WE HAD some excitement in the newsroom Thursday afternoon — for a few minutes.
It began when someone identifying himself as a staffer for Sen. Barack Obama called and said the presidential candidate was on his way to our area and the staffer would call us when Obama was about 20 minutes away.
The call resulted in a quick meeting to assign reporters and the photographer. Of course, there was always the possibility that the call was a hoax, but it was best to assume the call was genuine. The exciting thing about working for a newspaper is the way news has of popping up just when you don’t expect it.
Why would Obama be in Kansas the week before the Democratic National Convention in Denver? Was it possible that he was coming to announce that he was choosing Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as his running mate? But wasn’t the governor on her way to Iowa to campaign for Obama there?
A quick check on the candidate’s whereabouts put a damper on expectations. The Associated Press stories had Obama in Virginia on Thursday morning, and AP photographs transmitted in mid afternoon showed him still pressing the flesh there.
Which reminded us — Virginia also has a city named Emporia.
A few minutes later, the staffer called back to apologize. He’d thought he was calling the paper in Emporia, Va., which was where the campaign caravan was headed.
There is no denying it was a disappointment. Here in the real Emporia, we rarely get visits from presidential candidates. In fact, the city has probably seen more tornadoes than national candidates. Truth to tell, we’d rather have the politicians.
Well, the door is always open.
If the senator gets bored in Denver next week, he’s always welcome to come over to Kansas and take a breather. In exchange for an interview, The Gazette’s news staff would be happy to show him around town.
The same offer holds for Sen. John McCain.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
Comments
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Posted by billclinton (anonymous) on August 24, 2008 at 4:42 p.m. (Suggest removal)
John McCain is definitely not welcome in Emporia.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on August 24, 2008 at 8:45 p.m. (Suggest removal)
We'll see who gets more votes in Emporia, Lyon County and the state as a whole, billclinton. Now, if you were using the editorial staff of the Gazette as your measure, you may be right.
Posted by alfalfa (anonymous) on August 24, 2008 at 9:52 p.m. (Suggest removal)
McCain is just as welcome as Obama. In the Gazettes defense, when I read the bit early in the day, I was ready to drive around Emporia looking for Obama, I won't vote for him but I would sure like to listen to him in person. Anyway, I am glad I fought the urge to quit working and look for Obama, it would have proven to be very frustrating!!
Posted by netloafer (anonymous) on August 25, 2008 at 8:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It might have done Pat Kelley's ego a bit of good to speculate that Barack would choose Kathleen Sebelius as his running mate, but such a selection would make no political sense at all.
1. If he had chosen Sebelius I think a large number of Hillary Clinton supporters would have asked the inevitable question - "if you were going to choose a woman, why didn't you choose Hillary??
2. Barack Obama is having great difficulty with blue collar Americans, even blue collar Democrats. Fairly or not, he is being perceived as an elitist. If he had chosen Sebelius I think that tag would have been magnified. I just don't believe that she could connect with blue collar Americans. Keep in mind that Hillary Clinton convincingly won swing states like Ohio, Pennsylvania in the primaries. Part of the reason was her appeal to blue collar folks. Could you picture Kathleen Sebelius downing shots chased by a bottle of Rolling Rock? I doubt it. I think that's one of the reasons Obama chose Biden. I think HRC would have been a better choice, but Biden does have appeal with the blue collar voters.
People can say all they want that it would be unfair to vote based on perceptions, but the truth is we almost always are driven far more by perceptions than we are by intellect.
3. Kansas represents 6 electoral votes. The winner of Michigan gets 17, Pennsylvania 21, Ohio 20. Kansas will in all likelihood vote Republican in the general election. Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania are up for grabs. If you were the canidate would you be running to Emporia, Kansas to have Pat Kelley fawn all over you? There's no way. It would make no political sense. The Gazette needs to come to grips with the idea that they're little more than a footnote in this political drama.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on August 25, 2008 at 9:39 a.m. (Suggest removal)
netloafer: You are absolutely correct in your analysis of Mrs. Sebelius. She would have added nothing to the ticket (not even Kansas' 6 electoral votes) since she has no foreign policy or Washington experience. It has been 48 years since a vice presidential candidate effected an election (Lyndon Johnson turned Texas from Nixon to Kennedy, which was the margin of victory). The first (and some think the only) rule for a veep candidate is to be sure that he doesn't hurt the presidential candidate. I think that Bill Clinton and George Bush both had it right - pick a candidate (Gore and Cheney) who you feel compatible with and who would make a good president. Both of these presidents included their vice presidents in the process of governing, which has served us well. When Truman ascended, he had not talked to the president since inaugural day and had no preparation for the job. The vice presidency is actually a legislative job (his only constitutional role is to be President of the Senate and his paycheck comes from the Senate), but the Clinton and Bush models, if continued, will serve us well someday. Somehow I doubt that Biden and Obama are as compatible as Clinton and Gore, or Bush and Cheney, were. Maybe McCain can do better.
Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on August 25, 2008 at 9:58 a.m. (Suggest removal)
It will be interesting to see whether Joe Biden, who is a candidate for re-election to the Senate from Delaware, will withdraw from that race. I doubt that he has enough confidence in an Obama victory to do that. There may have been others, but the only vice presidential candidate that I know about who was in a similar position was Lyndon Johnson, who was re-elected to the Senate from Texas on the same day that he was elected vice president. If Biden follows Johnson's lead, he will do a disservice to Delaware voters if he is elected vice president because the choice for a senator will be taken from the voters and given to the Governor of Delaware solely. What Biden decides to do will be very informative about his confidence in Obama's winning, and insightful into his character.
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