By Lewis Diuguid, Kansas City Star Editorial Page columnist
The pack of people running for president has thinned in the year since a Wednesday morning Brookside men’s coffee group told me what they’d like to see in a good candidate.
Push out the political handlers and spin doctors. Strip the last three candidates of those candy wrappers, and key virtues surface for these discerning voters, including character, depth, integrity and insight.
The men who meet now at the Oak Street Coffee House said they wanted the next president to be able to navigate ambiguity, paradox and not ignore the many domestic and international shades of gray. The men have followed the debates and forums.
They know the issues espoused by Sen. John McCain, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party; and Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, each vying for the Democratic Party nomination.
The men also were clear on what they didn’t like. The U.S. doesn’t need another “decider,” or George W. Bush.
Bush has capriciously created domestic and international messes for the next president to clean up. Education is in tatters largely because of the No Child Left Behind law, which Bush has made a signature part of his administration.
Mike Lawler said educators in schools call it “the No Teacher Left Standing” law, because it diminishes what teachers try to do to get children to be lifelong learners and critical thinkers and leaves educators feeling embattled and alone. They’ve been reduced to teaching to tests, giving standardized tests and students to regurgitating the answers.
It’s great if the goal is to create an unthinking population. But it is setting the country up for failure in the highly competitive global marketplace.
Social Security, Medicare, welfare reform, immigration, dependence on foreign oil and the economy are on a collision course with disaster. So are the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. involvement in torture, global warming and the sorry view the world has of the U.S.
What the men made clear was they didn’t think Clinton had the political capital to clean up the mess. Clinton’s vote for the war in Iraq was what Don McGuire called “a deal killer.” McCain troubled the men, too. He’s a Vietnam War veteran, a former prisoner of war and an American hero.
“I would like McCain if we weren’t in a war,” Kent Comfort said. “He sees things in the eyes of a military man. He’s very outspoken about our need to stay in war until we win. Defining ‘win’ is a moving target.”
Mike Shea questioned McCain’s “intellectual horsepower” to discern nuances.
“It’s an either-or, right-or-wrong, black-or-white look at the world,” Shea said. “There is a lot of gray in the world; there’s a lot of ambiguity; there’s a lot of paradox.
“Most elected officials are not comfortable with paradox.”
The group thought Obama could handle the problems Bush has created, navigate the ambiguity, work with people with opposing views and elevate the nation back to a position of high esteem in the eyes of Americans and the world.
“This is a lot of inference on my part, but I see him as a man who is, because of his experience, at least positioned to intellectually and emotionally understand paradox and diametrically opposed points of view and resolve them or lead the process of resolving them,” Shea said.
Obama’s popularity and delegate lead over Clinton show that a lot of people feel the same way.
Lewis W. Diuguid is a member of The Star’s Editorial Board. To reach him, call (816) 234-4723 or send e-mail to .
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Ambiguity?
"The group thought Obama could handle the problems Bush has created, navigate the ambiguity, work with people with opposing views and elevate the nation back to a position of high esteem in the eyes of Americans and the world.
Did anyone give any examples of when Obama has actually done this? That's the media driven narrative that doesn't jive with reality.
I heard a little mousie squeaking
Listen Inter Flop how do you think this "long road to legalization" will be enforced, given the level of enforcement we are seeing now of existing law? Oops!
What a red herring. The last time Bush, McCain, and other RINO's introduced "Comprehensive" reform, it made all the illegal aliens, legal immigrants instantly.
Irate Americans shut down all the Congressional switch boards with their phone calls.
ETL (enforce the law) and close down the borders.
Amnesty?
Some folks are against a bugbear called "amnesty," but as I've noted before, a path to legalization isn't the same thing as "amnesty."
"65% of voters would be willing to support a compromise including a “very long path to citizenship” provided that “the proposal required the aliens to pay fines and learn English” and that the compromise “would truly reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the country.” The proposal, specifically described as a compromise, was said to include “strict employer penalties for hiring illegal aliens, building a barrier along the Mexican border and other steps to significantly reduce the number of illegal aliens entering the United States.”"
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/just_26_favor_senate_immigration_plan
Another war looming on immigration with new president
Senator Obama wants to talk about illegal immigration, which at least shows he is not shying away from this explosive subject. McCain plays around the issue and Madam Clinton says little or nothing at all? Yet, with both Obama and Hillary, you really do know where the 80 percent of the American people stand. Whoever takes Bush's place will push for an AMNESTY. But they realize that it is going to be a behemoth of a battle royal, because THE PEOPLE are learning the consequences of such a decision? Obama keeps on talking about change and rebuilding the distressed economy. But much of depleted economy is directly caused by the propagation of millions of illegal families, soaking up our social services meant for citizens.
America was promised in 1986, that after the Simpson/ Mazzoli bill was passed, that AMNESTY would never appear for a vote in Congress. Senator Ted Kennedy gave his word, but as you know this March without sources within the Capitol. Taxpayers would have found themselves drowning in more taxes, to support the hundreds of thousands of predator business who believe their above the law.
McCain has given a commitment to 'secure the borders' but can the man and women in the street trust him. He stood beside a delegation of Democrats and some Republicans, including Ted Kennedy, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, to shove another AMNESTY down the taxpayers throat. Of late the same commitment was moved towards the floor of the house, but there was such a public uproar, that Senator Harry Reid removed the disturbing addendum. It had been added, quite unnoticed if not , secretively into the Iraq War appropriation funding bill. The question to answer is, how can such a piece of federal legislation as this get past any scrutiny? The fact is---a unknown quantity of documentation never gets read. For instance the Comprehensive Immigration law, that was luckily demolished in the March, could have been catastrophic for our taxes.
It will be a war that citizens and legal residents will have to wage, whoever first steps into the Oval office. But as more of the population become to understand that their cannot be any compromise? No options and certainly no exceptions to the 'Rule of Law' The magnet is of course jobs. Americans however are being skewered daily by the business world. For about forty years since the inception of the 1986 AMNESTY, predator employers have enjoyed unceasing profits on the backs of illegal immigrants. Farmers have had a furiously appetite for cheap labor. Never once thinking of the implications to decades of middle class taxpayers, who unknowingly paid for the support of low income labor.
This quote informs of programs that illegal aliens can access.
About 30 percent of all immigrants in the U.S. work force in 2005 lacked a high school education, which is four times the rate for native-born Americans. Among the largest group of working-age immigrants, the Mexicans, 62 percent have less than a high-school education, which means they work low-wage jobs. Nearly half of immigrant households, 45 percent, are in or near poverty compared with 29 percent of native-headed households. Among Mexicans living in the United States, nearly two-thirds live in or near the government's definition of poverty.
Costly social benefits provided to the working poor include Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (now called TANF, formerly AFDC), food stamps, school lunches, Medicaid, WIC (nutrition for Women, Infants and Children), public housing and Supplemental Security Income.
The Earned Income Tax Credit is one of the most expensive parts of income redistribution. Twice as many immigrant households (30 percent) qualify for this cash handout as native-headed households (15 percent).
Health care is another huge cost. Nearly half of immigrants are either uninsured or on Medicaid, which is nearly double the rate for native-born families. Federal law requires hospitals to treat all comers to emergency rooms, even if uninsured and unable to pay.
Hospitals try to shift the costs onto their paying patients, and when the hospitals exhaust their ability to do this, they close their doors. In Los Angeles, 60 hospitals have closed their emergency rooms over the past decade, which imposes another kind of cost.
Immigration accounts for nearly all the growth in elementary and secondary school enrollment over the past generation. The children of immigrants now comprise 19 percent of the school-age population and 21 percent of the preschool population.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=65014
If you are pro-illegal immigrant consider this? The taxpayers are the ones who bare this massive burden and yet many have no health care for themselves. Even those who do, can find themselves in bankruptcy court and possibly find a lien on their homes, while illegal alien walk off completely free of any bill. The most outrageous thing about this issue, the parasite business pays absolutely nothing towards the hospital care.
A fact that has not likely to be broadcasted yet, by the suppressed media. Arizona had been an carrying an illegal immigration impediment as a border state for decades. It has been heavily infested by the occupation and it's safety net resources for citizens was being depleted. There is a different situation today as under the enactment of employer sanctions laws and questioning of people by the Arizona police departments. In quick secession hundreds perhaps thousands of illegal alien families are leaving. With our country heading or already in recession the jobs are not there anymore. Certainly not for illegal foreign nationals, when legal people are unemployed. These people decided that packing their belongings and heading for California, Utah or Texas or other states, may be their best option. California still accepting illegal aliens and there extended families was still an open door, with 'Special order 40' a police policy that allowed no questioning by police when an individual committed or was suspect in a crime. Special Order 40 deterrent has come under close scrutiny, by law abiding citizens. The violent death of Jamiel Shaw at the hands of a Los Angeles gang member, without any motive has activated a kind of mini revolution, to rescind this dangerous law. It has brought the growth of gangs throughout the city, and it's spread to the suburbs. When police have been unable to ask individuals their immigration status, after being released from jail, they have been able to return to their unholy abode. thousands of innocent ghost haunt the streets of the city, where they had been murdered for just being in that place. Other than well lit city centers people do not venture out after nightfall. LA has become a hub for gangs of human garbage, that has stolen into America.
Los Angeles county has pandered to illegal immigration, the same as San Francisco. It is been overrun by people that have taken advantage of our health, education and other citizen programs. Where do you think the illegal immigrants are fleeing to, that have left Arizona? On the other hand, with the new predator employment sanction laws being enforced, enforced Arizona is finding a most agreeable resurrection from the pestilence that had fed of the social welfare programs. The state has watched in amazement as highways have become less congested, the emergency rooms not crowded with foreign nationals getting free health care and the schools occupants have suddenly thinned out, and children getting more attention. These are just a few of the economic upturns, since illegal families started fleeing. Who knows their destination California or may be...Utah? Other state are already following Arizona sudden rebound, including Georgia, Oklahoma, Missouri and Rhode Island. If you like the designation of a 'Sanctuary city' or sanctuary state, keep pandering to the special interest lobby. Read about Arizona's sudden turn-around at ( (http://mensnewsdaily.com/2008/05/15/striking-changes-in-arizona-as-illegal-immigrants-flee-the-state/#comment-62672 ) More intelligence for you to absorb. (http://www.newswithviews.com/Stuter/stuter125.htm) Se unsuppressed details at NUMBERSUSA.
In conclusion, the individuals are upset that people like me supposedly use Illegal aliens as scrapgoats, when the real culprits are the employers.