​The oil boom is over and New Hampshire has its say

The oil boom is over

Last week, I wrote a news story about the budget shortfall in North Dakota. It may be hard for politicians to say it but it certainly does seem like the oil boom is over in the state. And you’d think a $1 billion miss on budget projections would be enough for state officials to get off this fantasy of hoping that oil prices will turn around and oil production will ramp up again. But it’s not.

Lynn Helms, director of the ND Department of Mineral Resources, has always said that the current oil boom is a long term play. But what kind of a long term play? If we are at the mercy of OPEC and Saudi Arabia on oil prices, who aren’t idiots and realize the putting oil over $100 a barrel again will just lead to more US production which will ultimately cost them money anyway, it’s easy to see that things may never get back to what they once were.

It is important to not put all your eggs in one basket. Agriculture has been our lead economic engine for years. We shouldn’t forget the role Fargo’s growth has played in our state’s continued economic success in recent years as well. But let’s get real here and get away from budget projections so far off the mark state agencies have to cut millions of dollars across the board. Even with North Dakota’s Legislature meeting biennially, this wasn’t that hard to see where it was already going. Obviously, budget projectors should have been more conservative. And state leaders need to face the hard facts that this boom is probably done.

New Hampshire gets Trumped and Bernied

In the presidential race, we now have results from New Hampshire where Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump won resounding victories. The one thing you will have to watch now is the efforts of the establishment of both parties to prevent these two from getting the nomination. They really don’t want them to have it because they think both of them will lose the Presidency if they get the nomination and will do everything in their power behind the scenes to make sure they don’t get it. In Donald’s case at least, I think they are right.

What an embarrassment the GOP is, it takes one debate to realize fears that their ABTC (anybody but Trump or Cruz establishment candidate) is not ready for prime time and probably not ready to be President--one debate! I could have told them that before the debates. But they are so desperate for finding a mainstream tolerable candidate that one state’s results are enough to send them fluttering and one debate’s results are enough to send them sputtering. In this case I am talking about Senator Marco Rubio who finished third in Iowa and was the darling leading establishment candidate for all four days until a strange, repetitive Mr. Roboto debate performance saw him fall down the pack in New Hampshire.

Now that race is even more jumbled with John Kasich coming in second in New Hampshire and becoming the latest darling middle of the road candidate. I honestly can’t see who will emerge as the big challenger or threat to Trump or Cruz from getting the nomination but find it hard to believe it will be Rubio or Kasich.

Someone to watch will be billionaire former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg who is considering an independent run for President and has the money to do it and could be a moderate choice to fill the doubts of those who would have a hard time voting for Sanders or Trump.

Bernie Sanders won every demographic in New Hampshire and became the first Jewish presidential candidate ever to win a state’s presidential primary. His challenge going forward will be winning a state with a large percentage of minority voters, a key Democrat constituency which Hillary Clinton seems to have locked down, and any roadblocks from party officials worried about him getting the nomination.

Hopefully the temperature gets turned down a little following New Hampshire’s results. When you have Bill Clinton saying Sanders supporters are sexist, former Secretary of State Madeline Albright saying there’s a special place in hell for women who don’t vote for Hillary,and Gloria Steinem saying young women are only supporting Bernie because they want to win the affection of young men. How about we stop insulting and belittling women for making their own choices in the race for President?

Are people who didn’t support Carly Fiornia on the Republican side sexist as well? Democrats should be above that type of thing as leaders in the fight for women’s rights. Certainly there’s been a lot of recent talk about “Bernie Bros”, male supports of Sanders who make sexist comments about Hillary online, which Sanders condemned recently. I think that phenomenon is a bit overblown.

There’s no question there is a ton of animosity towards Hillary and some of it is sexist but not all of it is. And especially not from a majority of Sanders supporters. But if we are going to condemn those disparaging Hillary unfairly, can we at least do the same to Hillary supporters unfairly ripping Sanders female supporters? That’s not too much to ask.