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Paris was for all Americans, but especially for Republicans, a summons to seriousness that should have two immediate impacts on the Republican presidential contest. It should awaken the party's nominating electorate from its reveries about treating the presidency as an entry-level job. And it should cause Republicans to take another look at Chris Christie, beginning with his speech in Florida the day a er the Paris at- tacks. Untilnow,manyRepubli- cans have been treating the nominating process as a mech- anism for send- ing a message to Washing- ton. The erup- tion of war in the capital of a NATO ally is a reminder that the nominating process will po- tentially send a commander in chief to Washington. This might, and should, hasten the eclipse of Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and especially Donald Trump. His coarse, vulgar and nasty 95-minute effusion last week in Fort Dodge, Iowa, an- swered this question: When he begins to fade, will he draw upon a hitherto well-hidden capacity for graciousness, or will he become a caricature of his normal persona, which it- self is a caricature of democra- cy's most embarrassing possi- bilities? Watch Trump on YouTube [http://ow.ly/ULbFW], and consider his manner in light of his stupendously uncon- servative proposal, made one day earlier, for a federal po- lice force. (It would conduct about 500,000 deportations a month to remove approxi- mately 11.4 million illegal im- migrants in two years). Then watch Christie on YouTube [http://ow.ly/ULc5P], and pay particular attention to his af- firmation of the foundational conservative belief in the in- dispensability, the sover- eignty and the prerogatives of nationhood. To the large extent that Trump's appeal is his forceful persona, no candidate in the Republican field can match Christie's combination of a prosecutor's bearing and a governor's executive temper- ament. In Florida, Christie sounded a new theme: "There are all too many people in ac- ademia and in global busi- ness that aren't really inter- ested in America as a nation- state anymore." A day after the Paris at- tacks, outside the theater that was targeted, a German mu- sician, seated at a grand pi- ano bearing the peace sym- bol cherished by people who thought the Cold War was not worth winning, played John Lennon's saccharine "Imag- ine," which includes this: Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for ... Right. Just one big happy caliphate. Lennon, as bad a political thinker as he was a grammarian, never learned this: Countries, meaning na- tion-states, are, for all their shortcoming and dangers, in- dispensable for making self- government possible and se- cure. Heightened security con- cerns might be Christie's op- portunity. The more disor- derly the world becomes, the less luminous is the one cre- dential that supposedly qual- ifies Hillary Clinton for the presidency. The credential is not her adequate but unre- markable eight-year Senate career. Rather, it is her four years as secretary of state. Recall the question Ronald Reagan posed to voters at the conclusion of his single de- bate with President Jimmy Carter a week before the 1980 election: Are you better off today than you were four years ago? The electorate's answer was emphatic. In a debate 10 months from now, the Republican nomi- nee will ask a variant of Rea- gan's question: Is America safer or more respected today, anywhere in the world, than it was when Clinton became secretary of state? Today, Re- publican voters need to ask themselves a question: Who do they want on stage asking that question? It is beyond pe- culiar, it is political malprac- tice for Republicans to frit- ter away time and attention on candidates who, innocent of governing experience, can- not plausibly ask that ques- tion with properly devastat- ing effect. For an example of pluper- fect unseriousness, consider this Trump claim, which is amazingly absurd even con- sidering the source: "I got to know [Putin] very well be- cause we were both on '60 Minutes,' we were stable- mates, and we did very well that night." They were not in the same stable; they were not in the same green room; they were not on the same con- tinent. Trump was in a "60 Minutes" segment taped in Manhattan; Putin was in an- other segment, taped eight time zones away in Moscow. Yet somehow Trump "got to know him very well." Every day that such errant nonsense sloshes through the Republican nominating de- bate is a day when the party's claim to represent what the country craves — adult super- vision — becomes less cred- ible. Fortunately, sufficient days remain for Republicans to reshuffle the deck, to rel- egate Trump's rampaging to the nation's mental attic, and to recognize in Christie a se- rious political talent. GeorgeWill'semailaddressis georgewill@washpost.com. GeorgeWill ChrisChristie has some serious political talent Cartoonist's take When we first heard of the Paris terrorist attacks, my first thought was, "Go get those bastards!" Then I simmered down and thought that rather than send- ing boots on the ground we should bomb them into dust. The trou- ble with that re- action is that our targets of opportunity are rather limited. We know we are dealing with scattered re- ligious fanatics with no home base whose ultimate aim in life is a suicide mission after which Allah will deliver them to heaven and an afterlife of grapes and virgins. However, a cooler head, Paul Klugman, wrote in the New York Times, "Like millions of people, I've been obsessively following the news from Paris, putting aside other things to focus on the horror. It's the natural human reaction. But let's be clear: it's also the reac- tion the terrorists want. And that's something not everyone seems to understand. The goal of terrorists is to inspire ter- ror, because that's all they're capable of. And the most im- portant thing our societies can do in response is to refuse to give in to fear." Klugman is a liberal, and his views are apt to be dis- counted by foaming-at-the- mouth conservatives eager for revenge. But his take on the horrific Paris massacre is a sign of sanity in a world gone mad. He continues, "Jeb Bush declared 'this is an orga- nized attempt to destroy West- ern civilization.' No, it isn't. It's an organized attempt to sow panic, which isn't the same thing. France is not going to be conquered by ISIS now or ever. Destroy Western civili- zation? Not a chance. So what was Friday's attack about? Killing random people is a strategy that reflects the per- petrators fundamental weak- ness. It isn't going to estab- lish a caliphate in Paris. What it can do is inspire fear…which is why we call it terrorism, and shouldn't dignify it with the name of war." ••• The great San Francisco wit, Will Durst, recently wrote about the subject of immigra- tion surfacing in the GOP de- bates. When Trump trumpeted he will build a "tremendous and beautiful wall" to seal off the border between the US and Mexico, Will wrote, "How will the developer (Trump) build a 20-foot-high, 1,952-mile-long wall on the Mexican border without using Mexican labor, remains a mystery. What's the plan here? Draft housewives from San Diego? 'Marilyn, hand me that masonry trowel would you? And grab some spi- ral shank nails, we need to buttress that stanchion.'" Maybe Will Durst should ask the questions in the next debate. ••• We were delighted to note that County Supervisor C. Carlson has taken up the quest for naming the new court- house in honor of the late Sen- ator Clair Engle. It is not clear at this time if such a naming will fly, but it is worth the try and Senator Engle is deserv- ing albeit this posthumous ac- colade. M. Ness, hearing of the effort, dropped off a photo of Clair at the Red Bluff air- port. In the frame is the smil- ing and dapper Senator and his wife who is holding a bou- quet of roses. Also shown are some prominent local sup- porters of the Senator such as sign painter Mason Metherd, insurance man Charlie Dale and Chamber of Commerce manager Andy Goff. Every- one in the picture is smiling, for these were happy days well in advance of the Senator's tragic demise years later from a brain tumor. As the saying goes, the good often die young. ••• TIME magazine came out with a 20-page spread ti- tled "Murder, Race and Mercy" which dealt with the mass shootings in a church in Charleston by 21-year-old Dylann Storm-Roof. But the most revealing part of the story is that the killer may be spared the death penalty be- cause "Many of the victim's family members asked their lawyers if the death penalty could be taken off the table in exchange for a guilty plea and fast track prosecution." The reasons for this startling reve- lation are varied…but the ma- jority of family members be- lieved that matters of life and death are best left to God to resolve and that they, in es- sence, forgive the killer for his heinous act. ••• B. Cornelius pontificated on the subject of jail expan- sion in his widely read col- umn Wednesday. I say, "widely read" because that is how he would describe it…and who am I to question how "widely." I think he has a large family… and as a former probation of- ficer has many people in his debt. However, after reading of the pros and cons of jail ex- pansion, I asked him if "ex- panding up" had ever been considered…as opposed to "ex- panding out." He replied he did not know. I therefore turn to the pow- ers that be to reply. Is the con- struction of the present facil- ity too frail to support a 3rd or 4th story? Who says so? Do we have an expert evaluation of this possibility? The elderly want to know. ••• Columnist Jon Carroll is re- tiring from the S.F. Chronicle, and I have been asked to take his place. Well, not exactly. The Chron ran an ad inviting cur- rent or wanna-be columnists to submit examples of their work to take Jon's spot. They specify that the columnist selected must live in the bay area. Seeing the qual- ity of my work, they might waive that requirement. However, I don't see the Red Bluff Daily News releasing me from my con- tract. It would be tantamount to the Giants agreeing to release Madison Bumgarner from his contract. So, never mind. ••• A guest calls the front desk and the clerk answers, "May I help you?" The man says, "Yes, I'm in room 858. You need to send someone to my room immedi- ately. I'm having an argument with my wife and she says she's going to jump out the window." The desk clerk says, "I'm sorry sir, but that's a personal matter." The man replies, "Listen you idiot. The window won't open, and that's a maintenance mat- ter." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail. com. I say Thoughts in the a ermath of the Paris attacks The more disorderly the world becomes, the less luminous is the one credential that supposedly qualifies Hillary Clinton for the presidency. The credential is not her adequate but unremarkable eight-year Senate career. Rather, it is her four years as secretary of state. Sounding off Alookatwhatreadersaresayingincommentsonourwebsiteandonsocialmedia. Wewillbeoutofgroundwaterby2020, if the drought continues and the county doesn't put an immediate moratorium on new or bigger wells for houses or orchards. Pat Johnston: On the formation of a groundwater sustainability agency They need to hurry up and fix the road to the Elementary School so the young kids don't have to walk in water. Dan Wade: On county approval of major sidewalks project in Los Molinos Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. 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