Forget red states versus blue states. The color best representative of the 2012 election is green, as in greenbacks. The election was not only the most expensive in our nation’s history at $6 billion spent, but it also shattered the record by more than $700 million. More than 1,000 Super PACs were formed and they spent at least $970 million, much of it on negative television ads and direct mail.
After an election, it is just good manners to congratulate the winners and offer condolences to the losers. We wish the winners well and hope they succeed in the tough business of crafting and implementing good public policy. We thank those who did not win for giving their time and energy offering an alternative.
Are you tired of hearing about politics and the election? Then shake hands with a brother Elk, because I, too, am glad it’s over.
Across the country on Election Day sprang voices and signs of social acceptance from young people, gay people, women, immigrants of many decades and people with disabilities. America has changed, and will continue to. Americans are seeing the relationship between equal opportunity and economic opportunity.
Some have declared the outcome of the state superintendent’s race to be a wholesale rejection of recent changes to public education in our state. Such a pronouncement is an oversimplification at best.
If you are running for a statewide office in Indiana, what matters most: likability or substantive issues?
The last few weeks have been interesting; for all the hyperbole surrounding the presidential election, some 3 million fewer votes were cast for the president than in 2008. Go figure. As a snapshot of what that means, John McCain got 2 million more votes than Mitt Romney this year, while the president garnered 3 million fewer. In the end, the margin was about 2.5 million votes.
Ten takeaways from a memorable November election in Indiana:
The Republican Party needs a makeover. After the devastating losses suffered Nov. 6, pundits and politicos alike are asking one question: What will become of the party? As a 21-year-old who will be voting for many years to come, I think the party must make major changes to remain relevant and attract votes of future generations.
America has come so far, having elected a black president to a second term, mainly by women, young and non-whites. Yet, I hear all too often that Indiana companies cannot find qualified African-American workers.
Marion County’s trial judges are selected by a process used nowhere else in the state, and, as far as I know, nowhere on this planet. In the May primary elections, the two major parties each nominate only half the number of judges that will be elected in the general election.
Thomas Jefferson said, “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”
Last in a month-long series of keep-it-simple restaurant reviews.
Lou Harry is on vacation this week. In lieu of his regular column, here’s an excerpt from his new e-book, “The Movie Uncyclopedia: Everything You Think You Know About Movies is Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.”
Why would I trade my coveted skyline view for the Friday-night lights of the Pendleton Heights High School Arabians? Why would I trade walk-everywhere convenience for drive-everywhere drudgery?
The Ohio Division of Securities allowed Fair Finance to register investment certificates even after the company stopped providing audited financials and Tim Durham drained more than $100 million from the firm through insider loans.
It has become clear that, in the new world order of big-time intercollegiate athletics, these are the things that really matter: eyeballs.
If there’s one absolute truth in investing, it’s that there is no such thing as a sure thing. However, for Indiana residents who want to help children, grandchildren or other loved ones save for college, there is the next best thing.
It would be surprising if we could not today identify a good many folks who rely on government largesse in lieu of hard work.
Nice work, Mickey, reminding the governor-elect [Nov. 12] to govern as he campaigned, with economics and education as the promised focus.
