The Source

Thankful

On his national television show on Saturday, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee talked about a trip he took to Rwanda. The trip was a b-partisan effort to gather information and raise the dialogue regarding Rwandan aid. With Huckabee, amongst others, were former Senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle and current Obama transition Chief John Podesta.

Huckabee’s monologue was stirring in that he related their experiences there to our own lives here in the United States. Here we are worried about high gas and energy prices, about the cost of food, about clean air and water. There they don’t even dream about needing gas for a car or oil to heat a home, they can’t even think about buying as much food as they need, and they have no choice but to drink the water as it is.

We are truly blessed in this country and there is no question most of us don’t take enough time to be thankful for what we do have. We are living in what is, for us, tough economic times. Signs are it could get worse before it gets better. This may be for some, one of the hardest Thanksgiving Days on which to be truly grateful. Yet all of us have plenty in our lives for which we should be thankful, even today.

The Source is thankful for the free and open dialogue which exists and allows us to post our thoughts each day. We are thankful for the democratic system which allows a choice to voters. We are thankful for a free market economy which rewards innovators and risk takers. And we are thankful that our nation is safer and stronger, providing a security for our dialogue, our democracy and our economy.

More Jobs in Missouri

Here is a statistic we bet most readers have not heard. Missouri has experienced job growth the last three months. Yes, we said growth. In fact, last month Missouri had the third highest job growth in the nation.

All of the business friendly legislation of the last four years is paying off as more jobs are staying in Missouri, and more jobs are being created. Even in these tough economic times, and even with large company layoffs, the big picture remains solid.

Let’s be clear, The Source isn’t suggesting this is a “no pain” time for Missourians. Many individuals are suffering from job loss or from decreased earnings or benefits. But if Missouri can remain at the top of the economic curve nationwide, we stand to benefit, both publicly and privately, the economy recovers. More jobs equal more state revenues, which equals better funding for critical state programs.

Governor-elect Jay Nixon is already assuming the worst when it comes to funding sources for his four year term. Perhaps he should wear a bit of optimism to his inauguration and continue to build on what Governor Blunt and the state legislature have accomplished.

Promises, Promises

No President keeps all their campaign promises. Reasonable people know that times, economies, and circumstances change. Policies often are forced to change with them. Most Presidents, however, wait until at least inauguration day to start rolling back the rhetoric and announcing (or leaking) that change is inevitable.

Not so Barack Obama, who already has started to back pedal on several promises of importance. When Obama yelled “change” we didn’t know he would mean changing his own promises, at least not so soon.

Don’t get us wrong, we actually support some of the changes. His supporters may not be so thrilled though. For instance, the word on the street is that he won’t be repealing tax cuts for those "rich" people after all. Class warfare is taking a backseat to practicality.

Indications are that Obama won’t be messing much with current military plans in Iraq. Maybe after his deep briefings he finally realized that what we are doing is actually working. Luckily for him, he will still get to preside over a withdrawal, but not on the terms he once promised.

The Source expects even more ratcheting back of the Obama campaign rhetoric once he understands what it is like to sit as an executive. Sadly, his lack of executive experience will allow him to make some mistakes as well.

Bailouts

In the spirit of giving away even more of your tax dollars to companies and industries who made bad choices and are now paying for it, The Source would like to nominate the next recipients for a government bailout.

Newspapers – Daily newspaper readership is in a downward spiral. Advertising revenue is way down. Isn’t it time we saved this industry, no matter how much of their woes are their own fault? Better yet, let’s force government to subsidize them like they do PBS.

Circuit City – Heck, if they are going out of business it must be our fault, right? Who knows how many shopping centers will be affected by the loss of an anchor tenant? We need to save Circuit City for the good of the nation.

Air America – No amount of George Soros’ money could save this unwanted beast, but practicality never stopped the government from tilting at windmills before. What the heck, give ‘em a few thousand off the bottom.

The Source also has to wonder if these companies and industries could have survived…if only we knew that government bailouts were the answer.

Anvil makers – These true American heroes could never have foreseen the economic downturn which would lead to their ruin.

Abacus and Slide Rule Manufacturers - Yes, these companies were sliding right along until those stupid kids in a garage changed everything. Now kids can’t do simple math without an LED or LCD screen. Save our kids education, bailout the basic math folks.

Buggy Manufacturers – If it wasn’t for a few pockets of sales, buggies would be extinct. How did we let this industry that helped transport generations of American heroes die? Had we bailed them out we may not be worrying about energy costs today.

Corvair – One man brought them down, a nation could have saved them.

American television manufacturers – Imagine if we didn’t give up on our own innovators. All those large screen, HDTV Plasma and LCD screens could have been made right here.

He Will Be MIssed

The Source sends our best wishes to Jason Rosenbaum who has announced he is moving on from the Columbia Tribune and the Politics Blog. We have mentioned Jason before as one of the up and coming political reporters who got it right way more often than his colleagues. Jason’s innovative use of the web, blogs and video will be remembered as opening a door into cyber-politics.

Best of luck, Jason!

The more things "change"....

...the more they really do stay the same.

Two appointments were announced or leaked yesterday by Democratic executives-elect. Both prove the point that, despite "bi-partisan" and "change" rhetoric, both elected officials will most likely fall back to the same old bad choices of the past.

Here in Missouri, Jay Nixon announced his first cabinet officer. Nixon nominated Kelvin Simmons, a former Kansas City Councilman, to run the Office of Administration. In the various news media reports of Simmons' appointment, not one reporter refers to Simmons as a lobbyist, but that is what he does. Not only does he lobby, but he lobbies for SWOPE Community Builders. SWOPE has a 1.4 million dollar tax credit application before Missouri's Housing Development Commission. Any guess as to who votes on that request? You got it, Jay Nixon. Can there be any greater conflict of interest? Yet the mainstream media ignores this, oblivious to not only the story itself but to its deeper impact regarding how Jay Nixon will run the state of Missouri.

In Washington, rumors have Clinton administration retread Eric Holder being nominated by Barack Obama as Attorney General. The AG is the ultimate defender of our nation's laws, but Holder was last seen blatantly ignoring the law by recommending a pardon for Clinton buddy Mark Rich. Holder also served alongside disgraced Fannie Mae chair Jim Johnson on Obama's initial VP selection team. This is the second major announcement from the president-elect, and the second Clinton retread. Anyone else sense a pattern?

Kansas State Treasurer

The Source is hearing rumors that Kathleen Sebelius is going to appoint House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney to State Treasurer.

Pushing or Polling?

After being humiliated by 22 points, former big city mayor Kay Barnes must be wondering why they didn’t see it coming. Here are at The Source we are wondering too.

With great fanfare this past summer, Steve Glorioso, Barnes’ campaign director, driver, spokesman, personal trainer, et al- announced that the Feldman Group would be retained to do the polling. The Feldman Group is of course the home of…Roy Temple. “Temple and I can handle Roe,” Glorioso is quoted as saying.

However, it started to become clear in October that Barnes simply was not going to be a serious challenge to Graves. Public polling at the time had her down 9. The DCCC switched its advertising in the Kansas City market in mid-October from Barnes to Nancy Boyda. In fact, the only other race the DCCC pulled out of in 2008? Tim Mahoney- the guy in Florida who had an affair with one of his staffers and then allegedly paid her hush money from his campaign. (BTW…even he got more than 37 percent). By mid-October, Barnes was down 11 points in public polling and falling fast.

The Barnes’ campaign must have known the score. The Feldman Group, according to FEC online records, was paid over $26,000 for research in the third quarter including one in October. Did Roy Temple have radically different numbers than every other poll in the field?

We wonder because Barnes threw in $250,000 of her own money. What could convince a candidate to put two hundred thousand of her own money into a losing campaign? Did Roy even have a strategy?

Pollsters do not simply tell you the numbers, they tell you what issues will move voters and advise as to the best way to win an election. According to the St. Joseph News-Press, Barnes spent $21 per vote to get almost exactly the same number of votes for which Sara Jo Shettles spent $1.50 per vote. What was Roy Temple advising? Or was he just taking the money and watching the titanic sink from afar?

Here at the Source we are left to speculate. Either Roy Temple doesn’t know anything about polling or he didn’t tell Barnes that it was over. Instead, he let her spend her own dough, so that the money kept flowing to Steve Glorioso and the good time gang.

So your choices are:

A. Roy Temple- a pollster who advises clients to spend their own money despite knowing they will get crushed in the election? Or

B. Kay Barnes- so out of touch with reality that she thinks more money can fix any problem?

You decide.

Election Myths

Now that the elections are over it might be a good time to sit back and take a look at some of the myths that emerged, or in some cases did not emerge, this election cycle.

The Youth Vote – 18%. That should be a familiar number because that is the percentage of voters considered youth voters this year. And in 2004, and in 2000. The myth of a large youth vote for the Democrat candidate has been floating out there for years. It has never come true.

The Heavy Turnout – Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan predicted 3.2 million voters would turn out on election day. She was wrong. Only 2.9 million people voted, almost 10% less than her estimate. Carnahan’s estimate was that 76% of voters would vote. That means that about 4.2 million voters are registered. Based on that, only 69% actually voted. Kansas was also well short of their turnout estimate. Similar numbers are appearing nationwide. While the turnout was very good, even perhaps a record in some states, it was far from the “heavy” predictions made prior to the election.

Obama Won - In fact, numbers are showing that McCain lost more than Obama won. McCain just never connected with his base, even with the help of Sarah Palin. Much like has happened before, the conservative base stayed home in too large a block. Obama’s total was only slightly higher than Kerry or Gore. But McCain’s was much lower than Bush. McCain never closed the deal; otherwise he may have made it a race.

Advance Voting – Even now several Missouri papers are pushing for Missouri to adopt advance voting. One of the arguments they use is that it increases turnout. But Missouri’s turnout was 69% as mentioned previously. Kansas turnout was “almost 70%”. Kansas has advance voting, yet their turnout was virtually the same. In the term of a popular cable show, that argument is “busted.”