Odds and ends, 3/5/08

Two days ago, I was out measuring potholes. This morning, I was on Washington Boulevard, and it looks to me like the holes in front of the Presbyterian Church are getting bigger and bigger. I should say one of the holes, because the other was under water and not visible. I pity the person(s) who hit it today.

Huntington is not the only city in West Virginia or the Rust Belt to have problems with its infrastructure. Many of Huntington's problems can be found in Columbus or any other large or medium-sized city in this part of the USA. It just seems that we're ahead of the curve on having to deal with a lot of these problems, and we're not able to. Or we don't have the will to.

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Now that the Ohio primary is over, we can listen to radio without hearing Barack Obama talking about NAFTA. One thing bothered me about his commercials. He blamed NAFTA for Delphi's moving jobs out of Ohio to Mexico and then to China. It sounds to me like the jobs moved from Ohio to China, and they would be in China even without NAFTA. So how is NAFTA to blame?

Honesty would dictate that we ask what the real reasons were for Delphi moving jobs out of Ohio -- other than NAFTA.

Here's how one person put it in the Christian Science Monitor:

"It's nice to blame the bogeyman, rather than the failed business strategies of Ford, GM, or Chrysler," says Ned Hill, an economist at Cleveland State University. "And middle-class anxiety is a real issue." The bickering isn't so much over the candidates' current positions on NAFTA – both are eager to tell Ohioans just how much they dislike the pact and how quickly they would renegotiate a better deal – but how consistent they've been in that stance in the past.

But who wants to talk about failed business strategies?

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Speaking of Obama's radio ads, I was out and about on Monday and I heard at least one on Glenn Beck's radio show. It may have been a local buy, but wouldn't most people consider possible Obama voters and Glenn Beck listeners to be two different demographic groups? How many Obama supporters listen to Beck?

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The Democratic convention could come down to the old days where we sat in front of our black-and-white TVs and watched the roll call of states and people announcing the delegate count for each candidate.

That would be cool, but it's not going to happen. Deals will be made, votes will be counted and everyone will be smiles and giggles when the convention begins. No drama or anything.

My best guess is that if Obama ends the primary season with the most votes, but Clinton uses her establishment influence to wrest the nomination away from him, a lot of disappointed people will go to McCain or sit it out. Just a guess. I could be wrong. It happens about three times a year.