Letter to the Editor

Letter to the Editor

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Too many are dazzled

by all the glitter

To the Editor:

Probably by now most of the confetti and balloons have been swept out of Denver and Minneapolis; however it will take a little longer to police up all the B.S. which is often euphemistically referred to as "politics." Having no political savvy myself, even I did come away from these conventions with some uncontestable assertions:

(1) Polls show that most women won't vote Republican just because there's a women on the ticket.

(2) Polls show that even more than in the past most of the black community will vote Democrat because there is a black candidate on the ticket.

(3) The Republicans have selected a candidate who is too moderate for most conservatives, but who, in turn, selected a running mate who has energized the conservative base.

(4) The Democrats have selected a candidate who has a reputation for being the most liberal in the U.S. Senate, and who, in turn, selected the third most liberal senator as his running mate.

(5) The Democrats are trying to discredit Sen. McCain by claiming that he agrees with President Bush "90 percent of the time" (I am not clear how they came up with that figure) while boasting bipartisan consensus meanwhile disagreeing with President Bush virtually all of the time.

(6) The Republicans have selected a candidate who has honorably served his (and our) country his entire adult life, nearly losing it early on.

(7) The Democrats have selected a candidate whose close spiritual ("Rev." Wright), political (Farakahn), economic (Resko), and anarchistic (Ayres) associations would preclude his ascension to even local public office (at least any locality where I would care to live).

Too many of us are dazzled by the glitter, bamboozled by the spin without research of the record -- the record which should reflect future performance. Maybe too many of us are "congenital" members of a particular political party, sacrificing personal values and ideology in the name of party pride.

Tom Bailey

Lyons