District makes tough decision - Community Shoppers, Inc.

JANESVILLE
6 MESSENGER ■ Sunday, September 14, 2008
communityshoppers.com
PERSPECTIVES
T HE WAY WE SEE IT
Left takes
aim at Palin
V
oters can expect attacks on Republican
vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin
to intensify in coming weeks. For the
American left and its willing accomplices in the
elite media, Palin is the most dangerous political
figure since the transformative Ronald
Reagan — fresh from making hash of the largebrained
Jimmy Carter — ushered in the conservative
revolution of the 1980s.
Palin, 44, the
reform-minded
Alaskan governor, is
an accomplished,
articulate, freshfaced
mother of five,
and she is, of
course, conservative.
Our view
■ Self-described “hockey
mom” might be the real
transformative figure in this
year’s presidential campaign.
She manages an $11 billion budget and 15,000
state employees. Hers is the kind of political
resume liberals covet for their candidate, former
community organizer Barack (middle name
omitted) Obama.
Should John McCain win the presidency in
November, Palin immediately stands a better
chance than any woman before her, including
Hillary Clinton, of being the first female president
in the country’s history. This is intolerable
for liberals, whose identity-politics dogma
rejects the very notion that a woman like Palin
— with blue collar roots and a pregnant teenage
daughter — would choose the Republican Party
over the party of caterwauling feminist entitlement.
Thus we’ve had to witness an unprecedented
and sexist media/Internet assault on Palin and
her family. Smear merchants have questioned
her commitment to motherhood, they’ve assailed
her hairstyle and wardrobe, they’ve questioned
her husband’s drinking habits, sneered at her
working-class background and lied with
Clintonesque aplomb about her record.
For her part, Palin has held up remarkably
well; if she manages to further establish herself
as a consequential political leader and helps her
party retain the White House, the effects of
John McCain’s bold decision to put her on the
ticket likely will reverberate long after the
November election.
And that, to be sure, is a nightmare scenario
for American liberals, who see Palin and still
can’t quite believe their eyes.
M ESSENGER MAILBAG
For rest of the world, Obama intrigues, not Palin
While Americans are just getting ready
for the presidential campaign with the two
contenders receiving their party nominations,
and while the race seen from here is
extremely close, foreigners seem to think it
already is over, with Democratic candidate
Barack Obama the landslide winner.
The encomiums in the foreign media
have called Obama variously “the black
Kennedy,” “the new Abraham Lincoln,” “the
new Mandela,” “the new Dalai Lama” and
even “Tony Blair of 11 years ago.”
Obama struck a strong chord overseas,
even before he won the Democratic primaries,
because there are so few examples of an
ethnic minority reaching the highest pinnacle
of government in other countries.
Although the United States has never elevated
a woman to the White House, much
of the rest of the world has long been used
to female presidents, prime ministers,
empresses and monarchs.
Obama’s novelty value is such that the
foreign media immediately dropped Hillary
Clinton like a sack of potatoes as soon as
the primary season got under way. And
there is not much chance that they will be
YOUR TURN:
Joanne
Anderson
Janesville
I think it was a
mistake because
she doesn’t have
that much
experience. I think
she’s an attractive
woman, but we need
more than that.
‘Untested’ Obama
HELLE ELLE DALE ALE
HERITAGE FOUNDATION
impressed by Republican candidate John
McCain’s choice of a woman to share his
ticket. Not only is Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
too conservative for many of America’s critics,
but most foreign media invariably side
with the Democratic contender.
For many outside the United States, the
idea of a female political leader is not nearly
as exotic as it is for Americans. Foreign
visitors to America often ask why this is so
— usually with an undertone that this
great country is at heart male chauvinist,
as well as racist (both notions have taken a
real blow in this election cycle). Mrs.
Clinton has spoken about finally breaking
through the glass ceiling after the “18 million
cracks” she made in this hypothetical
structure by winning so many votes in the
Democratic primaries. But abroad, women
leaders are far from a new phenomenon.
What’s your impression of GOP vice presidential
nominee Sarah Palin?
Lisa
Brown
Fort Atkinson
I think she’s
generated a lot of
excitement. She
adds a lot to the
ticket. She’s a new
and fresh face. I
think it was a very
good move.
To the editor:
Earlier this year, Sen. Barack
Obama finally repudiated the Rev.
Jeremiah Wright’s anti-American,
anti-white and anti-Israel sermons,
because Obama had to do it to save
his presidential campaign.
Wright repeatedly used these sermons
over the past 20 years at the
Trinity United Church of Christ,
where Obama has been a member for
the 20 years. Obama had to hear
these sermons, or likely discussed
them with other members of the
church, but he did not leave the
church, he did not question Wright
and his sermons, and he did not
counter the sermons in any way.
Wright stated the U.S. invented
HIV to wipe out blacks, the U.S. committed
terrorism when we dropped
the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and the U.S. brought on
the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks because of
our foreign policy. Wright also asked
God to damn America. Wright endorses
Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the
Nation of Islam, who is an extremist
Mary
Hunt
Janesville
She believes in all
the things I don’t
believe in, and
doesn’t believe in
the things I do
believe in. That does
not attract me.
spewing hateful remarks about
whites, females, Catholics, Jews and
gays.
Do we want an inexperienced and
untested president who will just sit
and listen to — and appease — the
anti-U.S. rants of Ahmadinejad,
Assad, Chavez, Castro and Kim Jong
Il? Do we want a novice dealing with
China and Russia?
Donald A. Moskowitz
Londonderry, N.H.
Putting health first
To the editor:
Hhffrrrggh’s bar and restaurant in
Janesville recently reopened after
renovation and now is smoke free! We
want to be the first to say thank you
to the owners for putting their
patrons’ and their workers’ health
first when it comes to the dangers of
second-hand smoke.
Everyone deserves the right to
breathe clean, smoke-free air at work.
What’s more, now people in Janesville
can enjoy a night out with good food
and good friends without inhaling a
Europe has had many strong female leaders,
such as Elizabeth I of England, Queen
Victoria and Catherine the Great of Russia,
going back to times when monarchs really
counted. Today, Denmark and the
Netherlands have queens who have served
with distinction. But the most powerful
modern female leaders have been those
holding elected office. One immediately
thinks of Margaret Thatcher in Britain and
Angela Merkel in Germany. But France,
Norway, Turkey and others have had
female prime ministers. In Denmark, a
woman is the leader of the opposition. And
in other parts of the world, the phenomenon
is widespread. One has only to think of
Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Benazir Bhutto
and Corazon Aquino to mention a few.
As for Obama, what the world finds so
fascinating by his presidential campaign is
the fact that it is, in fact, unique. In no
European country, nor in most of the world,
has a minority candidate achieved the necessary
cross-over to be a contender for the
highest office in the land. While Europe is
still struggling to integrate its racial, ethnic
and religious minorities, the United States
Brad
Larson
Janesville
I love her. I just think
she gets it. I see
leadership in that
gal — she can get it
done.
Letters guidelines:
Holli
Grams
Janesville
She’s very down to
earth, and someone
I can relate to as far
as her family life and
kids are concerned.
■ No longer than 250 words.
■ All letters are subject to editing for spelling, grammar,
length.
■ No personal attacks or letters related to personal
disputes.
■ Daytime phone number needed for verification.
This also applies to e-mail submissions.
■ Limit of one per month.
■ Please note that we may not be able to print
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■ Send to: Managing Editor, P.O. Box 367, Delavan,
WI 53115. E-mail letters to
bheisel@communityshoppers.com.
toxic cloud of cigarette smoke.
I hope everyone in Janesville who
supports a statewide smoke-free bill
will show their support for
Hhffrrrggh’s by giving them some
added business, and proving that having
smokers step outside to light up is
both good for health and good for
business!
Annette Baker
Youth2Youth Coalition
Rock County
American Heart Association
Janesville Division
has moved way ahead.
For those who observe American politics
up close, Obama’s rise is not that surprising.
The rise of governors from ethnic
minorities is a case in point from Colorado
to Massachusetts to New Mexico and
Louisiana. And Republicans like Clarence
Thomas, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice
have helped pave the way for the presidential
candidate. Americans can be remarkably
colorblind in their selection of leaders.
Yet for the world, Obama has burst on
the scene like a deus ex machine. Right
now, foreigners are living vicariously
through the American election cycle a
dream of racial integration that they themselves
are far from achieving, despite all the
lip service. Whether this image of the
United States will survive the actual election
in November may be somewhat in
doubt if the Obama-Biden ticket goes down
to defeat. Yet for the moment, the United
States has achieved a new status in the
eyes of the world.
Editor’s note: Helle Dale is director of the Douglas and
Sarah Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies at the Heritage
Foundation in Washington, D.C.
■ The Janesville Messenger welcomes issue-oriented letters and guest column submissions for publication on the Perspectives page. Guidelines: Letters no longer than 250 words; all letters are subject to editing for spelling, grammar, length; no personal
attacks or letters related to personal disputes; daytime phone number needed for verification. Guest columns should be approximately 550 to 650 words; not all guest columns will be published; Limit of one letter/column per month. Send to:
Managing Editor, P.O. Box 367, Delavan, WI, 53115. E-mail to bheisel@communityshoppers.com