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PAGE 4A THE BANKS COUNTY NEWS WEDNESDAY, MAY 14, 2008 Editor: Angela Gary Phone: 706-367-2490 E-mail: AngieEditor@aol.com Website: www.mainstreetnews.com Opinions “Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.” — Thomas Jefferson Blame the media I t’s easy to blame the media for all that is wrong with the world. Test scores are down. Let’s blame the media for reporting the scores. Taxes going up. It must be the media’s fault for reporting it. I’ve heard time and time again that “negative press” is the problem. I don’t know how many times I have responded, “We just report what happens. We don’t make the news.” The decline in the real estate market is just anoth er example of the media being blamed for something we have no control over. Yes, we have published stories on the increase in the number of foreclosures and the overall drop in home sales. We would not be doing our job if we didn’t report those important facts. The number of public notices we’ve published on foreclosures has increased dramatically. Readers can’t help but notice that information. We have to report on it if we are doing our job. I was at a recent meeting where one of the amaz ing forecasters from the Norton Agency spoke. Matt McCord began his comments by asking if anyone from the media was present. When I raised my hand, he said having someone from the media would change his remarks. “Just the facts then, today... no opinions,” he said. “Glad I asked. That happened to me once and you’ll never forget it.” McCord then began to outline his opinion that the real estate market is not as bad as it may appear. He said the 40 percent decrease in real estate sales in 2007 was due, in part, to 2006 having had two huge projects which inflated the overall figure. He said 2007 was the best year for Jackson County, other than 2006. McCord also commented on the foreclosure situ ation. He said people who are being foreclosed on had their homes up for sale anyway. He also said foreclosed homes really didn’t change the housing market. I don’t follow that logic. If the people had been able to afford their homes in the first place, they would not have them up for sale or would not have been foreclosed on. Perhaps it is the fault of the greed in the financial system that created easy 100 percent mortgages and that pushed people into buy ing homes they couldn’t afford? Nah, it couldn’t be that. Must just be the media. At the end of last week’s meeting, several people questioned who is benefiting from all of the “nega tive press,” hinting that it must just be hype by newspapers to sell more papers. But we are not benefiting from the housing crisis or the overall economic slump. We, too, feel the effects of the economy. At the end of the day, we’re just doing our job in reporting on the economic situation. The media didn’t create this crisis and efforts by some to spin bad information into good won’t help resolve it. People may disagree with what this crisis means for the county and the nation, but please, don’t put on blinders and blame bad press for problems that run much deeper. angela gary Angela Gary is editor of The Banks County News. She can be reached at AngieEditor@aol.com. The Banks County News Founded 1968 The official legal organ of Banks County, Ga. Mike Buffington Co-Publisher (Editorial) Scott Buffington Co-Publisher (Advertising) Angela Gary Editor Chris Bridges Sports Editor Sharon Hogan Reporter Anelia Chambers Receptionist Suzanne Reed Church News Phones (all 706 area code): Angela Gary Phone 367-2490 Angela Gary Fax 367-9355 Homer Office Phone 677-3491 Homer Office Fax 677-3263 (SCED 547160) Published weekly by MainStreet Newspapers, Inc., P.O. Box908, Jefferson, Ga. 30549 Subscription in count Subscription in state .. ...$19.75 .. $38.85 Subscription out of state $44.20 Military with APO address $42.20 Senior citizens get a $2 discount Periodicals postage paid at Homer, Ga. Postmaster, send address changes to: Subscriptions, The Banks County News, P.O. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547 Could Sam Nunn help Obama in 2008? W here is Sam Nunn now that Barack Obama really needs him? Former Sen. Nunn’s endorsement and support were fine for the primary. Obama swept Georgia, which might have happened anyway. Nunn hasn’t been heard from much since he publicly joined the Obama parade. But his presence has not been needed in his candidate’s string of triumphs. Now comes the hard part for Obama — what to do now that Hillary Clinton is presumed to be history in the 2008 presidential contest. Obama desper ately needs guidance from such a graybeard as Nunn. Of course, Clinton is still technically hanging in there, but the delegate math just doesn’t work, even if the total count finally includes Michigan and Florida. Some insid ers say Clinton hopes to win enough superdelegates to remain afloat. A onetime superdelegate tells me that poor Hill may as well forget har nessing superdelegates. “If superdelegates do anything, they will get behind Obama. Reliance on superdelegates coming to the rescue was futile anyway. Superdelegates are followers, not leaders,” says our ex superdelegate who demands to remain anonymous. Even if Clinton makes magic and finally gets enough total delegates to grab the nomination from Obama, she will lose. African-American voters will be so alienated that they won’t vote in November. Clinton cannot win the presidency without massive support from black voters. Oddsmakers suggest Obama cannot win the presidency at all, despite his spectacular come-from-nowhere pri mary victories. Nunn surely knows that the White House is not in the cards for Obama in 2008. Watch what happens now that the primaries are all but over. Obama will be swamped by new leakages of inflammatory material from the Rev. Jeremiah P. Wright’s portfolio of “Oppressive America” essays. What we have heard from Wright in the pri mary season will sound like nursery rhymes compared to the rhetoric that Republicans are ready to roll out about Obama’s former preacher. GOP opera tives also will plant additional reports of Obama’s connections to shady fig ures in Chicago. The lead candidate and most likely nominee will quickly find himself in deep trouble again and sinking quickly. What should he do? Here’s one possible route out of the quagmire. Obama’s closest advisers say it’s time for a powwow with old- hand politicians to chart a new course for the campaign. Obama agrees and a sit-down is convened. Here is what Nunn or some other adult Democrat might tell him: “Look at the facts. You cannot win the presidency in 2008, but you can be elected vice president and then president in 2012 if Clinton doesn’t make it. Or perhaps in 2016 against a Republican. Becoming the presidential nominee and losing in 2008 is another story. Historically, Democrats seldom give their losing nominee a second chance. As the VP nominee, you would enjoy status and maybe even front running status going into 2012 to chal lenge McCain — or possibly an open seat since McCain is old. “Remember, voters don’t have much enthusiasm for John McCain. Polls and recent special elections show voters don’t much care for Republicans any where, except in the Deep South. “The best Republicans can hope for is that their turnout does not go down. Realistic Republicans know they can not expect their voter turnout to exceed 2004 levels. Republican turnout was on the rise nationally in 2002 and then again in 2004. In 2006, it went flat across the country, rising again only in Georgia. Slippage is in the cards this year. Check your gas pump and gro cery bills if you don’t believe it. “No matter what else is said about you, Sen. Obama, or your friends, you continue to enjoy enthusiastic support from African Americans, young voters and the latte crowd. “You may actually improve on John Kerry’s numbers in Georgia four years ago, not that you have any chance of winning the Peach State. “The most troublesome question for you is this: Can the increase in Democratic voters trump the flat line/decrease in Republican votes in the swing states? Don’t forget those lickings you took in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Is rural Ohio much dif ferent from rural Georgia? Is exurban Pittsburgh any different from Cherokee County?” This sit-down scenario may be a flight of fantasy. No one could really expect the ever-cautious Nunn to take a public lead in advising a liberal Democrat on political strategy, though Nunn has worked quietly behind the scenes with Obama on defense and foreign policy issues. Right now, how ever, Obama could use a big helping of bitter-tasting political medicine, if he is really interested in gaining the White House one of these days. You can reach award-winning politi cal columnist Bill Shipp at P.O. Box 2520, Kennesaw, GA 30156, e-mail: shipp1@bellsouth.net. bill shipp Letters to the editor policy given The Banks County News has estab lished a policy on printing Letters to the editor. We must have an original copy of all letters that are submitted to us for publication. Members of our staff will not type out or hand-write letters for people who stop by the office and ask them to do so. Letters to the editor must also be signed with the address and phone number of the person who wrote them. The address and phone number will be for our verification purposes only and will not be printed unless the writer requests it. Mail to, The Banks County News, P.O. Box 920, Homer, Ga. 30547. E-mailed letters will be accepted, but we must have a contact phone number and address. Letters that are libelous will not be printed. Letters may also be edited to meet space requirements. Anyone with questions on the policy is asked to contact editor Angela Gary at AngieEditor@aol.com or by call ing 706-367-2490. News department contact numbers Anyone with general story ideas, complaints or comments about the news department is asked to call edi tor Angela Gary at 706-367-2490. She can also be reached by e-mail at AngieEditor@aol.com. Anyone with comments, questions or suggestions relating to the coun ty board of commissioners, county government, county board of educa tion and crime and courts is asked to contact staff reporter Chris Bridges at 706-367-2745 or by e-mail at chris@mainstreetnews.com. Bridges also is sports edi tor of the paper and covers local high school, middle school and recreation sports. Anyone with comments, ques tions or suggestions relating to Alto, Lula, Baldwin and Gillsville, should contact Sharon Hogan at 706-367-5233 or by e-mail at sharon@mainstreetnews.com. Calls for information about the church page should go to Suzanne Reed at 706-677-3491. Church news may also be e-mailed to churchnews@mainstreetnews.com. The Banks County News website is updated each Thursday and can be accessed on the Internet at www.mainstreetnews.com. Going against the grain for November vote W ith news of the 2008 presi dential election continuing to break on a daily basis, I have decided on my vote for November. It appears the “major” players are set. The Republicans are going with John McCain (despite the protests of right wing yackers Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the like) and the Democrats are all but certain to line up with Barack Obama (yes, Hillary is still fighting, but it seems the battle was actually lost some time back). I can actually tell you positive things about both McCain and Obama. First, McCain is a true American hero. There can be no debat ing that one. As I have said before, I would shake his hand and say, “Thank you” if given the opportu nity. Anyone who has gone through what he has deserves as much. Without a doubt, he would be an improvement over the president we’ve had for the past two terms (who quite frankly may be judged by historians as the worst we’ve ever had.) Obama would be a historic president for obvious reasons. It would be great for our country to take the step to elect an African-American president. It would say a great deal about us as a nation. Obama has been able to capture the hearts of millions of voters and has liter ally pulled off one of the greatest politi cal upsets by winning the Democratic nomination over Hillary Clinton. (He had no realistic chance of doing so when this whole process began.) However, despite what both have to offer I feel I must go in a different direc tion if certain things line up. Georgia’s own Bob Barr is currently seeking the nomination of the Libertarian Party. There was a time when I could have never seen myself voting for Barr. However, that’s how much our current president has changed the political land scape. Our current president, for several years now, has launched an all-out assault on civil liberties. His main weapon in this war has been the dis graceful Patriot Act. In addition, the president has suspended Habeas Corpus, which means you and I can be arrested and held indefinitely without ever being charged or granted a court hearing, all rights guaranteed by the Constitution. You see, when you become a dictator as our current president has, then civil liberties must go. That’s why people like Barr decided enough was enough. For years Barr was as loyal a Republican as you would find. However, Barr believed that Republicans should stick with lim ited government, not an ever-expanding one where citizens’ civil liberties are taken away one by one. Eventually, reaching his breaking point, Barr said, “Enough is enough.” He officially left the Republican Party and joined the Libertarian Party, which has always stood tall for civil liberties. Barr can also continue to fight for issues he’s always stood for like lower taxes, rights for law abiding citizens to not have their second amendment rights vio lated and for the role of government to be smaller, not larger. The countdown continues to the day our current dictator — I mean president — leaves the Oval Office. For Americans who value freedom, it won’t be a day too soon. It’s been said the Libertarian philosophy is a mixture of the Republican and Democratic mindset. With Barr seeking the party’s presiden tial nomination, it says that it’s not just liberals who value freedom, but conser vatives as well. If Barr can bring people from both sides of the aisle together maybe a needed third party revolution can finally begin. It’s something our country des perately needs. We can’t continue to give away our civil liberties at this rate. 4 h chris bridges Chris Bridges is a reporter for The Banks County News. Contact him at 706-367-2745 or e-mail comments to chris@mainstreetnews.com.