August 20, 2008
Now that the primaries are over we have our menu selection for the general election in the fall. The presidential race has overshadowed all of the other races. However, we do have some interesting state races on the November 4th ballot, although it is not as combative a year as the gubernatorial years. We Alabamians long for and get more involved in gubernatorial races than presidential contests. I suppose our forefathers predicted this when they decided to put the majority of the big state races on the ballot in gubernatorial years. In two years we will elect a new governor as well as all constitutional offices and all 140 seats in the legislature.
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August 13, 2008
During the summer I have been traveling around the state talking with civic clubs about Alabama politics. With it being a presidential year, an obvious topic of discussion is the presidential contest. However, invariably the first question asked is who is going to make the Governor’s race in two years. Alabamians love the gubernatorial year. The presidential years are simply spring training for the real marquee event.
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August 06, 2008
All the national polling data this year points to the economy as being the major issue on voters’ minds. The prevailing issue of the War in Iraq is a distant second. However, you would never know that Alabama was even a part of the nation if you perused the ads in the congressional races this year.
July 23, 2008
When we Alabamians change course politically we go from one extreme to the other. The facts are obvious. From 1916 through 1960 we voted for a Democrat for President all 44 years, 12 out of 12. We were a Yellow Dog Democratic state. That phrase was coined because of the analogy that Alabamians would vote for a yellow dog, if he was on the ballot, over any Republican.
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July 16, 2008
The protracted Democratic Presidential Race is finally over. Freshman Illinois Senator Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee. The 46 year old will be the first African American to be the presidential nominee of one of the two major parties.
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July 09, 2008
Most political observers including myself have never seen a Governor in his second term work as hard as Gov. Bob Riley. The Constitution prohibits Riley from running for a third term but you would never know that when you look at him everyday. He is in full campaign mode. His ubiquitous daily schedule points to a person running for reelection.
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July 02, 2008
When California Democrat Nancy Pelosi took the oath as the first female Speaker of the House it garnered enormous nationwide media attention. The fact that a woman was second in line to succession to the presidency brought attention to the fact that women are taking their rightful place in politics. It is a trend that will not dissipate but will continue to emerge.
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June 25, 2008
The American electorate blamed the great depression on the Republican Party. Herbert Hoover’s cavalier laissez faire attitude seared a burning resentment into the souls of a citizenry in which half of its brethren were out of work and standing in food lines for a bowl of soup. Out of the ashes of the worst financial disaster in U.S. history arose one Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with a bold ambitious and audacious plan called the New Deal.
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June 18, 2008
Now that the dust has settled from the June 3rd primaries, the news is there is no news. There were very few surprises. The results came out almost as predicted. The turnout was dismal probably due to the fact there were very few high profile races on the ballot and our presidential preference primary being held in February siphoned off the appeal that race would have offered.
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June 04, 2008
Many of you have wondered about my prognosis in last week’s column that Barack Obama would probably not win the presidency, although he has all but wrapped up the Democratic nomination. The reasoning is based on the fact that we do not have a direct election of the president in this country. The person who gets the most votes does not necessarily win the White House.
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