Political Columnist, The State
Political Columnist for The State in Colombia, South Carolina, he's covered state politics for over 40 years
PROFILE
Lee Bandy
Guest
FROM Lee Bandy
To the Point
South Carolina Governor Turns up in Argentina South Carolina's Republican Governor made national headlines when he refused to accept federal stimulus money. Now Mark Sanford is famous for being absent without leave. Last Thursday, he disappeared without telling anyone where he was going — not Lieutenant Governor Andre Bauer, not his staff, not even his wife. Today he had an explanation. Lee Bandy, who's covered South Carolina politics for 40 years, is now retired from The State newspaper.
To the Point
Comebacks in New Hampshire and the Road Ahead You don't have to be a political junkie to know that Hillary Clinton and John McCain are the comeback kids of yesterday's New Hampshire primaries —even though Mc Cain points out that he's hardly a kid. Barack Obama said Iowa proved white Americans would vote for a black man. Gloria Steinem said it proved gender is harder to overcome than race. Yesterday's results in New Hampshire have prevented a lot of story lines from becoming conventional wisdom. Is Hillary Clinton the front-runner after all? Can John McCain compete against major money in big states? Will religion emerge as an underlying issue? What's up between now and Tsunami Tuesday?
To the Point
Will YouTube and Web 2.0 Change American Politics? CNN hyped last night's Democratic presidential debate at The Citadel in South Carolina as "revolutionary" because real people got to ask questions on video. Some students of politics and the media said the event would do for interactive Web 2.0 what the Kennedy-Nixon debates did for TV. Others called it just a tiny step forward, because CNN got to decide which questions the candidates had to respond to. Some 3000 thousand people submitted amateur videos that tackled everything from serious policy questions to sophomoric humor, including a question on global warming that came from an animated snowman. Did the format make for entertaining TV? Were the candidates more authentic? Did it finally come down to politics as usual?
To the Point
Democratic Presidential Candidates Debate in South Carolina Last night, on the campus of a historically black institution, South Carolina State University , all the Democratic candidates met for the first time. Results of the debate in this very Republican state, whose primary will be held fourth in next year's election process, could be a bell weather, especially for the voting patterns of African American Democrats. Each of the eight candidates got 11 minutes in total during an hour and a half of one-minute answers to questions on complex issues. For the most part, they were nice to each other, tough on President Bush and really angry about the war in Iraq. Are Clinton , Obama and Edwards still the top three? Did any "second tier" candidates distinguish themselves? We hear from across the Democratic political spectrum.
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KCRW Features
Measure B and municipal banking After the 2008 financial crisis, an activist movement rose up in opposition to the big Wall Street banks that caused the subprime mortgage collapse. They camped out in a park at the base of Wall Street, called themselves Occupy Wall street and eventually the movement spread to other cities. And here in LA there is a measure on the ballot for this Tuesday that has its roots in the Occupy LA movement.
The 805
Following three tragedies: two fires and a mass shooting in Ventura On the heels of a deadly mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, two blazes in the area are forcing more than 100,000 residents in Ventura and L.A. Counties to evacuate their homes.