Being a blogger means that you don't have to worry too much about your biases. So, I won't hesitate to admit that I hate corn. I'm deathly allergic to corn and everything derived from corn, including corn on the cob, cream corn, pop corn, corn starch, and corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is a special difficulty. I'm just as allergic all the crap that's sweetened with corn syrup and haven't had a Coke in 16 years now. Microwave pop corn is a particular problem microwaving projects corn smells into the air. Once I smell microwave pop corn, I have about five minutes to get out of the building before I have trouble breathing.
Needless to say, corn doesn't make my day.
So, I didn't particular mind when John McCain said that he would eliminate ethanol subsidies for corn growers. Being so allergic to corn, I can't help but wonder if I'll be able to breath at all if corn-based ethanol becomes a pervasive substitute or additive for gasoline.
But if I were John McCain, I would have explained my opposition to ethanol subsidies a lot more than McCain ended up doing. That's because the corn belt agricultural area extends from Ohio to Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, Minnesota, and South Dakota. McCain can't win Illinois, but he can't afford to lose Ohio, Indiana, or Missouri and he'd like to have a good shot in Minnesota as well.
Indiana is a special case. It's a big Republican state that hasn't voted for a Democratic candidate since 1964 (at least). If McCain loses Indiana, he's doomed. So is the Republican Party.
But McCain's only a couple of points ahead in the recent polling and Indiana is now rated as either a weak Republican state or a toss-up. I've seen reports that the root of McCain's problem in Indiana is his opposition to ethanol and I imagine that the McCain campaign has seen the same reports.
As a result, McCain should have taken some pains to explain his opposition to ethanol. Otherwise, Indiana might want John for something other than the presidency.
That reminds me of the lyrics to the R. Dean Taylor song--"Indiana Wants Me, but I can't go back there."
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2 comments:
Dr. Caric, slightly off-topic, but if you were craving a Coke for some reason, often in Mexican grocery stores you can find coke that is sweetened with cane sugar instead of HFCS.
I've never personally tasted it, but my ex and her father claimed it was much better than American Coke.
Could you provide a link that explains McCain's opposition to ethanol subsidies? This doesn't seem like the right sort of political environment to start saying you want to make an important (flawed, but important) alternative to oil harder to get produced. And I would think that that would factor in to voters' decisions all over the country, not just in the corn belt.
I found the link and edited the post to incorporate the link.
Actually, there's a good argument against corn ethanol. Coverting corn to ethanol is a bad deal because it takes more energy than the ethanol provides. I'm not an expert here, but it seems that sugar works better.
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