A good start. Mmhmm. I had a friend from mayfair call me and say, i didnt believe it. We had snow as high as buses, and they sent trucks in with frontloaders removing snow so the avenue could open up. Right. So, in effect, schools really were only out the monday. They were back on tuesday. Thats good news for most school parents, anyway. And they really were able to clear a path and not have any deaths, injuries, to speak of, or real delays. The one thing about the city first of all, we know any major snowstorm usually comes around january, february, really early in a new mayors tenure, so thats the main test. But when you have small streets and in philadelphia, we have scores of them. South philadelphia, there are still areas that were paralyzed for a while. North philadelphia, manayunk, roxborough, some of the usual, but what people took heart in is at least there seemed like there was a plan, and they didnt feel like they were purposefully being left behind. I dont know whether we can do some sort of rotation, like, the next snowstorm. All of north philadelphia gets plowed. Next one, all of south philadelphia gets plowed. Take turns. Exactly. Maybe it helped that the new mayor is from one of these smallstreet areas and he said to people, lets start being nice. If you park in somebodys space, i dont want to hear about it. Dont do that. Yeah, but look at kenneys first month. A Police Officer gets ambushed, and he has a storm, and, overall, i think the score, the ratings, would be pretty for high for that. The one problem in the state was who knows, actually, how many trucks and cars that were stuck on the pennsylvania turnpike. 500, they say. Up in somerset, and the Turnpike Commission has promised a thorough investigation, and ive ridden that turnpike many times. I mean, those hills. Youre smiling. Im from there. Are beyond treacherous, and you can understand how you get a couple hundred trucks and the fact that when they get stalled and theyre not easy to move. 30 hours in the bus for the young ladies from the temple gymnastics team. That was rough. But i agree. I think the folks involved in that at all levels did a commendable job. All right. Over to new jersey. Hows Chris Christie gonna fare from not showing up very quickly . He did finally come at the end, and, you know, certainly speak to the people of his state, and it looked like hes helping out. But he had said early on a couple of things that are so quotable. Were gonna have to talk about, do i need to bring my mop . You know, calling one of the mayors, the one in north wildwood, crazy, acting like its below him, almost, to come to a snowstorm. Terrible optics. It doesnt matter that hes not literally the one with the mop, so to speak. You have to be there. And he walked it back, but its too late. Its just who he is. He cannot help himself, when he gets criticized, to jump off. And this is a tremendous i think folks in New Hampshire would have forgiven him for being in jersey. Again, hes not the emergency personnel, hes not in the control room, but just being there. He said, i run a staff of 60,000. They can handle it. And i get that intellectually. But at the time of sandy, when mitt romney really needed him, he said, no, no, no. Politics be damned. I have to be here. And that bought him a lot of good will. He should have gone back to new jersey. Hes below 7 in New Hampshire. Hes clearly hes clearly but you know what . Hes stronger than the storm. Just remember that. Hes stronger than the storm. All right. Lets talk about politics on the poll level. The Franklin Marshall poll had some fascinating findings, and youre gonna tell us more, and everybody can weigh in, of course. First of all, lets find out how folks think, in general, that the state is doing state of pennsylvania. 7 out of 10 now say its on the wrong track and they have a lot of blame to give. So, heres that statistic. Most of them hold the state legislature, 52 , to blame and only blame the governor about 32 . Do you think that thats telling that the governor gets one bad mark but the Legislature Two . Well, short version of this 7 of 10 its a record in my poll state on the wrong track. And then they dont cite, what, the economy, education . They cite government and politicians. How many different ways can you spell dysfunction . Right. I saw another graphic sorry to interrupt, terry but only 15 thought that the state was doing excellent or a good job in the legislature. I would like to meet those 15 . I cant even find 2 when i talk to folks. The governor does better, but, remember, he has the bully pulpit. Hes elected from a statewide structurally. Yeah, exactly. Plus hes been in campaign mode. When a governor comes in to philadelphia, you interview him, right . Right. But if a lawmaker says something okay. You know, you may pick it up. Terry, heres a question. Of the people who say the legislatures terrible. Right. How many think their legislator is terrible . Yeah, well, guess what. They want to throw all the other folks out except their own . No, no, but its closer now than ever. It used to be 50 , 55 said, well keep our own lawmaker. Now were down into the high 30s, so that is changing. But when youre looking at wolfs statistics, theyre dropping kind of fast, considering hes still in the honeymoon. That and the budget issue now right. His Job Performance is pretty much, at the end of the first year, where a guy named tom corbett was and where a guy named ed rendell. It is common for governors in their first year to have a tough time. Every governor from milton shapp they come back at the end of the second into the third. Corbett didnt rebound. Rendell did went on to a big victory. And well have to see about Governor Wolf, whos been but isnt it interesting that wolf, on the one hand, jeff, was elected as a reformer, if you will sort of an anticorbett, somebody thats gonna get it done, a businessman . He knows how to make people come together and get that deal signed at the end of the day. And now we sort of, for different reasons, have dissatisfaction with him, as well. Yeah, and thats amongst democrats as well as republicans. At the end of the day, schools are starving, nonprofit organizations are starving, and theyre not gonna say, well they can say, we believe what Governor Wolf wants, but at the end of the day, hes got to come to the table and provide funds, as well. But you have to remember, at the same time, the republicans in the house reached 120. Mmhmm. No par i mean, you have to go back to eisenhower to find 120 lawmakers from either chamber. Republicans picked up three seats in the senate. So, what was going on was that at the legislative level, the republicans had big gains. Right. Wolf wins with a popular agenda lets do a shale tax, lets increase education spending and the polarization uhoh. What do we have here . Two groups at the opposite end of the poles. Well, wolf also shot for the moon. I mean, he went to the upper edge. Right, and he stayed there for a long time. And he stayed there, and thats why, to jeffs point, his own party said, wait a minute. Thats not going to make it possible for us to get to. Because its about legislating and not understanding how you have to you have to make the deals. You have to do the cuts. But they did. But you also have a bunch of people in there who theyre always determined to put the well, remember that the two houses the house and senate dont agree with each other, either, and these are republicans. Not at all. Not at all. Its dysfunction, as terry said, with a capital d, and the districts are so gerrymandered. They had a framework budget that was a compromise. The Senate Republicans agreed to it, the governor agreed it, and the house, which is more conservative than the senate, did not. What might help wolf and as a reset this year, 2016, the dnc is coming to philadelphia. And when you get all that energy and all of the democrats coming back, there tends to be a reshifting, so depending on what happens, he could ride some additional energy. He possibly could. Get more polarized . [ laughter ] we have to hope not. And, by the way, tom ridge, the only one who had higher marks at the end of year one, so its not everybody. Its just very common. All right. Lets talk about other confidence in elected officials, and were talking attorney general Kathleen Kane again and some movement this past week again as many forces try to force her out. Are we getting any closer . She did say that she believes still impeachment the only vehicle, legally, to get her out, but they are throwing it back to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court rules that her law license must be reinstated, theres gonna be a different outcome in the legislature. These committees are not willing, i guess, to stick their neck out. Is that what the deal is, nia . They dont want to stick their neck out right now. Theyd rather wait for the process, and at least you could say, well, it was fair and we did everything that we could. Now we can go for it. And then you dont have to worry about any partisan repercussions, et cetera. Trust their are democrats on their side, like, mm, she really needs to go, and they need to have some sort of cover. Absolutely. Monica, the Supreme Court makeup now, with eakin on suspension, is 5to1 democrat. If they come out and say her law license should remain suspended, republicans have cover. Right. Exactly. Yeah. And i think its gonna be hard for democrats. Remember, theres two processes going on. The senate, under article 6 in the pennsylvania constitution, could remove her. The governor actually removes her. Right. It hasnt been used in a century that unknown law. Thats right 1891. But he could technically. Exactly. Theyve said, were not moving forward because the reason they have for doing this is that she has a suspended law license, going back to jeffs point. If the Supreme Court were to give her back her license, then you couldnt do that. But this week, a House Committee said, okay. Were gonna the senate, the house should look at impeachment. Right. They didnt go much further than that, so we have two processes going on. And theyre trying to run out the clock. And then she has to file to run for a second term. Shes trying to run out the clock, theyre trying to run out the clock, and its almost like a quasideal. Theyre like, okay, depending on the timing, maybe we can just let this ride. And all of this because shes been accused of, of course, obstructing justice and doing other things as she was leaking some documents, allegedly, from a grand jury. That has yet to be proven. She says shes not guilty, so well see what happens, but, again, whos running the show in the meantime . Whos doing the work for the people in the state of pennsylvania on a law basis . So, she has had some highprofile people, among them ed rendell, who have said, well, now, listen. She doesnt do the litigating. She doesnt direct, and i dont think that dog hunts. I dont think thatll work. Four top deputies have testified that she cant do her job. Absolutely. Now, basically, people whove been longterm employees, top deputies in the attorney generals office. So, they dont have any ax to grind, youre saying. Theyre just describing the job description. But the chief of staff, the top guy, has said she can. So, weve got, internally, within the attorney generals office, all this confusion, and the question shes just about the most unsympathetic figure in terms of how shes conducted herself through all this. And her own party is looking at her, saying, will you please go away, because youre going to kill our chances of retaining this seat . And Hillary Clinton is gonna want her to go away, as well. Lets be real about that. Weve got repercussions up and down the ladder. Bill will not be coming back for her like he did in her First Campaign who are claiming look at the people who are going to run against her a very popular county commissioner down here, josh shapiro, from montgomery county. A highprofile d. A. From allegheny county, stephen zappala, whose father was what . Yeah, a Supreme Court justice i think chief justice. And then john morganelli, another longtimeserving d. A. From northampton. Its not like shes gonna get this nomination easily. And the Supreme Court decision weeks and months away yet, so we have a little while before its decided. We have plenty of time to talk about it on your show. [ laughter ] which we will. All right. Also speaking of elected officials, we talked about governor christie and the flak that he took. Do you think he paid a price in New Hampshire lets talk president ial politics with a local spin because he didnt go back so quickly and show his state that he was all over the blizzard . Do you think, in fact, that its gonna cost him . No, not in New Hampshire. Hell rise or fall on other merits when it comes to that. How will he do in New Hampshire, then . [ laughter ] well, he no. We already see that john kasich looks like hes moved into second place, and. Rubio may actually enjoy some buoyancy out of this last debate and depending on what happens in iowa. You have to think christie had a very narrow path, and it really does look as if its collapsed. But he was riding on New Hampshire not so much iowa. New hampshire was it, and to the point of rising, hes matzo right now. Lets look at a couple of graphics we have showing the latest on the democratic side. Hillary clinton weighing in at about 46 , Bernie Sanders among the highest numbers hes seen, at 29 . Thats what voters currently believe. She does hold the lead, of course. And then on the republican side, donald trump is still in the top. He is the frontrunner, at 24 , even though he didnt debate in that final debate. He had his own separate event, if you will. How do you think that played to people, though . Do viewers take that as the guy, you know, was unnerved by a reporter and didnt have the leadership skills to stand up and go to the debate . No. I dont think that has anything in the poll that we did, if you take a look at pennsylvania, it looks like the national polls. I mean, think about it. Hillary clinton has a sizable lead nationally. She has a sizable lead here. Bernie sanders is up 11 points since the october poll i did for abc6. Okay. Whats happened nationally . Sanders has closed the gap. Yeah. And lets go to the national poll. Is it gonna be enough to unnerve her and do what happened the last goround . No. Hillary clinton is very popular. She has the scranton roots. Her dad was born in scranton. He played football for penn state. She has lots of support down here in the southeast rendell. You can go through the list of people whove raised money for her. Shes very popular. She beat obama in our state in the 2008 primary by 10 points. Shes clearly in good shape to win. All right. Lets talk about who has fared well or not well in iowa and New Hampshire but still went on to win the white house. They certainly all didnt nail it, you know . Bill clinton didnt, actually. Ronald reagan. Right. Of course. Ronald reagan. So, do they matter . Is it gonna matter what happens there . Iowa, no. New hampshire, maybe a little, because i think what we could see in New Hampshire is whos the alternative . If we see trump or cruz come out of iowa, which is what we thinks gonna happen one or the other and then trump looks likely in New Hampshire. But if you see who comes in second, what New Hampshire remember, in New Hampshire, independents independents can vote in New Hampshire, and its a true election. They have to go to the ballot, unlike iowa, which is unrepresentative. One thing to look at theres 150 fbi agents looking in to Hillary Clinton not just the emails, but now theyre starting to look into the foundation and the question of whether her position as secretary of state influenced the fates of the foundation with foreign donors. Interesting. That is a big deal. Director comey is probably a bigger threat to hillary than Bernie Sanders. All right. Lets talk more. Well take a break, and inside story continues for you right after this. Stick around. Inside story is presented by temple university. Temple fuels students with academics and opportunities to take charge. Plugged into the city, powered by the world. Temple. Edu takecharge. Welcome back to inside story. An interesting decision by the u. S. Supreme court. The original decision in 2012 said that juveniles who have been given a life sentence they can have that looked at and perhaps reconsidered, and now theyve rule that it can even be retroactively looked at for reconsideration since they did a crime in their young years. That could affect 400 juvenile offenders who are now adults in most cases, even murder cases, and some people are saying that thats a good thing, to give them a Second Chance in case it didnt, you know, appear to be a fair outcome in the getgo. Others are saying its not fair because they perhaps took a life. In the one case, a 17yearold i read about, aaron phillips, was stealing a wallet, knocked over, pushed over, an elderly gentleman he stole the wallet from, according to what i read, and the gentleman had a heart attack and died, and he got charged with murder and went down for that. So, is this a fair situation . Do you like the Retroactive Application . I do like the Retroactive Application, cause what you can do is go back and look at all the circumstances behind the case and look at where that person is now. I mean, even for boys, we know scientifically and medically, boys their brain stem does not completely attach until about 22. If ever. Im saying. So, really, there are circumstances that we should consider fully. Im not saying let a bunch of murderers, coldblooded, go out, but there are many circumstances that really need a closer examination, and lets not forget