(AP photo)

Sen. John McCain went through almost the entire debate Friday without a single mention of his days as a Vietnam POW. In fact, if the debate had ended after 90 minutes as advertised, that issue would have stayed off the stage. So maybe that’s why a Barack Obama-friendly audience in downtown Phoenix gave one of its loudest responses all night — a rolling, unified groan of disgust — when McCain managed to slip in a POW reference about five minutes into overtime.

I had already attended several election events this year around the Valley sponsored by the McCain campaign. So I decided to watch Friday’s debate from the Democratic perspective. The Obama campaign threw a viewing party outside its Arizona headquarters, a converted house that’s for sale at Roosevelt and Sixth streets. More than 130 folding chairs from the United Commercial and Food Workers union were set up in a parking lot behind the house. The campaign projected a live Web video stream from C-SPAN onto a second building facing Roosevelt. Within 30 minutes after the debate started, all of the chairs were full and more Obama fans were standing in a semi-circle behind them.

The crowd was strangely quiet through much of the debate, listening intently as Obama and McCain fired back and forth in a free-wheeling contest of which moderator Jim Lehrer lost nearly all control. Obama’s backers did loosen up with a few rounds of applause and the occasional cheer after Obama delivered some one-liners. But some people also weirdly cheered a couple of times after McCain repeated an Obama comment in order to bring home his own argument.

So, I expected a boisterous pep rally and instead attended a mostly studious affair. Ken Clark, a Democratic activist and former state lawmaker from Phoenix gave a great explanation as to why:

“It was thick, fiberous and chewy,” Clark said. “And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I don’t believe I have ever seen them get so in-depth in past presidential debates. They usually focus more on firing those zingers at each other.”

Clark was right. Obama needed to demonstrate he has command of a lot of different facts and ideas, and that he can think quickly and speak well without a Teleprompter. He succeeded, to the likely horror of many Republicans who have predicting for weeks that Obama would fall on his face in the debates.

Meanwhile, McCain went to Mississippi bristling with examples of where he has been involved in national and foreign affairs, and was determined to cram every one of them into the debate. The Democrats outside Obama’s Arizona headquarters tried to dismiss McCain’s experience as meaningless or too close to President Bush. But I though he did a great job of presenting his case to those middle-of-the-road voters expected to ultimately decide the Nov. 4 outcome.

All of this means I don’t believe there was a clear winner from Friday’s debate. I can’t wait to see and hear what other people think.

Meanwhile, the Obama campaign is planning another outdoor viewing party for the vice presidential debate on Thursday. I’ll say one thing, they had better figure out how to improve the video feed. The frequent freezes of the campaign’s Internet connection annoyed many in the audience, and I doubt next week’s crowd will be as patient as they were tonight. Democrats are eager to see Joe Biden tear into Sarah Palin. I wonder if she will manage to disappoint as many critics as Obama did tonight.

Connie Duncan of Chandler wrote the Tribune this week, and submitted a copy of an essay from the 1966 book “America and Americans” written by John Steinbeck. This quintessential American author clearly was fascinated by the way that we adore our presidents but at the same time place impossible demands on their shoulders. With the Nov. 4 general election rapidly approaching, Duncan asked (rhetorically?) if American voters have matured in the past 42 years. Look at this final passage from Steinbeck’s essay and tell me what you think:

“The President must be greater than anyone else, but not better than anyone else. We subject him and his family to close and constant scrutiny and denounce them for things that we ourselves do every day. A Presidential slip of the tongue, a slight error in judgment — social, political or ethical — can raise a storm of protest. We give the President more work than a man can do, more responsibility than a man should take, more pressure than a man can bear. We abuse him often and rarely praise him. We wear him out, use him up, eat him up. And with all this, Americans have a love for the President that goes beyond loyalty or party nationality; he is ours, and we exercise the right to destroy him.”

 

Proposed pedestrian bridge over Tempe Town Lake (submitted photo)

Hugh Hallman

Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman faces a real public test of his standing with the Republican Party in connection to some pork-barrelling politics that has benefited his city. Hallman was in St. Paul, Minn., at the Republican National Convention earlier this month, where vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin explained why their party no longer should support Alaskan bridges to nowhere and other pet spending projects that lawmakers insert into budget bills to the detriment of taxpayers in other parts of the country.

The Tribune Editorial Board noted today an interesting parallelbetween the Alaskan issue and a proposed pedestrian bridge over Tempe Town Lake that will be funded mostly from federal dollars set aside in highway funding bills. The scale of the two projects certainly were different ($400 million for the Ketchikan bridge vs. $5.7 million for the Tempe bridge). But the principle is the same, isn’t it?

Hallman may be a loyal Republican, but he’s the leading statesman for the East Valley’s most liberal community. That puts him in a position to advocate for policies and spending ideas that drive some Republicans crazy, such as light rail.

Still, Arizona Sen. John McCain has built his campaign for president, in part, on his absolute refusal to seek pork-barrel spending that the Tempe bridge seems to represent. (Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., was the bridge’s primary champion.)

As construction of the Tempe bridge isn’t slated to start until January, Hallman has an opportunity to at least try to follow Palin’s example and say “thanks, but no thanks” while the issue is in the spotlight. Or will Hallman defy the leadership being offered by his party’s standard bearers?

I wish I had some inkling to Hallman’s answer. But so far, the mayor hasn’t responded to my editorial board colleague Mark Scarp, who has been trying to speak to Hallman about this issue since Wednesday.

(Original photo at www.scangauge.com)

   On Aug. 10, the Tribune Perspective section featured an article I wrote about hypermiling – a style of driving motor vehicles that’s intended to greatly boost your miles per gallon. As a concept, hypermiling is rather controversial. Some techniques are common sense, but others run counter to long-ingrained American driving habits, and some are viewed as downright dangerous. One technique in the last category that’s called a forced auto stopped provoked strong reaction from readers who left voice messages questioning my sanity and wrote letters asking me to stay far away from where they drive.
   (As background: a forced auto stop refers to switching the engine ignition off while you are bringing the vehicle to a stop at a traffic light or a parking space. You do this by shifting the transmission into neutral, turning the ignition key off and then to position II, and relying on a combination of braking and inertia to halt the vehicle. The danger is a vehicle loses power steering wheel and power brakes when the engine is off, and if the key is left in the wrong position, the steering wheel can completely lock up.)
  A couple of questions came up that deserve some answers. First of all, two of my friends were surprised I didn’t mention that my 2003 Honda Civic is a five-speed manual transmission. Their assumption is a forced auto stop is easier to perform with a stick-shift because the driver uses the clutch to move in and out of neutral all of the time. Most drivers who use automatic transmissions almost never shift into neutral, just going from park to drive or reverse instead.
   I double-checked with my sources before I wrote my column to confirm that many hypermilers use automatic vehicles, and the basic theory behind forced auto stops applies to both types of automobiles. But the individual steps for carrying out the technique will be different from vehicle to vehicle depending on each model’s design.
   My trainer, Louis Hudgin, said you should always test a vehicle in a safe location before working with forced auto stops. Using an empty parking lot, for example, a driver needs to see how the steering wheel and brakes respond without the engine turned off. The mechanical design of some vehicles won’t allow for forced auto stops or other advanced hypermiling techniques.
   One Tribune reader called to point out something he considered ironic. Also on Aug. 10 in the Tribune Carfinder section, talk show mechanics Tom and Ray Magliozzi (Click and Clack on National Public Radio), wrote about the severe damage you can do to an automatic transmission if you miss neutral and accidentally shift into reverse while the car is moving forward. Ray Magliozzi criticized people who shift into neutral while coasting at high speeds to save gas (which is not the same thing as forced auto stops).
   A wrong shift into reverse certainly is possible if you’re not paying attention (primarily for automatic transmissions, it’s far more difficult to accidentally hit reverse with my stick-shift). That’s why many hypermilers say they focus much harder on what they do behind the wheel than the average driver. Many of them refuse to use cell phones or to eat or even to listen to radios, avoiding any possible distractions.
   But the Magliozzi brothers also pointed out that many late-model cars now have a feature that prevents shifting into reverse while moving forward, something to look for whether or not you hypermile.
   The other question I received was about the ScanGauge, the device that plugs into your vehicle’s engine computer and gives an immediate, on-going estimate of miles per gallon. Mesa manufacturer Linear-Logic sells the device for about $170. ScanGauges must be popular, as the devices are going for about $160 on eBay.

SLADE MEAD (original photo at The Dry Heat)

   A relatively new Arizona political blogger who leans to the left is claiming that his musings have been banned from White House computers.
   Slade Mead, a former state senator (as a Republican) who also lost in the Democratic primary in 2006 for state schools superintendent, has been writing since February under the title of The Dry Heat. He’s an energetic writer, providing lots of analysis on state politics and policy debates. He tends to defend Gov. Janet Napolitano, and one of his favorite targets is current Sen. John Huppenthal, R-Chandler, who claimed this office in the East Valley’s legislative District 20 after he defeated Mead the incumbent in the 2004 GOP primary.
   I’m flat-out baffled by at this blog post from Monday that The Dry Heat has been blocked at the White House. If it’s true, I can’t imagine that anyone in Washington, even in the highly partisan Bush administration, singled out the blog of an obscure former Arizona politician for special treatment. It’s far more likely that the White House discourages the working staff from spending their time cruising political blogs of all stripes at taxpayer expense.

Original photo at www.museo-fisogni.org

   Just how wild are the rising gas prices? I paid 20 cents more for a gallon of gasoline at my neighborhood station last night than the last time I filled the 13-gallon gas tank of my 2003 Honda Civic. Wow.
   One piece of good news – average Valley gas prices are the lowest in the nation, a significant turnaround from a few years ago when they seemed to be among the highest.
   I remember when I paid 79 cents a gallon in southern Oklahoma and northern Texas. I guess that was well over a decade ago, but it seems like it was just yesterday.

Fred Phillis (Tribune file photo)

It won’t be long before someone working for the town of Gilbert asks Fred Phillis to reveal his DNA coding, his first crush and whether he really loves his mother.

Phillis, a Gilbert resident, is heading up a petition drive that seeks to force Gilbert Mayor Steve Berman into a recall election this year.

Tribune writer Beth Lucas has reported that Berman’s campaign filed a legal complaint against Phillis, claiming he bought a series of campaign signs to support the petition drive before he formally created the recall committee. Town officials decided anyone already on Gilbert’s payroll had a potential conflict-of-interest in checking out the complaint, which sort of makes sense since one of the main attacks against Berman is he wields too much power at Town Hall.

So Gilbert hired an outside lawyer to handle the investigation. That lawyer, David Pennartz, apparently didn’t accept Phillis’ initial explanation that he bought 10 signs for about $270, and donated them to the campaign once the committee was created.

So Pennartz has sent Phillis a sweeping list of questions that asking for detailed information about everyone Phillis might have talked to regarding the recall.

So far, Phillis is refusing to answer those questions and demanding to know Pennartz’s legal authority for asking them. Good for Phillis. This “inquiry” smacks of harassment and could easily discourage people from talking about political issues if they have to worry about investigators demanding later to know who they are and what they said.

Barbara Barrett (U.S. State Department photo)

President Bush has nominated another Arizonan to be a U.S. ambassador, as
Paradise Valley resident Barbara Barrett has been nominated to represent our country in
Finland.

Sen. Jon Kyl announced the nomination Thursday, a likely sign that he suggested her to Bush in the first place.

Barrett is a business and aviation attorney, chairs the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, and is married to Intel chairman Craig Barrett. Her previous government posts include vice chairman of the United States Civil Aeronautics Board, and as the first woman deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration.

She already has gone through the Senate confirmation process three times, which should smooth the path for her to receive approval as ambassador.

Barrett also is an active donor to Republican candidates and unsuccessfully campaigned for the GOP nomination for Arizona governor in 1994.

Earlier this year, former state Republican Party chairman Robert Fannin was confirmed as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

Gila Bend, Ariz., calls itself The Crossroads of the Southwest. Well, the crossroads were closed to hundreds of travelers Saturday as the town of 2,055 launched a parade as part of its annual celebration for the long-forgotten stagecoach days.

I was on a quick road trip to Mexico Saturday heading south on state Route 85 when I approached Gila Bend. This is a popular route for Valley residents to reach Ajo and Rocky Point, Mexico, or to jump on Interstate 8 to head west to San Diego. The state highway was closed just as we entered town, and all traffic was detoured to streets south and west of the residential areas. We came out again just west of the Love’s convenience store and McDonald’s restaurant, which was just fine for those heading to I-8 but the wrong location if you need to continue south on Route 85. That connection is just east of the McDonald’s.

The traffic lines got pretty long as motorists drove through the detours, and one person working traffic control did his best to stop us from reaching the Love’s store or continuing south on Route 85, even though it turned out those areas weren’t officially part of the closure.

I was stunned Gila Bend, with an economy that depends heavily on tourists reaching those stores and restaurants on the main street, would close the road to all traffic and create such a disruption. Parades can be held any street, after all, but state highways are are funded by taxpayers everywhere to keep traffic moving.

A spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Transportation told me her agency did issue a state permit to Gila Bend for a 90-minute closure as part of the Butterfield Stage Days celebration, which is held on the first weekend in March. She said ADOT relies on local communities to minimize traffic disruptions and to offer alternative traffic routes. I do know the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office was on hand, as deputy vehicles were used in several locations to block Route 85. But those directing traffic appeared to be either town employees or volunteers, as they wore regular clothing and orange plastic vests. I have a phone call in Gila Bend Town Manager Lynn Farmer, and I’ll update this post with any details I might learn about why Gila Bend created this unnecessary headache for travelers.

Sen. John McCain at Wednesday morning press conference (AP photo)

Call it the campaign to win back the faithful. Sen. John McCain hasn’t locked down the Republican nomination for president just yet. But he’s already reaching out to traditional conservatives who long have resented McCain’s willingness to oppose the agenda of the GOP base on key issues such as campaign finance reform, embryonic stem cell research, illegal immigration and a federal amendment to ban same-sex marriages.

During his Super Tuesday speech at a Phoenix campaign rally, McCain promised to defend the “conservative principles and policies” that have defined the national Republican platform ever since the Ronald Reagan years. He mentioned his support for appointing judges who enforce laws instead of making them. And he pledged to defend the nation’s freedom against all enemies, foreign and domestic, yet another reference to his prior career as a Navy aviation commander and Vietnam prisoner of war.

Then on Wednesday, he called out to the various right-wing talk show commentators who started thrashing McCain after his Florida victory moved him into the lead for the Republican nomination.

“I do hope that at some point we would just calm down a little bit and see if there’s areas we can agree on,” he said according to the Associated Press.

Meanwhile, longtime McCain supporters are beginning to talk about their frustration that some conservatives are threatening to sit out the general election if McCain does claim the nomination.

Alberto Gutier is a Cuban refugee and naturalized U.S. citizen living in Phoenix who has been active with the Arizona Republican Party for more than 40 years and sits on the state party’s executive committee. But his Republican credentials have been questioned repeatedly, along with the state’s two at-large members on the Republican National Committee, because of their early backing of McCain over the other GOP contenders.

“It drives me crazy, this talk that we’re not going to come together behind one candidate,” Gutier said. “You want Hillary Clinton (or Barack Obama)? Fine, that’s what you are going to get.”