Happy thoughts about the Nevada caucus

The caucus is nigh! Petty attacks and harping counter-attacks and disingenuous counter-counter-attacks of varying degrees of vitriol, each of them having only tangential at best relevance to anyone's, you know, life, continue to storm in through our radios and over our phone lines and in the mail and on the internets and whatever.

Naturally, that has put us in a pretty good mood. Especially when it's combined with the the knowledge that in mere hours the Borg craft will be exiting Nevada's orbit.

So let's start this positive, feel-good post by noting that Ms. Ball's tidy inventory of some of the late-entry tit-for-tatting Friday was one of the more well-crafted deadline print round-ups we've seen in the past week.

Having said that, there were a couple times during the week when the Sun's newly flashy website with blog thingies and stuff was indispensable. And on a day-to-day basis and as a whole, the Sun's team coverage has totally kicked the shit out of the R-J's poorly conceived efforts, perhaps best (or worst) exemplified by the Arkansas-owned paper's ill-advised stab at covering the caucus via interviews with average-assholes-on-the-street. Though not as popular a journalistic technique as it was in, oh, 1978, it's still as uninformative and pointless as it ever was.

Oops, this was going to be a nice post. Forgot. Moving along ... there are more than two good things that have come from the Nevada caucus, but here are a couple more or less policy-related items that come to mind:

1. The promise that a Nevada caucus would make presidential candidates talk about Nevada issues didn't pan out much. Yes, it's shocking to reflect that candidates campaigning in Las Vegas refrained from questioning the metropolitan area's long-term ecological sustainability. But there it is.

The notable exception, as expected, was Yucca Mountain.

Everyone's yawn stifled? Good.

Because while none of them explained in detail exactly how they would circumvent standing laws and nuclear industry clout in Congress and stop Yucca once and for all, the Democratic candidates' statements in opposition to the project, while predictable, should not be understated.

Less predictably, the candidates also were forced to make some noises not only about nuclear waste, but nuclear power. Edwards is on record opposing the expansion of nuclear power. Clinton and Obama are on record placing conditions on the expansion of nuclear power. When one of these people becomes president, the positions that they crafted in Nevada can be placed in front of their eyeballs in the unlikely event that some utility somewhere convinces investors to finance a new nuclear power plant or two. And if the discussion has emboldened wimpy Nevada politicians of both parties to likewise start speaking out against nuclear power as well as nuclear waste, all the better.

2. One of the expectations of Nevada's early spot in the nominating process was that because of the state's large Latino population, immigration would be an issue. While voters brought it up in meetings with candidates, and the media types probed it a bit, it never really became a centerpiece of debate in Nevada. That's probably because the Democratic candidates, while making requisite noises about securing the borders, have all crafted roughly identical positions in support of comprehensive reform — positions that are not only sane and responsible, but that won't alienate Latino voters.

(Curiously and a little amusingly, inasmuch as immigration has been an issue in the presidential campaign, it figured most prominently among the War party candidates in Iowa. And since they've chewed each other up on the issue and exposed each other's glaring hypocrisies, they've made it even harder to exploit an issue that some pundits predicted would be an Achilles' heel for the eventual Democratic nominee.)

Anyway, remember the hullabaloo over giving drivers' licenses to illegal immigrants? That kind o' crap never really came up here. And that's cool. Just saying.

Comments

[KidFromVegas]

Very cool Gleaner! As for the Sun online, Exceptional! I think I like Ralston again.

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

Ralston, and the I-Team with George Knapp, and Hugh Jackson are best Nevada has when it comes to real journalism - how could anyone NOT like them, they're all we've got to count on?

[What?!]

Gleaner is right, it was wholesale politics this week. Aside from Yucca, no retail politics. Just like journalism, we need the five Ws answered.

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

Only then will the people know "When" - "Where" - "Who" - "Why" - "What" say "What?!"