miles of dedicated bike lanes, which has more highway miles per person than anywhere else in the country except Houston.
While driving eastbound along the repressed stretch of 19th
Travel 40 miles west (by car) and you're back in Lawrence, which has a better reputation with cyclists. The League of American Bicyclists recognized Lawrence as a "bronze-level" bicycle friendly community in 2004.
Street between Naismith and Massachusetts streets, I noticed the new bike lanes on either side of the road. It was a welcoming sight for avid bikers. This seemed to confirm the city's 10-speed designation.
But as I approached the busy intersection of 19th and Louisiana streets, the car lane abruptly cut off the sliver of roadway reserved for cyclists. The bike lane vanished, leaving any biker with little recourse but to quickly merge into traffic or jump the curb and seek refuge on the sidewalk.
Who can we blame for such poor planning? According to a six-month-old Lawrence Journal-World article, city commissioners decided that bike lanes could not feasibly be added because of higher costs and more delays.
The city seemed to conclude that a shorter stretch of bike lane was better than none at all, but this has created a hazardous complication near an already dangerous intersection.
When I have attempted to follow these bread crumb trails of green, bicycle-embossed street signs through the city, I often find myself marooned in strange neighborhoods and sinister strip malls. The city is certainly making an effort, but it is a hahazard one at best.
This illustrates a larger problem in Lawrence. We have an incoherent system of bike routes and poorly planned paths.
The more often people choose their bikes over their cars, the better, but the bicycle's benefits are contingent on a well-developed transportation network.
Bikes can cause traffic congestion, lead to injuries and get in the way of pedestrians. A half-baked system creates more problems than it solves.
Thompson is a Topeka senior in economics and political science.
What do your sex life and the election have in common?
You like your politics like you like your sex — brief, apathetic and impersonal. However, just like that pretty-little-bad-decision who sits next to you in English comp, the presidential campaigns will soon be leaving you emotionally overwrought messages and demanding commitment.
But, unlike that smokin'-hot unwanted-pregnancy you met in the stacks, you can't just keep taking circuitous routes around campus to avoid them. They're everywhere.
"Look at me, I'm a registered Democrat!"
ASSOCIATED PRESS
No one cares — I'm a registered sex offender, but you don't see me bragging about it, putting up signs, or going door to door in the neighborhood because the state requires me to.
"No, over here, registered Republican!"
Nevertheless, this is America:
You have a civic duty to cast a futile and uninformed vote for either the candidate who will continue moving the country down its same doomed path or the candidate who will have the audacity of hope necessary to take our country into new and exciting areas of doom.
First, there's Democratic nominee Barack Obama. His campaign symbol is a giant "O" cresting the flag, like the ever-open eye of some pagan god peering over the horizon and into your soul.
The thing is absolutely terrifying. I don't know whether to vote for him or offer him my first-born.
Obama's wife has even declared that Obama "will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual — uninvolved.
uninformed?" The hell he won't. I barely let real God tell me what to do in my day-to-day life, and Obama's offering me free healthcare for eternity. Obama doesn't stand a chance.
Still, Obama could make history. If elected, that would not only make him the first black man to be president, it would also make him the first Hawaiian to be anything.
But Republican nominee John McCain could also make history, becoming the first 44th white male president. Also, with vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, they could break another barrier. Females have always been able to secretly titter about the attractiveness of the male candidates.
Not anymore. I have a dream that one day men will be able to proudly proclaim: "Oh yeah, I'd
gerrymander her districts any day. Filibuster her Senate floor for 24 hours straight."
However, McCain is old: older than sin, or at least those sins that involve moving pictures or the ingestion of scientifically engineered chemicals.
If you've found this discharge of your political duties painful — not to mention abnormally thick
He's been a Republican so long his brain is like a time-capsule for bad ideas. The only upside is that it's not conceptually possible for him to become any older.
Like the Y2K bug, he's bound to roll around to the aught-aughts sometime soon.
— don't blame me. Perky young-venereal-roulette just left you a rather somber voicemail.
Reichert is an Oberlin graduate student in law.
To contribute to Free for All, visit Kansan.com or call 785-864-0500.
Today was the first day of the last two years that I didn't think about you once, and that doesn't feel as good as I
--thought it would
I really want a gnome.
Rock me sexy Muhammad!
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Are there any good guys on campus who don't only want to play drinking games and get really drunk? Because I can't seem to find any.
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To the person who found my KUID: Thanks a lot. I didn't even realized I lost it yet!
The FDA says oxycontin is a dangerous drug because it's easily abused.
Man, Free for All -seems like everyone is breaking up or pining for somebody else. Darling Free for All wouldn't it be great if pathetic and needy are attractive?
Hash: the pothead's crack.
You may have been using Google before it was cool, but I was using your mom before you were born.
Wahoo! The steam whistle is coming back!
I am le tired
There is a dead pig in the bathtub. Where in the world did that come from?
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All this political jargon makes me horny.
I went to work sans under wear and bra. And here's a secret: It was hot.
Ever notice that everyone who supports abortion has already been born?
I won the poker tournament at the Burge, and I don't even get mentioned in the Kansan's second page spread about poker.
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Since when did work become the new Match.com?
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Baseball caps worn to the side piss me off. It completely defeats the purpose of wearing the cap.
I know why they don't have the money to blow the whistle. It's all going to paying for the fire department to come to the false alarms at the dorms. Damn idiots.
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