One reason Barack Obama might be able to turn Indiana Democratic this year:
But if Obama wins the state, more than anything it will be due to the best voter-contact operation Indiana has ever seen. Even Murray Clark, the Indiana Republican chairman, says with grudging admiration in his voice, "Obama's done these things right. That's how he nearly beat Hillary in the primary."
Almost all political ads are misleading, so we tend to discount them over the long haul. But some are more irritating than others to those of a different political pesuasion, and this one is starting to bug the hell out of me. It's the one featuring Barney Smith, that "ordinary American" from Grant County who wowed the Democratic convention with his "Smith Barney" line.
There is a much stronger "throw all the bums out" rumble this year than in past congressional-election years. Even Mike Pence mentioned it when he interviewed with us a couple of weeks ago. Fort Wayne resident Rob Binford did a guest column expressing the anger out there pretty well:
A letter-to-the-editor writer in South Bend speaks for countless Hoosiers:
Every day in the news there is information about more cuts that have to be made in local government budgets. Then we hear what tax the mayor of South Bend thinks should be increased to accommodate the government spending habits. Usually, he convinces the Mishawaka Common Council and the St. Joseph County Council to agree and there they go, dipping into our pockets again.
This has been going on for a couple of weeks now, and it's still breathtaking in its audacity. Some of us have been arguing that the country was headed this way, but I confess I never dreamed it would be in one $700 billion fell swoop:
Milton Friedman has been dead for two years, but he still makes more sense of the current economic crisis than anybody else:
Would Milton have seen the crisis as a setback for capitalism?
Only in the short term.
The other News-Sentinel -- the one in Knoxville, Tenn. -- is conducting an online poll to see if its readers think the paper should endorse a presidential candidate. The results so far are pretty lopsided:
Yes, take a stand. 13% 40 votes
No, we don't need your opinion. 86% 246 votes
The Local Government Efficiency Study Committee is pressuring the city and county to try again on a joing police facility, but nobody is having any of it:
Ft. Wayne Mayor Tom Henry and the three Allen County Commissioners said at the end of September that sharing space for police functions in the City-County Building would be too costly to taxpayers.
"Michelle Obama's message resonates with Fort Wayne crowd," the headline on our story reads. What message? She's just saying the same thing the campaign has been saying for months, in fact, the only thing Democrats always say:
"Isn't it time for a change? Isn't it time for new solutions? Don't we deserve leaders who get it?"
Lawsuit dismissed because the defendant could not be served:
You can't sue God if you can't serve the papers on him, a Douglas County District Court judge has ruled in Omaha.
Judge Marlon Polk threw out Nebraska Sen. Ernie Chambers' lawsuit against the Almighty, saying there was no evidence that the defendant had been served. What's more, Polk found "there can never be service effectuated on the named defendant."
