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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May 28, 2008
Unless you are a political junkie you probably have already grown weary of this year’s drawn out presidential race, which is on course to be the longest and most expensive on record. It has been raging for well over a year and we still have five months to go before the final verdict.
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May 21, 2008
There is a famous quote, attributed to the famous British Prime Minister Disraeli, which has been around for years. It basically goes like this, “You don’t ever want to see sausage or laws being made. You may like the results, but not the process.” No truer maxim was ever spoken. However, for the second straight year you would not be offended by the Alabama Senate because essentially no sausage or legislation was produced.
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May 14, 2008
Congressional seats are almost equivalent to federal judgeships. As you know, federal jurists are appointed for life. Congressmen run every two years but in reality they basically have lifetime tenure. Members of Congress stay practically as long as they want. The system heavily favors incumbents. With the inherent advantages congressional incumbents enjoy they are seldom seriously challenged. Therefore, it is rare when a seat comes open and is doubly rare that we have two seats open in Alabama this year.
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May 08, 2008
The 2008 Legislative Session is in its waning days, yet very little has been accomplished. The budgets are still awaiting action. The partisan acrimony persists. It is basically a carbon copy of last year’s wasted session. The Senate’s partisan battle has stymied any legislative progress or achievement for at least two years of this four year quadrennium.
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