The Kansas City Star, Jan. 12

Gov. Greitens avoids tough issues and focuses on the easy stuff in State of the State

Is it possible to sidestep the ongoing drama over Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens' extramarital affair and whether he can survive in office to talk about something at least as important?

Dare we say it: We're going to talk about issues.

More specifically, we're going to talk about all the issues that Greitens left unmentioned, or barely addressed, during his second State of the State address this week.

This was the speech that ended just before the news broke that Greitens had engaged in an affair in 2015 when he was exploring a run for governor and had allegedly blackmailed the woman during their tryst. Greitens has admitted to the affair but has denied the blackmail.

It goes without saying that Greitens' 2018 agenda is severely compromised. This was to be the year, after all, that the governor was in position to fully exert his will on the legislative process now that he has a year of governing under his belt. Much of that is now lost.

Although the ongoing soap opera over the affair will block out the sun, at least for awhile, the work of governing remains. The to-do list in the Show-Me State is extensive, and Greitens had a golden opportunity Wednesday night to at least get the ball rolling on a series of initiatives and set an aggressive agenda. He whiffed badly.

What he didn't mention is more significant than what he did. Not a single word on transportation and the state's under-funded highway network even though a legislative task force just stepped forward with a bold proposal for a gasoline- and diesel-tax increase. Missouri still struggles to maintain the seventh-largest highway network in the country with a gas tax that ranks 47th.

Nothing on the governor's vision for higher education or K-12 schools. He also didn't mention his fixation on charter schools that's manifested itself through the ongoing controversy involving the state Board of Education. The opioid crisis? Nothing. Health care in rural Missouri? Again, not a single word.

The state's perverted prison system that's spurred legal settlements totally millions of dollars? Zilch. Sexual harassment in the Statehouse? Utter silence. The same for human trafficking and the homicide epidemic gripping Kansas City and St. Louis that remains a black mark on his state. On ethics, which was a centerpiece issue of his campaign, Greitens practically raced past the topic, mentioning only the need for lawmakers to pass a ban on lobbyist gifts to elected officials. His own ethical missteps surely prevented a sharper focus.

The governor may be wishing that avoiding any mention of these mega-issues will somehow make them disappear. If only life were so simple.

The hard political reality here remains unchanged: Gubernatorial leadership is essential if big issues are to be tackled and tackled successfully, particularly in an election year. If Greitens can somehow emerge from his self-inflicted wounds, there are numerous efforts worth leading.

Greitens deserves credit for his laser focus on Missouri's 13,000 foster children who deserve better. But in general, the governor appears too willing to avoid the tough stuff, such as the undeniable need to raise taxes for highways, and focus on easier tasks, such as the major tax cut he plans to unveil soon.

It's a shame. A governorship is a terrible thing to waste.

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The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Jan. 13

Greitens and Trump — the Thelma and Louise of American politics

If they ever created a "Thelma and Louise" award for most spectacular launch into the political abyss, Gov. Eric Greitens and President Donald Trump would surely be the hands-down winners.

They are both first-time politicians who astounded their more experienced opponents and won election to office in 2016. Both claimed a nonexistent popular mandate to destroy and rebuild their respective governance systems. And less than a year into their terms, both have spectacularly self-destructed.

Greitens is now fighting for his political life because of a 2015 sex scandal. Republicans in the Legislature have abandoned him, and he's now the subject of an investigation by the St. Louis circuit attorney.

Because of comments Trump made last week, countries around the world are now contacting their respective U.S. embassies to ask whether they qualify for the president's designation of "shithole."

Trump's latest gaffe — assuming he doesn't commit another before this editorial goes to press — follows remarks he reportedly made last month expressing his belief that Haitians "all have AIDS" and worrying that Nigerian immigrants in this country might never "go back to their huts."

Trump has faced racist accusations since, as a private citizen in 1989, he campaigned for the death penalty for the so-called Central Park Five — black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park. Though they were wrongfully convicted and later absolved, Trump insisted as recently as the 2016 presidential campaign that he was right and everyone else was wrong.

He has aligned himself with white supremacists. His racially insensitive tweets and verbal taunts are legendary. As much as congressional Republicans may try to support his agenda, Trump undermines them at every turn.

Likewise, Greitens has squandered the overwhelming Republican majority he enjoys in both houses of the Legislature, largely by repeatedly insulting his colleagues as corrupt, lazy and ineffective to burnish his own public image. He berates them for lax accountability while keeping his own activities secret and refusing to account for his own campaign-related finances.

It didn't have to be this way. Neophyte politicians have succeed in the past. President Dwight D. Eisenhower won election in 1952 without elective experience. He boldly challenged what he called the "military-industrial complex." He succeeded where Trump and Greitens have failed largely because he respected America's time-honored democratic institutions and worked within the system rather than pursuing a wrecking-ball approach.

Both Trump and Greitens are fighters who keep getting up, even when they've been delivered knockout punches. But the prospects of either leader surviving to the end of his term look increasingly grim, largely because, like Thelma and Louise in the 1991 movie, neither will take his foot off the accelerator while hurtling toward the cliff ahead.

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The St. Joseph News-Press, Jan. 15

'No visit' label reckless, unfair to Missourians

Passing along ill-informed opinions as well-considered arguments or even facts — beware of this practice and the harm it can cause.

The editors at Fodor's, the big travel guide company, make their living offering opinions about places in the world to visit. No concern, there. But Fodor's, as of November, unfairly has taken the additional step of tagging the state of Missouri on its "No List 2018."

This means in all the world, Missouri is among the 10 places Fodor's recommends travelers avoid this year. Consider the others:

? Endangered ecological treasures, such as The Galápagos and Phang Nga Park in Thailand.

? The Taj Mahal, which will be covered in a mud paste for much of the year as part of a needed cleaning. The Great Wall of China, which is deteriorating, and Beijing, so overtaken by air pollution. Mount Everest, which offers a unique experience but comes at a risk to safety and a hefty financial cost that make it simply not worth it.

? Destinations that have been become overrun by tourists and can be hostile to visitors, including Venice and Amsterdam.

? A motley crew of rouge actors: Myanmar, described as one of the world's pariahs due to a violent campaign of "ethnic cleansing" targeting the Rohingya minority. Honduras, with a murder rate that makes the country among the deadliest places on Earth. Cuba, complete with complicated travel restrictions and a mysterious illness reported among American embassy workers.

It's disappointing but not a mystery how Missouri was placed in with this last group. Fodor's displays a combination of bias and recklessness in tagging our state and our tourism sector, including the tens of thousands of hospitality industry workers who rely on visitors for their livelihoods.

Fodor's criticizes Missouri as "the place where SB 43 was passed." The over-simplification comes in presuming that because it now is harder to win an employment discrimination case, suddenly all of the state's employers are to be judged supportive of discrimination. In fact, nearly all will argue the measure simply restores a balance lost in a series of court cases that had made Missouri one of the easiest places in the country to bring a frivolous lawsuit and win.

The travel guide then picks up on the Missouri NAACP travel advisory issued last summer, which contends visitors to the state face "looming danger." These words come from state NAACP leader Nimrod Chapel Jr., who contends Missouri has "a separate standard of laws that are only applicable to some people." The evidence of this, however, amounts to a smattering of anecdotes — a legislator's homophobic comments, a tourist who was tragically murdered — and the well-documented concern that minorities are pulled over by law enforcement officers more frequently than whites.

Missouri is not without its flaws or areas in which it must continue to strive for improvement. And yet it hardly is the only state that struggles to root out bias in traffic stops, contends with concerns over equal treatment of the races or has fought over laws governing employment practices.

To merely pick up on some of these themes, apply them to our state and single us out as unworthy of a tourist's visit suggests Fodor's went down this path with preconceived ideas or an agenda.

It's not reality that Missouri has institutionalized workplace discrimination, or that it is unwelcoming to all races, or that visitors are likely to fall into harm's way. We invite the editors at Fodor's to risk a visit this summer and see the truth for themselves.