Fresno Bee Opinion Talk

If I hadn't known the ad was coming, I probably wouldn't even have noticed it. Seems like there was all kinds of uproar in the week leading up to the Superbowl about the Focus on the Family "issue ad" featuring Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam.

On last week's Opinion pages, I included two columns about the ad -- one from each perspective.

Cal Thomas wrote that "Somewhere in the massive TV audience on Sunday will be a man, or a pregnant woman, who will hear Pam and Tim Tebow's message about the good that can happen if individuals don't try to play God."

Tim Rutten, on the other hand, wrote that CBS made a bad call in allowing the ad: "There ought to be places in our lives that are free from profound confrontation."

After watching the ad during yesterday's game, I think the entire situation was blown out of proportion. What did you think?

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin made two weekend appearances that increased speculation that she'll run for president in 2012. Palin gave a speech to the Tea Party convention on Saturday in Nashville and then appeared on Fox News Sunday. Palin acknowledged that she's considering a run for the nation's top job.

"I think it would be absurd to not consider what it is that I can potentially do to help our country," Palin said on Fox News. She said her decision would be based on whether running for president is the right thing to do for the country and for the Palin family.

Not surpringly, President Barack Obama has been the target of Palin's speeches. She mocked him in her Tea Party address Saturday, and also said Obama has a long list of broken promises in his first year in office.

Palin has strong support among members of the Tea Party movement and she has committed to making several speeches at future Tea Party events. Bloomberg news reports that Palin is scheduled to apeak at a Tea Party rally in March in Searchlight, Nevada, which is the hometown of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. The Democrat is up for re-election this year and faces strong opposition.

Social media networks are flourishing as technology takes us in directions we couldn't conceive a generation ago. Commenters on this blog have created a community and some have made friends and maybe even a few enemies. Many of us have reconnected with old pals through Facebook and My Space.

Some use these networks to promote their businesses. The Bee's opinion pages, for example, use Facebook, MySpace and Twitter daily to promote columns and editorials that run in the printer version of the paper and online. This makes good business sense because it extends our reach.

But the emerging technology has brought with it some downsides, including crooks prowling the sites for all sorts of reasons: gathering enough information from your profiles to steal your idenity or to burglarize your home when you announce on Facebook that you'll be gone to Hawaii for two weeks beginning Sunday. The key thing is to understand the technology and know what to put on the Web, as well as what should be kept private.

In today's Bee, reporter Ron Orozco explores the issue in a news story headlined, "Watch your step with social media." Click here to read the story. There are many good tips for using social media properly.

A group of business, community and elected leaders in the San Joaquin Valley is trying to schedule a televised debate in Fresno between Republican gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner. The idea is to use that forum to get the candidates talking about issues of importance to the Valley.

The plan is to air the debate on Univision (KFTV, Channel 21) from California State University, Fresno. April 10 is the proposed date. All this is contingent on Whitman and Poizner agreeing to debate here. Whitman so far has not debated Poizner during the campaign. But there's growing pressure on Whitman to meet Poizner in a face-to-face debate.

The group also wants to schedule a local debate in the general election between the Republican nominee and Democrat Jerry Brown, who does not have major opposition in the primary election.

I have some involvement with this debate proposal. I'm on a subcommittee that would help develop the questions that would be asked of the participants by the moderator from KFTV.

The main debate committee is chaired by Fresno City Council Member Larry Westerlund, and includes Fresno State President John Welty, UC Merced Chancellor Steve Kang, Mayor Ashley Swearengin, former Appellate Justice George Zenovich, west-side rancher John Harris, Fresno Bee publisher Will Fleet, businessman Fred Ruiz,, Sarah Reyes of The California Endowment, Greg Pruett of PG&E, Dora Westerlund of the Fresno Hispanic Chamber and Tim Rios, a senior vice president at Wells Fargo.

Republican gubernatorial frontrunner Meg Whitman has added a $1.4 million television advertising buy, including $100,000 in Fresno, to bolster her massive lead over GOP rival Steve Poizner. The Los Angeles Times and Capitol week are reporting that the advertsing blitz will begin running today in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Fresno. She's spending $1 million of it in the huge LA television market.

Whitman has been on the radio since last year and spent $19 million in 2009 on her campaign to win the Republican nomination in the June California primary election. Now she's going on a TV ad blitz. Can Poizner, who is far down in the polls, handle the latest onslaught from Whitman?

UPDATED

Poizner has responded to the news of the Whitman ad blitz with a statement pointing out news story that Whitman's ads exaggerate the length of time she's lived in California. Click here to see the Poizner statement.

As heated as our debates may get on this blog, I think most of us would agree that we value the individuals who bring all the varied opinions to the table. It's been brought to our attention by one of our commenters that an active voice -- longtime community activist Isabel Lawson -- has quieted recently by some health issues.

Whether you agree with Isabel's perspectives or not, let's all keep her in our thoughts and prayers. As Kim Tanksley said, Isabel "has much more living to do."

A week after President Barack Obama's State of the Union, military officials have publicly agreed with him that it's time to repeal the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and allow gay troops to serve openly for the first time in history. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said service members should not be forced to "lie about who they are."

Some say it's not the best time though:

Ten months before voters elect a new Congress, some Democratic leaders also were leery of trying to change the policy this year, when both sides concede Republicans are likely to pick up seats, especially after GOP Sen.-elect Scott Brown's surprise victory last month in Massachusetts.

Repealing don't-ask-don't-tell is not a winning campaign strategy for a party under siege especially in the South and Midwest.

I don't think we should tiptoe around this any more though. What do you think?

I'm still not sure why California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner went public with allegations that an adviser to Republican rival Meg Whitman tried to bully him out of the governor's race. It didn't make Poizner look strong, and now the discussion has turned to whether he'll actually stay in the campaign.

Those are not the kind of reactions that Poizner needs as the GOP primary campaign gets serious. He's way down in the polls -- the Field Poll released 12 days ago had Whitman up 45-17 over Poizner among likely Republican voters -- and he needs to look decisive and not appear to be a whiner.

While Poizner's charge that Whitman's adviser unethically (and illegally) tried to force him out of the race got him publicity, it's not the kind of press an underdog needs. At a time when Poizner should be showing voters he can de a decisive chief executive, he came across as a victim.

This is how it reportedly went down: Whitman adviser Mike Murphy told Poizner aides that if the insurance commissioner would drop out of the governor's race, Whitman would back him for the U.S. Senate in two years. If Poizner stays in the governor's race, Whitman would spend $40 million ripping him between now and June.

Poizner then called a news conference to reveal the threat and contacted the FBI, the state attorney general's office, the U.S. attorney, the California secretary of state and the state Fair Political Practices Commission. I'm not sure why he didn't contact the CIA and Homeland Security since he was calling in just about every agency that's in the news.

Poizner should be attacking Whitman for her unwillingness to debate him and show Republican voters why he would be a better nominee against Attorney General Jerry Brown, who does not have opposition in the Democratic primary. Poizner has a strong record as insurance commissioner and as an entrepreneur. But on this week's charge against Whitman, his judgment went on vacation to the Bahamas.

State Sen. Abel Maldonado, R- Santa Maria, is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's choice for lieutenant governor, but the Democratic-controlled Legislature will have much to say about whether he becomes the governor's No. 2 man.

On Wednesday, the Senate Rules Committee will take up the Maldonado nomination. Both houses of the Legislature can weigh in on the nomination, or confirm him passively by doing nothing.

Here is how Maldonado explained it on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee:

"The Legislature can vote to confirm, reject or not take any action on the nomination. If Maldonado is confirmed by Feb. 16, a special election can be set up to pick a successor in June. If the Legislature does nothing, Maldonado said, he becomes lieutenant governor at midnight on Feb. 21."

Maldonado was nominated to succeed Democrat John Garamendi, who gave up the LG job after he won a congressional seat in a special election.

Maldonado should be confirmed for two reasons:

1. The job isn't that important so why get so worked up about it?

2. The governor should have a lieutenant governor of his choice from his own party.

The Democrats should confirm Maldonado and move on to something important -- like balancing the state budget.