The Associated Press

Here is what some of Ohio’s other newspapers are saying on their editorial pages:<!—->.

Wednesday, October 25, 2000

Here is what some of Ohio’s other newspapers are saying on their editorial pages:

Politicians benefit from code

As voters decide whom to pick for president, many probably are scratching their heads as they try to sort out if and how they would benefit from competing tax proposals offered by Democrat Al Gore and Republican George W. Bush.

The plans are loaded with so many cuts, credits, adjustments, ifs, ands and buts that even tax experts face a challenge in explaining just what effect the plans would have on any particular family.

This underscores yet again the crying need for tax simplification. Internal Revenue Service regulations run to more than 12,000 pages, and compliance with those regulations is estimated to require more than 5 billion hours and cost more than $200 billion each year.

The biggest beneficiaries of tax-code complexity are politicians, who can tweak any of the thousands of provisions to benefit favored constituencies, whose members then can be expected to reward the politicians with votes.

– The Columbus Dispatch

Gore’s style is too contrived

The three presidential debates were supposed to serve Al Gore. George W. Bush would be overmatched, or so the conventional wisdom went. In each, Gore had the greater command of issues, the more cogent arguments for his cause.

On Oct. 17, in St. Louis, Gore delivered his strongest performance. He also offered a reminder. Style plays an indispensable role.

The vice president has no trouble dissecting the nuances of programs and policies. He isn’t as adept at telling the larger story, at defining themes that resonate with an audience.

In that sense, the debates didn’t serve him well. They presented an opportunity, and he missed. What has really hampered Gore is his campaign style. It appears so awkwardly contrived.

– The Akron Beacon Journal

Schools shouldn’t recruit

It’s easy to pick apart a solution to a problem, because rarely, if ever, do people come up with just the perfect answer. That’s the case with the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s new rule to curb recruiting of high school athletes.

The new rule says that a student must skip sports for a year after changing schools with three exceptions. The student can play if his parents actually move from one school district to another, if the superintendents of both districts agree the transfer is needed for the student’s physical or mental well-being, and if a school closes.

We see no reason to allow high schools to recruit, to go out and solicit a student into their athletic program. Call us naive, but we still think that academics is the most important part of the ninth through twelfth grades. At this level of competition the win-at-all-costs mentality is out of place. Or at least it should be.

– The (Warren) Tribune Chronicle

About two weeks ago we endorsed a Cleveland appeals court judge, Terrence O’Donnell, for the Ohio Supreme Court against incumbent Justice Alice Robie Resnick.

We do not, however, endorse the sleazy television ad campaign that is now being waged against Justice Resnick.

The ad – launched not by O’Donnell, but by an arm of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce that is shielded from most campaign disclosure laws – is artful in its duplicity.

It makes a grossly offensive suggestion – that a sitting justice of the Ohio Supreme Court tailors her decisions to suit those who contribute to her campaign – with no evidence to back it up.

Judge O’Donnell has taken pains to point out that he had nothing to do with the ad and has no involvement with Citizens for a Strong Ohio. We’re heartened by that. But he has done nothing to discourage the tactics used by this group. O’Donnell can and should ask the group to pull its misleading, destructive ad – now.

– The Cincinnati Post, Oct. 23