Great Political Quotes Never Die
Notice to our Readers: Fox and Hounds Daily regular contributor John Wildermuth will be absent from our site for at least several months. John has accepted a temporary reporter’s position at his former home, the San Francisco Chronicle. We will miss him at F&HD and are grateful for the time he spent with us. –Editor
Great quotes never die, especially in politics, where they tend to reappear in opposition research reports and in 30-second TV spots. Here are a few of the comments most likely to echo through the remainder of the 2010 campaign.
1. “Can you say ‘senator’ instead of ‘ma’am’? It’s just a thing. I worked so hard to get that title.”
Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer to Army Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh.
An instant favorite with Republicans already convinced of Boxer’s arrogance and disrespect for the military. A guaranteed part of the fall campaign, regardless of who wins the GOP primary.
2. “I was focused on raising a family, on my husband’s career, and we moved many, many times.”
Meg Whitman on why she almost never voted until she was 46 years old.
This isn’t an explanation that will go over well with the millions of California women who raised families, helped their husbands and still managed to vote, all without the nannies, household help and jumbo paychecks Whitman and her neurosurgeon husband cashed.
Europe Embraces Electronic Signature Gathering While We Fight It
Leading California politicians and unions are fighting electronic signature gathering here. This week, the European Union embraced it.
The occasion was the announcement of legislation to implement a new citizen’s initiative process for the 27 members states of the EU. The ECI, or European Citizen’s Initiative, was part of the new European constitution approved last December. This isn’t a ballot initiative, though it may be a precursor to one. This initiative process allows citizens, by gathering 1 million signature across 9 different states of the EU, to introduce legislation for the continent. That puts the people on par with the member state governments and the European Commission (the EU’s executive body), which currently are the only two entities that can introduce legislation.
The news here are the choices the Europeans appear to be making about how to structure the new signature gathering process. In almost every way, their process represents a vast improvement on what we have in California. Consider just two features:
Health Care Poll Does Not Reveal Long Term Diagnosis
The USC/L.A. Times health care poll released over the weekend could prove the oft-stated observation that a poll represents only a “snapshot in time.” The poll indicates that, unlike other regions of the country, Californians are in favor of the health care reforms recently signed into law by the president. By a 46%-29% margin poll respondents said they would vote for a congress member who voted for the bill.
However, from comments made by those polled it appears people like the “idea” of health care reform, even if they don’t know how this particular reform package will play out.
One respondent told the Times that he did not understand the mechanics of the bill but was positive toward it because: “I just know we have an issue with healthcare. To see something being done about it makes me happy.”
Some who have taken a closer look at the reform package have come to a different conclusion, but the question we are exploring here is will the favorable attitude represented in the poll hold?
Fresno: Job Training When Unemployment is 18.5%
The most recent state unemployment numbers (February 2010) show a number of California counties with unemployment rates soaring near to or over 20%: Imperial, 27.2%, Colusa, 27.6%, Merced, 22%, Tulare, 18.7%, and Fresno, 18.5%.
To an extent these rates are misleading. Even when the state economy is running smoothly, these counties, with significant agricultural employment, have unemployment rates over 10%. With the agricultural base, a level of seasonal unemployment is built into the local economy.
Yet, as Fresno County indicates, the current unemployment even in agricultural counties is a far different situation than in previous years. Tim Sheehan notes in a recent Fresno Bee article that the current unemployment in Fresno County (with a labor force of 441,300, the largest of the agricultural counties) is the highest unemployment rate in 17 years. The total number of unemployed is 81,800, the largest number ever.