Day by day, the Manchester Union Leader grows more out of touch with political reality. Today’s lead editorial, which is sub-titled, "It’s about good governing," claims that Frank Guinta won reelection as Mayor of Manchester because he ran on “managerial competence,” as if he were some type of Michael Dukakis clone – “this election is about competence, not ideology.” There were three issues in the Manchester mayoral race: taxes, crime and education. The only issue where does was a substantive difference between Guinta and his Democrat opponent was on taxes. Guinta had cut taxes, while the Democrat wouldn’t rule out raising taxes.
The Union Leader doesn’t even mention that the voters in Dover passed a tax cap.
In the post below, "Winner, winner chicke-dinner, I argue that taxes are still what matters most, and if Republicans want to be successful in the state races in 2008 they need to start talking about cutting taxes. Trying to portray the Democrats as income tax bogeymen hasn’t worked because the voters believe that Lynch will veto an income tax. Time for Republicans to up the ante by making the debate about cutting state taxes.
