I am aware that the Moderators wish us to keep discussions of politics on a train-oriented Web site down to a minimum, but the Parent Post is overtly political in that it ascribes motives to a group of four state governors who have turned away Federal money for trains.
To the extent that politics affect trains, I am simply asking for people to consider that the Governors in questions turned back the money because they were maybe anti-train, or in Governor Christie’s case genuinely worried about the costs of the tunnel project, instead of being part of a concerted political-tactical effort to give the President a political black eye. I had also suggested that for all of his “tough Northeast-guy” talk, Governor Christie was at a somewhat different level in terms of advanced education and professional achievement than some of the other governors (being a high-level Federal prosecutor is not just some guy passing the bar exam and hanging out a shingle), and his decisions shouldn’t be lumped in with the other three.
With respect to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell boasting of a Republican strategy to block President Obama’s reelection, as a scholar of political science, would you consider that there is some nuance in this? First of all, being Minority Leader in the Senate is by tradition a highly partisan post whereas state governors are expected to