Show ¥ ry 3 i 10A Standard-Examine- r Friday October 21 1988 i Opmioitis - Standard-Examine- r r Cook’s ballot spot charge has merit should law change? - Independent gubernatorial candidate Merrill Cook has a legitimate complaint He is crying foul over the placement of his name on the official election ballot He has good cause The point of his argument is the paper ballots that will be used in 18 of the state’s 29 counties His name has been positioned in the lower right hand corner of the ballot under the heading of independent candidates His name is last falling behind other independent candidates for president and the US Senate He suggested that his name should have at least been placed on the same horizontal row with other candidates for governor Cook has wrongly leveled charges of unfair advantage and specifically accused the Bangerter administration primarily Lt Gov Val Ovesen and his deputy David Hansen for crafting a ballot to Cook’s disadvantage They say not that the law mandates ballot preparation Cook whose independent candidacy is meshed with the tax coalition that supports the tax rollback movement has threatened legal action to secure a change in the ballot format While Cook’s complaint is not unfounded suggesting that the taxpayers be asked to finance a massive ballot reprinting is a bit contradictory to his platform position of reduced government spending Besides its doubtful the courts would defy state statute in favor of Cook Carr Printing Co of Bountiful prints the ballots It is guided by state statute adopted in 1987 It is estimated that to reprint the ballots would cost $20000 However it would be logistically impossible to reprint the more than 70000 ballots to replace those already distributed the company spokesman said today Each county requires a different ballot reflecting local contests to add another column with Cook’s name in a single column would require a second ballot he said Finding his name in the obscure part of the ballot was understandably a jolt to Cook It does seem odd that Cook and his followers did not check out in advance the Utah law that deals with the specifics of type size and ballot format They knew from the beginning that Cook was in an uphill battle to capture the governor’s seat and they should have been prepared for any and all inevitabilities Cook has already made political hay from the bad spot on the ballot He received widespread media coverage when he called a press conference to decry the format of the paper ballots He will undoubtedly continue to use it as an issue until Nov 8 Cook’s demand that the ballots be reprinted is unreasonable He should take the high road avoid anymore name-callin- g g and He should concentrate on telling voters where to find his name on the ballot And for future reference he should take the lead in getting the ballot format law changed in the next legislative session so that is more equitable to candidates who shun affiliation with a major political party so-call- ed finger-pointin- Plight of 3 hapless whales stirs nation The workings of nature aren't always fair Throughout time those who are the fittest or the luckiest have survived Those that weren’t have fallen hostage to their enemies Such was the inevitable fate of three hapless California gray whales that lingered too long in their rich summer feeding grounds of the Arctic As they began their migration to the warm waters of Mexico three weeks ago shifting ice surrounded and trapped them The many rescue workers and a nation of compassionate people have become attached to the three whales that scientists have named Bonnet Crossbeak and Bone Several rescue techniques have been considered and tried Rescuers have labored relentlessly digging breathing holes to give the whales access to the open air and searching for alternatives to free the iceberg hostages Crews are undaunted as they toil against grave odds: temperatures 16 degrees below zero and a series of equipment failures As the whales continue to scrape cut and bruise themselves on the jagged ice biologists have been called in to closely monitor their condition As of yet no one is sure whether the rescue attempt will be successful With polar bears near cold temperatures continuing and an abundance of jagged icy edges time is running out The plight of the three 24- - to creatures whose species is endangered has mesmerized the nation Newspapers have pushed stories of national importance off the front pages to satisfy America’s love affair with the distressed whales National television crews are on the scene Evening newscasts are devoting more time to the rescue efforts than is being given to presidential politics Americans from school children to grandparents are filled w ith a sense of togetherness as they watch the nation pool its resources in attempts to change the destiny of three unfortunate warmblooded sea mammals Rescuers are vowing they won’t give up until their mission is I '1 Jackson delivers Democratic message LOS ANGELES — The irony of it all is that Michael Dukakis may lose this election because the voters think he is a liberal which he is not Dukakis has been called a “process liberal” whatever that is He also has been called a “bloodless Democrat” According to professor Ross Baker of Rutgers University in a piece in the Los Angeles Times both terms define a person who appears to be fascinated with policies and issues but is indifferent to the people those policies and issues affect Liberals bleed a little sweat a great deal and agonize a lot over policies and issues but they also make the connection with people Liberals do not have the problem of coming up with a handful of heroes dead or alive In a answer in the second debate Dukakis could not come up with a live one It was not as though the question should have been a surprise Weeks before Tom Brokaw had asked Dukakis the same question in an NBC Nightly News interview after fumbling around Dukakis finally produced one name Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics Ronald Reagan may have trouble with some issues but once he gets his teeth into them he is never at a loss to make the connection between the issue and people The day after the second presidential debate Dukakis was introduced at the West Angeles Church of God in Christ by Jesse Jackson Dukakis who knew he was in trouble with his debate performance talked about the Willie Horton furlough case as he had been urged to do the night before in the debate He called it a “terrible human tragedy” he accepted responsibility and said he had two-minu- te Robert Heaiy Mandela subversive for wanting to bring change to South Africa Now said Jackson we have George Bush labeling national health care subversive “We must be on the liberal side of history” said Jackson “Why do I work so hard (for a Dukakis victory)?” Jackson said he remembered 1968 when “our hearts were broken and our eyes were changed the policy Dukakis said that when Ronald Reagan had been governor the same thing had happened to him and to his credit he had taken responsibility He said that under the federal parole system of the Reagan administration a mother of two had been not clear” after the assassinations of Robert raped and murdered The answer was effective but it was a day late Dukakis had not Kennedy and Martin Luther King “and they listened to or paid attention to his advice said there was no difference between Hubert But it was after Dukakis left the meeting at Humphrey and Richard Nixon but there the church that the contrast was stark Adwas” Jackson said that in the race between Dumittedly Jackson was talking to a black church congregation and the network televikakis and Bush “there is a difference I’ve sion cameras had departed with the presidencounted the differences” Then he began the tial candidate But Jackson made a stirring listing: child care medical care housing the defense of liberalism and what it had done homeless for the nation Jackson is not overwhelmed by Dukakis Jackson began by saying that liberals are but he is telling his audiences that there is a for change and conservatives are for the stamajor difference between Bush and Dukakis tus quo He reminded the congregation of the and don’t be fooled by the Jackson points to the issue of the flag song sung in the South during the ’60s titled “Which Side Y’on” which Bush has raised in his focus on the Jackson said the slave masters were conserPledge of Allegiance vatives and wanted only the white male to “We love our country” Jackson said “Savote The liberals were for the Bill of Rights lute the flag yes love the country yes But Moses he said was a liberal Herod was a more and more those flags are made in Taiwan and South Korea We get the joy and conservative Some things in this nation had to be they get the jobs” It is tough earthy stuff that Jackson delivchanged said Jackson But he said there were outfits and code names that fought change ers It is not what every voter wants to hear under the titles of “states’ rights” “the Moral But it is a Democratic message It is not Majority” and “the silent majority” These subversive to remind Democrats that their outfits and their sponsors labeled change they lives were made better by Franklin Roosedisapproved of as being “subversive” Jack-so- n velt Harry Truman John Kennedy and said it was an old ploy: Joe McCarthy Lyndon Johnson That is the Jackson mesdid it Hitler called the Jews subversive and sage Boston Globe the South African government labeled Nelson flag-wavi- Bush’s only opponent: Overconfidence WASHINGTON — George Bush has only one opponent now — an opponent more to be feared than Michael Dukakis His name is Overconfidence This spectral figure has knocked out some favored candidates in the past He could yet take this election from James J Kilpatrick minister in New York City tagged the Democrats as the party of “rum Romanism and rebellion” The statement outraged Catholics who had been lukewarm to Cleveland They Bush The vice president’s camp is suffused these came to life in sufficient numbers to defeat the favored Blaine by 1047 votes out of 11 days in a fog of euphoria Bush pulverized million that were cast New York’s 36 elecDukakis in the second game of 20 questions This correspondent scored the first debate toral votes went to Cleveland Without them 12-- 8 for Bush the second 20-- 0 In the wake Blaine would have won of that triumph his jubilant aides were cry ing Cleveland sought a 'second term in 1888 that “it’s all over but the shouting" Polls The popular vote nationwide was unbelievfound Bush leading in states with a total of ably close: Cleveland actually won by more 270 electoral votes The gender gap was than 90000 votes over Benjamin Harrison trending down Dan Quayle's stock was movbut popular votes don’t matter There were ing up Metaphorically at least a tailor was then 401 votes in the Electoral College it in the anteroom waiting to measure Bush for took 201 to win This time New York went his Inauguration suit Republican Harrison barely won the state This election emphatically is not all over but it gave him 36 electoral votes The decibut the shouting Bush’s task now is to work sive count was Harrison 233 Cleveland 168 twice as hard in such key states as California Move into our own time and to the lessons Illinois Pennsylvania and Ohio He will ne1948 That was the year Tom Dewey of of glect New Jersey and North Carolina at his New York was certain to beat Harry Truman behis in slack If off the peril troops happy Missouri of Dewey’s people were so confilief that victory is assured Overconfidence dent that they forgot their history It was all will overtake him yet A wise maxim teaches us that those who over but the shouting Late on election night the electoral vote rolled in fail to learn the lessons of history are conit was 303 for Truman 189 for Dewey demned to repeat the course Consider 39 for States Rightcr Strom Thurmond TruIn 1884 Grover Cleveland ran against Reman had carried Illinois by 33000 out of 4 publican James G Blaine It was a bitter million votes cast he had carried Iowa by — seen in far than nastier campaign anything 28000 out of I million Their 38 electoral 1988 During the summer it transpired that votes were decisis e Cleveland had fathered an illegitimate child Blaine was accused of corrupt dealings w ith a One more remembrance and the lessons are through for today In 1960 it took 269 railway Then on Oct 29 a Presbyterian state-by-sta- V Q te electoral votes to win John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon finished in almost a dead heat in the popular vote — 34221000 for Kennedy 34107000 for Nixon In the Electoral College it was 303 for Kennedy 219 for Nixon 15 for Harry F Byrd of Virginia A switch of only 4500 votes in Illinois and 5000 votes in Missouri would have cost Kennedy 40 electoral votes and thrown the election into the House Is the point clear? In at least 15 pivotal states Bush and Dukakis are believed to be exceedingly close Nearly 100 million votes will be cast nationwide but the popular vote is immaterial All that matters is the electoral vote A few thousand votes one way or the other in California New York Illinois Pennsylvania and Ohio could produce an electoral landslide Such an avalanche could bury Dukakis — or bury Bush The Dukakis camp plainly understands the arithmetic The Democratic nominee reportedly has written off the South and all of the West but California Oregon and Washington In these final days Dukakis will be following the homely wisdom of Willie Sutton who once was asked why he robbed banks “Because that’s where the money is” said Willie Dukakis will be working desperately where the key electoral votes can be won The conventional wisdom tells us that the election is "Bush’s to lose” and it is true that some ghastly blunder could prove decisive But this is also still Bush’s election to win If he works like a sled dog he can relax on Nov 9 He can’t relax now L'nncrsal Press Syndicate |