There are some ads that come out for candidates that are so unbelievably strange that you just can't make sense of them.
In an ad that takes time to go against the Obama administration, Sam Brownback moves form discussing the Prairie Chicken to saying that he's glad that there isn't a solution to drought, and that if they did have a weather machine of any sort they wouldn't know what to do with it.
That's right. Sam Brownback hates the prairie chicken, apparently is OK with drought as long as it means that Obama doesn't have a weather machine, and that's the kind of man he is.
Brownback's assertion is in fact interesting because there actually is a candidate running this year who knows something about drought.
And his two books on environmental and water policy in Western Kansas are often considered the handbooks to evaluate water policy. When I asked him today what he thought about water policy in the west:
"Ogallala Aquifer is what matters here. If you talk to farmers and communities who work from it - and I'm thinking Groundwater Water District #4, they are busy working on ways of extending the life of the aquifer.
It's fossil water, and has been there tens of thousands of years - once it is used, it is used. This means we are working on new and better strategies of how to use water to protect farms. Every farmer understands good water policy."
I just had one more question for Jim: If Obama
DID have a weather machine, and could stop the drought, as Sam Brownback worries about - would we stand against him?
"That's just silly. Can you imagine farmers during the dustbowl saying: 'it's OK for my farm to fail as long as I don't take a solution from Washington DC?' We're talking something completely fictitious but saying that farmers would better off suffering a drought rather than have anyone end it because they are in another party seems... I don't know, the whole thing is ridiculous if you ask me."
"Wait, did he actually say people wouldn't be happy if someone could stop the drought? Or is that a joke?"
Well, there you go. Sometimes you have to go to the experts in the field, even when they are running a race against another candidate.
For the record, we at least know for sure that Sam Brownback is in favor of drought. I guess. Or, maybe he is just against weather machines.
While Paul Davis is not mentioned in this ad, I was unable to get an answer from the Davis campaign. In my attempt to reach out to the Paul Davis office, we became disconnected when I asked what was there opinion of a national weather machine. I'd try again, but it is so silly I figure maybe they just thought I was prank calling them.
3:49 PM PT: Humor Update
I couldn't resist. Here, you can finally capture Sam Brownback's epic wrestling match with the prairie chicken.