Politics

With state and national elections a week away, two of the state's best-known political commentators brought their insights and good-natured ribbing for one another to the Danville Country Club on Monday for the Danville-Boyle County Chamber of Commerce Public Policy Series luncheon.  Louisville attorney and right-leaning columnist John David Dyche and longtime Courier-Journal political reporter and opinion page fixture Al Cross reprised roles as...

It's like a job interview. And 15 candidates will be available tonight for voters to question during the candidates forum at the Clark County Cooperative Extension Office. The event begins at 6:30 p.m. and features four different political races and a question-and-answer session on the Nov. 6 ballot question. After a short welcome, the U.S. House of Representatives District 6 race kicks things off at 6:40 p.m. Challenger Andy Barr has agreed to attend while incumbent Ben Chandler will be represented by state auditor Adam Edelen.

This is the season political junkies live for. Presidential elections, with all of their twists and turns, polls and prognostications, are what partisans crave.  The most recent debate between Gov. Romney and President Obama was - if little else - great political theater. I must admit, it was fun - at least for a moment.   But most Americans are not enjoying their current economic lives.  Around 23 million are struggling to find employment. Gas prices are off the charts.

That's the way it should be. To follow, form an opinion about, and discuss politics is a fundamental principle of democracy. And it's fun. We love the “srategery,” (real word, look it up) broo-haw and pageantry. Said broo-haw has been going on as long as people have been getting along. At the next session of the library's Meeting of Minds at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 30, in the library community room, we'll carry on that great tradition. In September, group member Harry Enoch turned us on to a wonderful collection of videos, available free online, by Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel.

Two local students will be on prime-time television as part of a youth panel discussing political issues the night of the Oct. 11 vice-presidential debate at Centre College. Maya Craig-Lauer, 17, a senior at Danville High School, and Eric Hagan, 17, a senior at Boyle County High School, are two of six student panelists who will tape the “Student Voices - Election 2012” show today.  The Kentucky Educational Television program, moderated by Rene Shaw, will be broadcast just before the airing of the vice-presidential debate.

I was beginning to have a little respect for Roger Bowman, but after his latest tirade against American values, he is back to square one - maybe minus one. I thoroughly respect and defend Bowman's right to express his opinion, but I am thoroughly disgusted by his opinion.  Bowman asks what difference it makes where Obama was born. Our Constitution says that the president must be “a natural born citizen, at least 35 years of age and have been a resident of this country for at least 14 years previous to election”  - that's why!

Are you already sick of politics, and it is not even November? I often wish there were no party affiliations at times because I think people would actually vote by their heart and not their party. I also think people would vote for what is right when it comes to moral issues such as abortion and other issues. However, some people wouldn't vote any other way except the way their mammy or pappy always voted, no matter what the issues are or how bad things become.  I have voted several times outside my party in my lifetime.

How much are you willing to ignore and how much are you willing to accept - all to ensure your chosen party's victory this November? Are you willing to allow your party to “jump the shark”? Forgive the dated cliché, but it was used by presidential candidate Mitt Romney's pollster Neil Newhouse to describe critics of Paul Ryan's Republican National Convention speech last week. “Fact-checkers come to this with their own sets of thoughts and beliefs,” Newhouse said.

We are just over two months away from the general election, and locally, all the races are set. We've got seven candidates on the ballot for the four Nicholasville City Commission slots, seven candidates vying for the Wilmore City Council seats, a state representative's race, one contested school-board race, a commission-versus-council form of government matchup for the city of Nicholasville and a three-way battle for the Jessamine County Soil and...

Two area men are among the thousands of political movers and shakers forced to wait out weather that forced the postponement of the first day of the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. Dr. Naren James of Stanford and Garrard County Attorney Mark Metcalf of Lancaster, both alternate delegates representing Kentucky, arrived in Florida to find Monday's festivities were a wash because Tropical Storm Isaac was still churning off shore. Although James had spent more time in his hotel room than expected, he described the intermittent rain, wind and glimpses of sunshine Monday as typical Florida weather.