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HAWVER: Presidential pols vie for your vote
By MARTIN HAWVER, At The Rail
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After two back-to-back weeks of national political conventions up-close in Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul, it is becoming clear to me that both political parties have different ideas about what it takes to attract enough votes to elect a president.
Democrats, from Denver, were all about change.
Republicans, from Minneapolis/St. Paul, were all about patriotism.
Oh, both Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., are Americans, patriotic and have backgrounds in public service of some sort.
Nobody seriously doubts either on that front.
But is that the primary issue on which voters should decide whom to vote for?
For many, it probably is, and McCain spends lots of his time talking about his military service and patriotism. Other issues? They are added later, and not in much detail.
Obama, without military service, talks about the war in Iraq, of course, but he’s spending more time talking about the economy and how to ease financial challenges for many Americans.
So, which do you want? It’s going to be one of those classic face-offs.
Life is complicated enough for most Kansans that the great difference between the candidates is just how much time we are willing to spend educating ourselves on issues that are important to us.
That may be the real decider on this election.
The war is a constant issue, of course. Improved medical care means that while there have been more than 4,000 casualties in the Iraq war, there have been 10 times that number of wounded. There are few towns that don’t have a wounded veteran back among them, either walking on a metal leg or missing a limb or with other injuries. In the World War II era, those wounds would have been fatal. Now, those wounded are among us, a constant reminder of the war.
It’s not hard for the war and military service to be an almost constant concern because we’re seeing more wounded veterans, seeing more deployment ceremonies, seeing more return ceremonies — and seeing more military funerals.
More subtle, but important, issues, such as health care — reducing emergency room visits, which are the most expensive health-care adventures in the nation — energy, taxes, the bureaucracy and education are more complicated.
Handling those issues is more complicated and it is harder to figure out which candidate proposes solutions that will work. And, they are “occasional” issues. The uninsured aren’t sick every day, the utility bill comes just once a month, the bureaucracy everyone rails against actually does things that we apparently believe need to be done. Education becomes important on grade card day and it’s largely a state, not a national issue, anyway.
How much attention do we pay to a presidential candidate who probably has less effect on our everyday lives than the State Legislature, or maybe even city or county commissioner?
It’ll be interesting to see.
Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this statewide political news service, visit the Web site at www.hawvernews.com.
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