Opinion: Bill And Hillary’s Airport

Scott Shackelford, a former editorial page editor from northwest Arkansas, pens an essay in The City Wire.com on the subject of the newly renamed Little Rock National Airport — now known as the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport.

Shackelford opines that the move makes as much economic sense as it does political, despite critics of the name change.

One can’t help thinking the real problem is that all of us — the public, a handful of vocal critics, and Little Rock’s airport commissioners — are too close to the recent history Bill and Hillary Clinton made (and are still creating) to fully appreciate what it all means.

Decades from today, historians nationwide and Arkansans alike will have a better understanding of where and how to categorize the Clinton’s impact on U.S. history. Perhaps in the eyes of some they will slide a little; for others, maybe they will rise to an even higher ranking.

In the meantime, Bill and Hillary Clinton remain global rock stars who, as fate would have it, once called Arkansas home. Because of their wide-ranging appeal — and because the former president will likely one day be buried adjacent to his glassy shoebox near the Arkansas River – Little Rock leaders want to cement that relationship, that brand, as permanently as they possibly can.

Such reasoning is understandable, if only from an economic development point of view…

…Statistically speaking, the odds that Arkansas would produce the first two-term Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt were off the charts. And yet that happened. Regardless what you might think of Bill’s politics, the chances of an Arkansan reaching the White House in our lifetimes is extremely unlikely — and that includes the possibility that former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee eventually becomes Mitt Romney’s running mate.

You can read his full opinion on the subject at The City Wire.com.