Americans have been bombarded for months by mind-numbing political advertisements, enough Internet lies and personal assaults to float the U.S. Pacific Fleet in the run-up to November’s presidential, vice-presidential and state elections.
This magazine certainly takes positions on outdoors issues, but we don’t endorse candidates. It’s not that we’re hedging our bets; we just believe citizens should make up their own minds.
But there’s the rub — how does one sift through the B.S. shoveled by candidates and their parties and still make good choices? Political campaign handlers are smoke-and-mirror masters, rarely allowing the public to see the real wizards behind the curtains.
Matt Taibbi of “Rolling Stone Magazine” (Sept. 18 issue) said of the Barack Obama’s standard speech: “All of this saccharine talk of ‘change’ is so transparently a mechanical come-on if it were anybody but Barack Obama uttering the word, you’d want to throw up at the very sound of it.” And “Rollling Stone” supports Obama.
Then there’s John McCain, who, when asked what makes someone rich, said flippantly: “How about $5 million?”
Regarding elections, we’ve always thought it best to look at candidates’ legislative records rather than their ads or speeches.
For N.C. sportsmen/women, comparing deeds and political rhetoric regarding gun ownership, plus access issues, is important.
Obama apparently wants two sets of U.S. gun laws, a restrictive one for city dwellers and more relaxed rules for “sportsmen.” But Obama chose as his vice-presidential runningmate Joe Biden, who said during the Democratic primary: “I’m the guy who originally wrote the assault weapons ban.” Assault weapons, in Biden’s universe, include .30-06 deer rifles, AR-15 varmint guns and shotguns.
Rated 100 percent by the anti-gun Brady Campaign, Biden also has proposed banning hunting, sporting and self-defense ammunition. Obama has supported similar ammo-ban proposals.
Senator John McCain opposes restrictions on “assault” rifles and has voted against such bans. He also opposed an amendment to extend a ban on 19 firearms and others with similar characteristics.
Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska, likes to hunt, fish and can field dress a moose. Her stance regarding the Second Amendment seems clear. Yet those may be her major qualifications to be on the ticket, gosh darn it.
In North Carolina, other outdoors issues have been revealing:
• Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R-Salisbury) gave little early support to N.C. residents fighting to keep the U.S. Navy from grabbing 30,000 acres of farm land near a waterfowl refuge. Her opponent, state senator Kay Hagan (D-Guilford), has no wildlife/fisheries record.
• Former state senator Beverly Perdue didn’t back regulations on industries along the Neuse River until 1995 when massive fish kills near New Bern forced her to change her tune or lose an election because of an outraged public and 14 million dead fish. A CCA-NC official told us “she’s never been a go-to person for us.”
• Pat McCrory, Republican gubernatiorial candidate, has no wildlife/fisheries record we can find, but Charlotteans have re-elected him seven straight terms as mayor. He’s been endorsed by N.C.’s Recreational Fishing Alliance, which is pushing state officials toward solving major saltwater resource/user problems.
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