EDITORIALS : Sarah’s night

“I know who I am.”—Mrs. Rose Castorini in the movie Moonstruck, explaining to the young jerk of a professor why she wasn’t about to take him up on his offer of a warm bed. - Friday, September 5, 2008

COLUMNISTS : Can she pull an Obama?

Charles Krauthammer

There are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, “Who is this man?” and “Can we trust this man with the presidency?” —Fred Thompson on John McCain, September 2nd This was the most effective line of the entire Republican convention: a ringing affirmation of John McCain’s authenticity and a not-so-subtle indictment of Barack Obama’s insubstantiality. What’s left of this line of argument, however, after John Mc-Cain picked Sarah Palin for vice president? - Friday, September 5, 2008

Her speech an unqualified success

BY DAN K. THOMASSON SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

The Democrats now know they have their hands full with Sarah Palin. If there was any doubt that the self proclaimed “hockey mom” governor of Alaska could hold her own in the national political arena, it was dispelled by her performance at the Republican National Convention. - Friday, September 5, 2008

In Sarah Palin : A GOP surprise

Dana D. Kelley

The week’s biggest surprise was John McCain’s choice of Alaska Gov. - Friday, September 5, 2008

Tax collections up again

Meredith Oakley

August 2008 tax collections in Arkansas were 6.4 percent above those for August 2007, the state Department of Finance and Administration said Wednesday. - Friday, September 5, 2008

LETTERS

Inflating students’ grades nothing new Some seem to think this college grade inflation business with high school students is something new. This has been going on since it started. - Friday, September 5, 2008

EDITORIALS : Prelude to Palin

WHOEVER said there were no second acts to American lives, namely F. Scott Fitzgerald, couldn’t have been talking about American life in general. For in the ever shifting world of the news, we go from one dramatic change of scenery to another. It’s a bit like watching American weather. This week it’s been a relief to go from the real world of Gustav and its aftermath here in Arkansas hundreds of miles inland—flash floods, downed trees, school closings, power outages and all—to the unreal world of another national nominating convention. Oh, the grand panoply and well-staged pandemonium full of hype and fury signifying. . . well, that depends on who’s talking at the time and who’s listening. Different perspectives make for different opinions, but we’ve never given in to the relativist fallacy that all opinions are of equal value. Some speakers rail, others reason. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

COLUMNISTS : Tumbling over tumbrels

BY CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS SLATE MAGAZINE

Senator John McCain’s now-notorious answer to the question of how many houses he and his wife, Cindy, own was first repeated to me as if he had been deliberately joking. And I must say that I thought his reported response—that he’d have to ask his staff to check and “get to you” with a full countwas really quite funny. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

The selection

BY JONATHAN GURWITZ SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

ST. PAUL, Minn. So Sarah Palin, in addition to being the mother of five, is also the soon-to-be grandmother of one. Welcome to 21st Century America. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, unmarried women gave birth to 1,527,034 children in 2005, the last year for which figures are available. More than one-third of all births in the United States are to unmarried women. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

From fisticuffs to hugs

Mike Masterson

From near fisticuffs in the 1980s to boisterous hugs in 2008, it has been a tumultuous three decades for public officials from Arkansas and Oklahoma who have struggled to protect the Illinois River and its watershed. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

Labor Day watch party

Kane Webb

By 2 p.m. Monday, I couldn’t watch any more. The ceaseless video of the water topping the Industrial Canal levee began to feel like Chinese water torture. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

LETTERS

reaucrats. Northwest Arkansas is a most glaring example and should be enough evidence of this crackpot plan to protect big-box retailers and other politically connected whiners unable to otherwise handle the fair competition. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

Where to send your letters, Northwest Arkansas

The Democrat-Gazette welcomes your opinions, Northwest Arkansas. Unfortunately, not all letters received can be published in the space available. Clarity, brevity and originality are particularly valued. Send letters of preferably no more than 250 words to Voices, Democrat-Gazette, 515 Enterprise Drive, Suite 106, Lowell AR 72745, by FAX at 479-770-8484 or via an e-mail form found at our Web site, www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/. - Thursday, September 4, 2008

EDITORIALS : THANK YOU

AS WHAT’S left of Gustav moves into Texas and Arkansas, it may not be too early to give thanks despite the damage it did do. (Even a Category 2 hurricane is still a hurricane.) So let us begin. Thank you, —George W. Bush, our Katrinachastened president, who demonstrated that he’s learned a thing or two dozen since 2005. Great teacher, adversity. So is sustained criticism. Now when this president tells somebody, “You’re doin’ a heckuva job,” folks may believe him. As with the Surge in Iraq, this muchmaligned president has demonstrated he can reverse course, reorganize his administration, and appoint a new team who’ll get the job done. He may be a painfully slow learner, but what he learns, he can put into effective practice. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Welcome, y’all

OF COURSE you’re not intruding. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

You’re doing what?

We snuck up behind an inky wretch in the office the other day and he was at his computer, using some political website to turn pink states to red and red states to purple, mixin’ and matchin’ , in order to arrange it so that both nominees got exactly 269 electoral votes apiece, which would leave the presidential race a tie and throw it into the House of Representatives, God save America. “Wouldn’t that be great?” he asked. He seemed serious. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

COLUMNISTS : The one thing you must do . . .

Paul Greenberg

Blessed is the man who has found his mission. We all know people like that. Their station in life, as the Victorians used to put it, doesn’t matter. Whether rich or poor, professional or blue-collar, employer or employee, artist or laborer, they’re right where they belong. How fortunate for the rest of us. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

The generic convention speech

BY DAVID BROOKS NEW YORK TIMES

My fellow Americans, it is an honor to address the Democratic National Convention at this defining moment in history. We stand at a crossroads at a pivot point, near a fork in the road on the edge of a precipice in the midst of the most consequential election since last year’s American Idol. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

LETTERS

Bradley R. Gitz’s recent column lists nine propositions that he thinks Democrats believe. Well, here is what one Democrat believes about Gitz’s list. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Role of a lifetime: Commander-in-chief

Gene Lyons

With presidential elections increasingly resembling what are inaccurately styled “reality TV” programs, it shouldn’t surprise us to find U.S. foreign policy treated as an action/adventure film scenario. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Duty and privilege

Meredith Oakley

Afriend of mine has lost count of the number of times she’s been called for jury duty, but she reckons she’s been seated twice. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

What’s on your mind, Northwest Arkansas?

The Democrat-Gazette welcomes your opinions, Northwest Arkansas. Unfortunately, not all letters received can be published in the space available. Clarity, brevity and originality are particularly valued. Send letters of preferably no more than 250 words to Voices, Democrat-Gazette, 515 Enterprise Drive, Suite 106, Lowell AR 72745, by FAX at 479-770-8484 or via an e-mail form found at our Web site, www2.arkansasonline.com/contact/voicesform/. - Wednesday, September 3, 2008

EDITORIALS : Speak no evil

IT’S BEEN a couple of good weeks for the genocide-deniers. Does anybody remember Darfur? It’s the western part of Sudan where some 300,000 black Africans have been killed and another 2.5 million run off by the Sudanese government hand-in-spear with its allies. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

No, that wasn’t déjà vu

Alert Readers who may have thought they were just seeing things can relax. It wasn’t just their imagination. They did see the same cartoon on this page twice last week. It was a fine piece of work by the incomparable Michael Ramirez, who’s so darned good that naturally he was fired by the Los Angeles Times, one of the many formerly great newspapers in this country. (Why is it that the best people on the payroll are dropped first? But that’s a subject for another editorial.) Right now we want to apologize to our ever alert—and ever indulgent—readers for having repeated the same cartoon. It was a good one, the art and perspective as distinctive as usual with Ramirez, but it wasn’t that good. Not when we have such a fine stable of cartoonists to draw from, including our own John Deering and Roger Harvell. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

The more Russia changes . . .

It’s just like the old days. Having invaded a small neighboring country, Tsar Valdimir has accused the United States of aggression. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

COLUMNISTS : Tale of two buyouts

George Arnold

Acaller phones in every so often to let me know what’s on his mind. Sometimes it’s car racing. Often, it’s the way various school districts fail to keep their finances in order. My caller gets especially worked up whenever another superintendent who’s made a mess of his district is rewarded with an expensive buyout of his contract. Obviously, we say, we went into the wrong line of work. We should have tried something that would pay us big bucks just to go away. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Barack Obama’s Trojan horse

BY STAR PARKER SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

Despite the careful choreography and showmanship, the Democratic Convention concluded with little in the way of news or surprises. It’s no surprise that we no longer need to refer to Senator Barack Obama as the “presumptive” nominee. It is no surprise that the Clintons gave rousing speeches in support of his candidacy. It is no surprise that the senator’s acceptance speech, drawing on his substantial oratory skills, was socialist in substance and all things to all people in rhetoric. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

At the speed of scandal : History happens

Frank Fellone

Not a lot has been made of the John Edwards scandal, by which I mean it came, it blew up and it pretty much disappeared. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Controversy will die down

Mike Masterson

Count me among those still stunned a week after learning of the two daycare teachers who lost their jobs for allegedly prompting fights between preschoolers entrusted to their care. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008

LETTERS

Complex view preferred After watching Barack Obama and John McCain participate in the Saddleback Civic Forum, my conclusions were very different from syndicated columnist William Kristol’s. Obama’s responses were thoughtful, deliberate, intelligent and complex. McCain’s answers were crisp, clear, certain and overly simplistic. To him, the only wrong is a national security threat. He didn’t even come close to identifying the evil that exists on our own doorstep. - Tuesday, September 2, 2008