Alonzo,
I'm sorry but I have to question something you said. It had been my understanding for quite some time that P.T. Barnum never said "there’s a sucker born every minute" So this morning I did some checking and found, http://www.historybuff.com/library/refbarnum.html . Now I have heard that W.C. Fields once said, "As my old friend P.T. could have said there’s a sucker born every minute". I used to use that one when playing a trick on friends but I'm using to much space to go into that right now.

God Bless America, God Save The Republic.

i believe that this advertisement reflects the actual feelings of the candidate. i believe that graves is a homophobic, anti-social, closet racist. if not, then he is just about the most ignorant person in politics. in any case, i could never vote for the man.........

Alozo, you should really stick to local happenings and whimsical stories when penning your columns. When you attempt to bring politics into your stories, you tend to be way off base.

Kay Barnes promotes gay marriage and abortion-on-demand... so does Nancy Pelosi. Sam Graves does not believe in either of these liberal, Democratic positions. What's the problem?

Anyone who doubts Kay Barnes' positions on homosexual marriage should do a Google search on the Camp Magazine that features Kay Barnes on the cover. The Congressman's ads are not 'homophobic', but rather stating where Kay Barnes is on the issues. If she doesn't believe in homosexual marriage or support Nancy Pelosi and her positions, why doesn't she come out and dennounce them? Why? Because she needs the campaign money.
She spent a lot of time in the big city, even serving as mayor, thus forcing her to placate to the ultra left wing factions within her jurisdiction. Now, she is desperately searching for a way to sell us on the premise that she is rural, shares our values, and has her roots in our neck of the woods. I'm not buying.
Her ads claim that the Sam Graves has taken money from 'big oil'. Do a search on Open Secrets for yourself and you will find that his contributions from oil companies are very, very, very minute. Compare them with the money Kay Waldo-Cronkite-Barnes, etc. has taken from trial attorneys.
Truth in advertising? Maybe Kay's ads should be examined as closely as Sam's ads have been. It is obvious the editorial board of this newspaper are in the corner for Kay, so I doubt we will see any examination of her ads.

Maybe there is a stronger parallel between Kay Barnes and our friend Lonesome Rhodes.

Rural values may not be enough for Sam this time. If you check the district's population distribution statistics, you will see that there are more urban and suburban voters than rural ones. The voters from the KC Northland and St. Joseph outnumber all of the rural folks. While it's a rural district in a geographical sense, it's not if you look at the population distribution.

I'm not making a political statement here. I'm just pointing out that Kay could theoretically win without the rural vote. Sam, however, cannot win without securing a portion of the urban/suburban vote. This is going to be an interesting race and a messy campaign.

Alonzo, I can appreciate that you find Grave's ad divisive and juvenile, but do you have to resort to calling those of us who support Graves and his anti-abortion/anti-gay marriage stance gullible suckers who can't think for themselves? Sam Graves commercials described the ideological differences between Kay Barnes and himself. I thought the commercial did what it was intended to do... it informed his constituents that he is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage and his opponent supports both those platforms - just like Nancy Pelosi. It's interesting to see the liberal left trying to spin this commercial back at Graves when it simply described an accurate representation of liberal Democratic candidate Kay Barnes.

Great column, Alonzo. I'd forgotten about Lonesome Rhodes.
Judging from the comments, Sam Graves' ad is apparently successful at appealing to his bigoted base. Too bad he doesn't have any actual accomplishments to advertise.

Jose, it's not bigoted to be anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage just because you seem to agree with those ideals. I'd like to hear more about what Kay Barnes has done for this area other than being the one-time mayor of KC?

familyguy, the image of the dancers Alonzo described is not an argument for your ideals, is it?
It's an obvious appeal to bigotry, bypassing ideals and legislative positions completely.

I will admit that the dancers on the commercial were cheesy and inappropriate. The radio version of the commercial was much better. But, the message is still accurate. Sam Graves is anti-abortion and anti-gay marriage. Kay Barnes is pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage just like Nancy Pelosi. That's what I took away from the commercial.