From the South East Missourian:

One of this summer’s favorite pastimes is called “political bashing.” It’s a simple game where you wait for a politician to make virtually any comment and then you play Monday-morning quarterback and bash the politician’s position. It’s a equal-opportunity game played by both Democrats and Republicans.

Far be it from me to fall on the side of a campaigning politician, but let me offer the following situation and see how the bashers would respond.

Let’s say you’re Jay Nixon or Sarah Steelman or Kenny Hulshof and you’ve decided to run for governor of the great state of Missouri. You’ve raised a bundle of cash, hit the road for a thousand chicken-dinner speaking engagements and visited with more members of the media than you care to mention.

So now the primaries are approaching, and the questions are getting tougher every day.

Let’s say there are three pressing issues facing Missouri in the short term. The problems are a vastly inadequate amount of funds to fix Missouri’s transportation system, an ever-expanding Medicaid system that is already taking one-third of the state’s budget and the ongoing need for quality education funding in our state. And just to add a little spice to the discussion, let’s just say that while campaigning it’s political poison to mention any tax increase to pay for these needs.

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