http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/george-mcgovern-the-man-who-never-gave-up/2012/10/21/fca24da8-1b9d-11e2-ba31-3083ca97c314_story.html

This link from the Washington Post contains an essay by former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole, a stalwart Republican from Kansas.

In this essay he pays tribute to his great friend, the late U.S. Sen. George McGovern, an equally stalwart Democrat from South Dakota.

Dole writes of the genuine affection he had for McGovern. They were friends, whose bond was forged perhaps by their shared World War II experience; McGovern flew a B-24 bomber over Eastern Europe, while Dole was an infantryman in Italy. And with McGovern’s death on Sunday, American politics has lost another champion for the cause of civil discourse. Dole speaks eloquently of his friend and the feelings – dare I say “love” – they had for each other as men, as patriots.

We’re missing that sense of collegiality these days. Adversaries have become enemies. They are demons. I keep harking back to 1994 when the back-bench bomb thrower in chief, Republican U.S. Rep. Newt Gingrich, called Democrats “the enemy of normal Americans.” He parlayed that demonization to the House speakership, to the shame of the system that put him in power.

I’m trying to imagine Bob Dole or George McGovern doing that to each other. These gentlemen took their politics seriously, but also took their roles as Americans even more seriously. They knew enough to remain friends even after quarreling publicly over policy.

I am reminded in the wake of Sen. McGovern’s death of an interview I witnessed on PBS back in 1988. It was on the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour. McGovern was being interviewed with another old warrior, Sen. Barry Goldwater, the conservative icon from Arizona. McGovern and Goldwater also were great friends. They both were WWII aviators. They shared another unique bond: They both lost their presidential campaigns by very large margins to their opponents, McGovern to President Nixon in 1972 and Goldwater to President Johnson in 1964.

They lamented the nastiness of the 1988 campaign. They couldn’t understand why the two parties were so angry with each other. And, yes, these men spoke admiringly of each other throughout the discussion.

At the end of the conversation, Goldwater said to McGovern, “George, why don’t you and I run … as a ticket?” Both men laughed.

Try to imagine such an exchange occurring today.

Tonight’s the night when President Obama and Mitt Romney debate one final time before the Nov. 6 election. The topic will be foreign affairs.

But my friend Cliff and I had a discussion this morning at the Amarillo Town Club about a topic we agree could be woven into the debate: women.

“I would bet you 10 bucks that the topic of women will come up tonight in the foreign policy debate,” Cliff said. I didn’t take the bet, because the moment I began thinking about it, the more plausible the notion became.

We came up with this context:

The discussion will turn quickly to Afghanistan and our ongoing war against the Taliban, who ruled Afghanistan with the heaviest of iron fists for many years before we threw them out of power right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

I can hear the president say something like this: “And let me assure my fellow Americans that our brave men … and women … are fighting for the rights of Afghan women, who for so many years were subjugated as second- or even third-class citizens in their own country. Did I mention that our women are in the battlefield as well?”

Why the interest in women at this debate? The president is seeking to rebuild the narrowing gender gap between him and Romney. Women favor Obama, but by a smaller margin now than they were, say, a month ago. So here’s the president’s chance to score points at home while making an important statement about our nation’s role in the world. Granted, it would take some rhetorical deftness, but of the two, Obama is the more verbally nimble.

Democrats and Republicans are competing vigorously for the women’s vote. You can take this to the bank as well: Both sides are looking for any advantage they can find with that critical voting bloc.

I think my pal Cliff is on to something.

Maybe it was my affinity for the underdog that drew me initially to George McGovern.

But I did admire his conviction and his dedication to fundamentally progressive political principles. He believed government had a role to play in helping people in need. He was fundamentally honest, decent and caring. He also was a heroic figure.

Sen. McGovern – who died Sunday at the age of 90 – ran for president in 1972 and was buried in an electoral landslide by President Nixon. Newly discharged from the Army (two years earlier, actually), I signed on as a volunteer for his campaign in Multnomah County, Ore. I had re-enrolled in college after returning from the service. My task there was to register new voters at the school I attended. My hope was that we could lure prospective Democrats to the polls that November. The Republicans had a similar operation there and they were out in force, as we were.

I do not know how much we accomplished by ourselves in helping Sen. McGovern’s effort in Oregon’s most populous county, but I take a measure of pride in knowing that he actually polled a majority votes in Multnomah County, even as he was losing other one-time Democratic stronghold counties to the Nixon juggernaut.

Mission accomplished.

His campaign for president introduced me, even at the lowly level at which I worked, to the hard-ball aspect of that profession. I witnessed the smearing of this man by his opponents. He opposed the Vietnam War and was called cowardly by his foes. As a returning Vietnam vet, I understood his opposition, as I had no clearer understanding of the nation’s mission there when I came out of the Army than I did when I went in two years earlier. I was confused and sought to express myself by working for McGovern’s campaign.

But what galled me at the time was his campaign’s refusal to rebut directly the implication that he was afraid to fight. He knew first hand about the horror of war. He survived 35 combat missions during World War II at the controls of a U.S. Army Air Force B-24. This courageous bomber pilot knew up close the hazards – and terrible cost – of war. And yet his campaign never sought to set the record straight. He didn’t answer the scurrilous flurry of innuendo launched against him.

I think I have to come to understand why he remained silent. It is because true-blue heroes don’t talk about those things.

George McGovern was an honorable man who stood tall among those who comprised The Greatest Generation.

I’m curious about something. Does it really matter these days what a newspaper editorial page says about a political contest?

Endorsements for president are coming out now. One of them has surprised me. It comes from the Salt Lake Tribune, in the heart of Mormonland, aka Utah. The Tribune endorsed President Obama over Mitt Romney, the man who saved the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and a lifelong member of the Mormon Church. The Tribune’s reason? There have been too many Romneys, owing to the remarkable change of heart he’s had on some key issues. My bet is that the Deseret News, Salt Lake’s other paper – the one owned by the church – will back Romney.

Take a look at the Tribune’s editorial here. Be advised: It’s a long one.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/55019844-82/endorsement-romney-obama-president.html.csp

The Dallas Morning News the other day endorsed Romney for president. The News’ rationale is simple: Obama’s had his chance and he hasn’t done the job of turning the economy around.

I toiled on editorial pages exclusively for nearly three decades. I long ago lost count of the number of editorial endorsements I’ve written. But of late I’ve wondered about whether they matter.

Newspaper editors say they don’t intend to get people to vote the way they recommend. I’ve said it, too. But I’ve been thinking about that. If so, then why even bother? If it doesn’t matter what newspaper editorial boards say about political races, then why waste the space and expend the effort it takes to tell people what you think?

In this age of instant info and opinion – and age of cable news channels’ mixing of news and opinion and, indeed, presenting opinion as news while hoping no one can tell the difference – newspaper endorsements have become something of a relic.

I’m going to ask for some feedback on that one. I’d be quite interested in learning what others think of endorsements and whether anyone’s opinion on a political race ever has been swayed by what they’ve read on a newspaper editorial page.

An answer to that final question – about being swayed – will require a huge dose of honesty. Any takers?

I’m a political junkie and I must admit to some envy at those who live in those “battleground states” where the presidential campaigns have been spending all that time – and money – trying to win those states for their candidates.

The campaign’s final two weeks will be spent in basically four states: Iowa, Wisconsin, Virginia and Ohio. Throw in occasional visits to Florida and Colorado and you’ll see where this election will be decided. The rest of the nation? Forget about it.

Texas never really became a battleground state. It once was heavily Democratic. It’s now even more heavily Republican. The beginning of that dramatic swing is open to some debate. Some argue it occurred way back in 1961, when Republican John Tower was elected to the U.S. Senate after Lyndon Johnson became vice president. The momentum picked up a huge head of steam in 1978 with the election of Republican Bill Clements as governor. And it’s been on a headlong rush toward the GOP ever since.

I would love to see Texas become a battleground state that commands the attention of the candidates for president. Democratic presidential candidates come here only to raise money at those high-dollar fundraising events. Republicans, with their death grip on every statewide office, come here even less frequently. Why bother raising money they know is going to pour in already from Texas?

Statewide census trends foretell a probable shift. The state’s Latino population – which tends to vote Democrat – is growing at a much greater rate than other demographic groups. And that brings into play the state’s large 38-vote Electoral College treasure, a number that figures to grow after the 2020 census.

Although the state’s political power once rested with the Democrats, let’s understand that traditional Texas Democrats didn’t resemble their current political descendants. No one ever accused Sam Rayburn, LBJ, Lloyd Bentsen, Big John Connally (before he changed parties) or my former congressman, Jack Brooks, of being squishy liberals. Conversely, the modern Texas Republican Party has been commandeered at many levels by some – to borrow a descriptive term – “severely conservative” officeholders who adhere to rigid ideology.

A majority Texans seem to agree with that view, as they keep electing and re-electing these clowns, er, individuals.

Thus, Democratic Party moguls have given up on Texas and their Republican Party brethren have taken the state for granted.

I hope I live long enough to see the day when that changes and Texas can command the kind of attention that little ol’ Iowa and other puny states are getting.

U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry delivered some words of wisdom to the Rotary Club of Amarillo: If someone tells you something is true because they saw it on the Internet, do some factchecking before drawing such a conclusion.

Thornberry’s remarks should ring true in this age of instant communication. It’s the product of the Internet and the proliferation of media, many of which have a political axe to grind.

Thornberry, a Republican from Clarendon who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 1995, cited Rotary’s Four-Way Test – which is a sort of code of conduct for Rotarians – the first of which asks: Is it the truth? In this age of instant information, Thornberry has concluded that whatever he hears isn’t always necessarily the truth. Instead, it is someone’s version of the truth.

Emails get distributed instantly around the world with assertions about all manner of things. One of the examples Thornberry cited Thursday involved President Obama. An email has been bouncing around that says the president has issued more than 900 executive orders during his term in office. Not true, Thornberry said, adding that Obama has issued a little more than 100 such orders, which is “about normal” for a president.

The Information Age can be described as the Disinformation Age, given all the bogus information that gets passed around as “fact.”

Allow me some candor here: So much of it in recent years has sought to demonize Barack Obama with filthy innuendo and outright smears.

What I’ve learned in my professional life is that one man’s fact is another man’s propaganda. Thus, I’ve learned the hard way to believe only a tiny fraction of whatever I see on the Internet. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve cringed at the words, “I know it’s true because I read it on the Internet.”

Thornberry’s message was a measured, reasoned response to the proliferation of malarkey (to borrow a phrase from Vice President Biden) that is littering cyberspace at this very moment.

I’m reminded of what an investigative reporter once told a meeting of journalists at an Investigative Reporters and Editors conference I attended in the 1970s. “If your mother tells you she loves you,” he said, “check it out.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/10/18/mitt-romney-is-winning-the-white-vote-by-a-lot/?Post+generic=%3Ftid%3Dsm_twitter_washingtonpost

It’s troubling to read stories such as the one posted on this link, about how white and non-white are deeply split in this country.

The first African-American ever elected president is seeking re-election and surveys indicate that his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney, is winning the white vote by margins rivaling those rolled up by the late Ronald Reagan.

Barack Obama’s election in 2008 was supposed to signal some transformational moment, or so many of us believed – and hoped. He won with 53 percent of the total vote over Sen. John McCain. Obama had campaigned as someone who could bridge the racial divide. If the current poll numbers are accurate – and I tend to believe them – then the president hasn’t built that bridge. Or, perhaps forces greater than any single politician are tearing them down.

I’ve noted already that the diversity gap between the Republican and Democratic national conventions told the story of the parties’ composition. The Rs’ convention in Tampa was overwhelmingly white, with a smattering of blacks and Latinos. The Ds’ convention in Charlotte – to my eyes, at least – exhibited much greater racial diversity. I don’t know what that means, except that the Republican Party remains a haven for white voters while non-white Americans are drawn to the Democrats.

Which party, therefore, is more representative of a country that has a tradition of welcoming people of all races?

I love boxing analogies as they relate to politics.

Here is my take on last night’s Round Two of the Barack Obama-Mitt Romney series of fights.

If it had gone on another, oh, 10 minutes, moderator Candy Crowley might have had to stop the contest on a technical knockout. The Republican challenger, Romney, had more or less held his own for most of the 90-minute bout. Then came a couple of key moments that provided the president the opening he needed to finish strong.

Romney got a question about whether women should be paid equally with men when they do the same job as their male counterparts. He talked at some length about how as governor of Massachusetts he sought female applicants for staff jobs. He didn’t deal directly with the question: Do you support pay equity? Obama teed that one up. He talked about his signing of the Lillie Ledbetter Act, which mandates equal pay for equal work. Do you think undecided female voters took note of that? Of course they did.

Then Romney stepped in it once again on Libya. He accused the president of playing politics with the tragic attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi and the deaths of four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. He said it took Obama two weeks to declare that it was an act of terror. Wrong. Crowley corrected Romney, noting that Obama made that declaration the very next day at the White House. Obama then turned to Romney and said it was “offensive” to assume that “anyone on my time” would play politics with such a tragedy. “That’s not what I do as president. That’s not what I do as commander in chief,” Obama said while glaring at the pretender, er, contender.

And then Obama finished with his sole reference to Romney’s infamous “47-percent” remark, made in the spring during a fundraiser in Florida. You remember that, right? Romney said 47 percent of voters are dependent on government, they’re “victims” and those are the folks who’ll back Obama’s re-election no matter what Romney says or does. Obama unloaded a flurry of rhetorical punches, declaring that many of those among the 47 percent are students trying to obtain student loans, “heroes” returning from the battlefield in search of starting new lives as civilians, people who depend on Social Security or Medicare.

I have to agree with the likes of George Will and Chris Matthews – one conservative pundit, one liberal – who said this presidential debate was the best they’d ever seen.

I am sure my Republican friends will take serious issue with me on this blog post. They’ll say the president’s economic record stinks. They’ll accuse him of covering up what happened in Benghazi. Fine. We’ll still be friends … I hope.

I can’t wait for the bell to ring for Round Three next week.

Mitt Romney’s famous about faces on key issues has many tongues wagging as the presidential campaign heads for the home stretch.

* He once believed that humans caused climate change; now he says it’s bunk.

* Mitt once thought we could institute “reasonable” controls on guns; he now opposes that, too.

* Romney rammed through a comprehensive health care reform for his state, which served as the model for President Obama’s own national program; now he wants to repeal “Obamacare.”

* Romney once espoused a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion; he now vows to select judges who would repeal Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion in this country.

But he’s not the first Republican politician to switch so dramatically, particularly on abortion.

My favorite GOP flip-flopper is the 41st president of the U.S., George H.W. Bush.

Let’s flash back to 1980. Ronald Reagan was about to be nominated for president by the Republican Party. The Gipper was shopping around for a running mate. He actually negotiated with former President Gerald Ford about taking the job; Ford declined, not wanting to play second fiddle to the guy who almost defeated him for the GOP nomination in 1976.

So, Reagan turned to Bush. One little problem emerged, though. Bush was strongly pro-choice. Were he to take the job as Reagan’s VP, he’d have to change his mind on abortion – immediately. Bush did. He became adamantly pro-life the instant he said “yes” to The Gipper.

No one seemed to mind at the time. And that makes me wonder if the flip-flop charge against Romney is going to matter so much.

In my mind, it should. A politician should stand by his/her beliefs.

And just how strongly did Bush believe in a woman’s right to choose? When he served in the U.S. House in the late 1960s representing the Houston area, he acquired a nickname owing to his strong support of women’s reproductive rights.

His congressional colleagues called him “Rubbers.”

You know what’s been one of my favorite elements of the series of presidential/vice presidential debates so far? The absence of audience involvement.

Barack Obama/Mitt Romney One was notable for the lack of cheers, jeers, hoots and hollers from the audience; same for Joe Biden/Paul Ryan in their VP debate this past week. I’m hoping Obama/Romney Two – and Three, next week – will feature this much decorum.

Too many times in past debates, the candidates have played to the audience in the hall, not to the broader audience out there, in TV Land. Yes, some of these encounters have produced memorable sound bites and applause lines. We laugh about them now and recall how much punch they carried when the politician uttered them.

But they do nothing to enhance the quality of the discussion.

President Obama and Mitt Romney will have some important things to say, as will Vice President Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. We’ll get two more chances to hear the presidential candidates make their case in front of tens of millions of us. I’ve noted already that my mind is made up on this race, but all of us can learn something new about the men who seek to lead this nation.

I intend to focus my undivided attention on what they are saying. Crowd noise is just that – noise.