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McCain makes key error with western water comment
Submitted by Rocky Barker on Tue, 08/19/2008 - 8:28am.
Democrats will come to the West this weekend for their national convention with hope they may be able to erode or even reverse the Republican Party’s dominance here.
They are counting on the region’s 15 percent population growth, many new residents who don’t automatically share the voting patterns in place a decade ago. They also are building on the Bush Administration’s top-down assault on state and local control to push oil and gas development and other national Republican initiatives.
They got help last week from John McCain, a westerner himself, who made the mistake of expressing concerns for his own state in a regional dispute that is political dynamite. McCain suggested the Colorado River Compact, a 1922 water agreement, should be renegotiated so more water can be taken from Colorado and other upper river states and flowed down to Arizona, Nevada and California where populations have dramatically increased.
That went over in Colorado like a proposal to take water from eastern Idaho and send it to Boise would in Idaho. You don’t have to be a Colorado Democrat to hate that idea.
Only two states appear to be safe for Republicans across the West, Wyoming and Idaho. Who would have suggested such a shift only eight years ago?
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Strange
Strange indeed that a Western politician running for national office would say something like that. It underscores the impression that McCain does not understand the politics of water in the west.
He only became a westerner because the woman he left his wife
for was from Arizona. Evidently he could count on her daddy's help with a congressional seat in that state. McCain has come to understand politics very well, unfortunately it is the politics of the ideologues of the far right.
Strange
There are so many things John McCain has never bothered to learn . . . this is just a minor detail
In so many ways he is an older version of George W. Bush, truly John McSame.
Idaho is safe for Republicans
Think about what a sad commentary this is on the people of Idaho. Yep, we don't believe in that two-party crap around here, partner, so if you don't agree with our one-voice approach and you don't love our Governor, Butch the Boozer, than hit the road 'cause we're thinking you must be some sort of unpatriotic traitor or something. Beside, look where our one-party system has gotten us! We're the envy of all those other states. (joke)
There are plenty of safe states for democrats too
stop being such a martyr.
Chet
Would you be happier in San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle? ( No Joke )
Portland is an awesome city,
Portland is an awesome city, I'd move there in a heartbeat if I had a job in my field waiting for me. No thanks on SF or Seattle though.
I might add that if your
I might add that if your implying that those other cities are Democratic in nature rather than Republican, then you should know that Boise is a city dominated by Democrats as well.
Like national offices...
Dom by Dem Rule by Rep
Yah Olaf wee got dem tings tew.
...
...
- - - . . .
;-)
More golf courses
Gotta have that water for all the golf courses and mandatory green lawns in the desert.
How about a policy of conserving water? (ya like we conserve oil)
*large amounts of sarcasm in the above opinion*
Exactly. For some reason
Exactly. For some reason most subdivisions don't allow xera-scaping and hence promote that great waste of water and promoter of pollution, the lawn. What's really sick is when you see farmers tearing out food crops and putting in turf farms. Most people in suburbia don't even step foot on their lawns except to mow them.
I grow a mean crop of stickerweed!
And OF COURSE...ROCKS need no care.
Never leave water policy to buddy of Aquaman!
Fishy!
Scary
All I can say is that it's scary to think that Idaho can still be a mostly Republican state. I don't really claim to to be of any particular party and have always thought of myself as an independent in that I will vote according to person rather than party. But after the last 8 years, I am scared silly by the thought that another republican could become president.
In the years since I actually began paying attention, I've seen Republican presidents attempt to destroy America as we know it. Anyone (as in McCain) who says he'll continue with Bush's policies, including Iraq, is basically telling us that he will work diligently to finish what Bush started in the process of destroying us.
So, McCain not only cannot remember how many homes he owns, he also believe in taking water resources from their native states. I'm afraid to ask what else he has up his sleeve.
I hope...
he didn't wipe his nose
EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Bag that