Letters to the Editor
heyjude
Published Letters: 397 Editor's Choice: 42
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Challenge to Barack and Hillary
[Read the article: Who among us does not love Ronald Reagan?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Barack Obama's point and Hillary's point are exactly the same. Regardless of how badly his ideas turned out, Regan got elected because people wanted change and wanted to feel better about America and he could communicate to them what they wanted to hear. He was a pretty good actor and a terrible president. Only the very wealthy and old Republicans still can say Ronald Reagan did anything good for this country with a straight face.
We know you don't and didn't agree with Ronald Regan, both of you. And you do, too. Stop trying to pretend that you think the other one did.
So, here's the challenge. Barack! Hillary! Stop talking about what other people have said and done in the past. Stop parsing each other's words. Get in the present moment. Articulate your own ideas and show us what you're made of. Stop talking about th past and about each other and talk about us, now, moving ahead. Where do YOU want to lead us?
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Why should he worry?
[Read the article: The bucks stops ... well, somewhere]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Bush and his cronies are all leaving this administration much richer than they were 8 years ago. Why should they worry that they have destroyed life as we knew it for the rest of us?
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Shocked, I tell you, shocked ...
[Read the article: Fred Thompson drops out]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I am shocked to learn that Fred Thompson KNEW he was running for president. He always looked like something that was dragged in and propped up by handlers, who wound him up like one of those toys that plays a continuous running tape, then tucked him away until the next stop.
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Why not ask the real questions?
[Read the article: Senators to Mukasey: It's time]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Do you have the cajones to acknowledge that your bosses/benefactors committed war crimes?
If not, how is it that you are the "people's" attorney? Whom do you think you represent?
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Exactly why we separate church and state
[Read the article: What do evangelicals want?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The wisdom of the separation of church and state is evident in this poll and all these posts.
Religion is a personal experience for people. Politics is secular. We are still fortunate in this country that people can pursue their individual beliefs, religious or non-religious, freely without fear of others' beliefs being imposed on them.
And people can make secular decisions that are informed by their beliefs, but they are still secular once the vote is cast. A person may vote for a certain candidate because that candidate expresses, for example, the love and compassion of the New Testament; someone else may cast a vote for that candidate because he/she expresses the commitment to diversity of the Unitarians, etc., etc. But when that person gets into office, his/her decisions will be secular, not religious, and should be based on the will of the majority, who are capable of reaching the same conclusions or finding common ground from very different underlying belief systems.
That was the wisdom of the founding fathers. Good people of many different religious beliefs can come together to do the right things if they don't confuse public action with private beliefs.
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Just shut up, already
[Read the article: Setting the South Carolina bar]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All this spinning is a giant turn-off.
If Bill Clinton would just shut up with all the political rhetoric and scolding the press and predicting elections and instead talk about anything substantive, he might help his wife. As it is, listening to them play good cop, bad cop just reminds me of how painfully out of touch the Clinton administration was with the hopes and dreams of ordinary people and so how blatantly it was all about them and their little psychodramas. More and more, his ego is getting into it and he's the one running for another shot at being, sort of, President.
I hope Obama -- or God forbid, Edwards -- doesn't jump into this quicksand with them. They're in a self-destructive spin. Hillary is a good prospect for president, but Billary -- not so sure about that combo!
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I don't care...
[Read the article: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Tony Rezko]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I hate to keep repeating this, but I really don't care about the nitpicky details of all of this. I care about the fact that our country is in shambles.
Barack Obama said, during the last debate, that nobody's hands are completely clean in politics. God knows, there were plenty of "scandals" about Clinton fund-raising in his elections, not to mention the Chinese contributor to Hillary who turned out to be a fugitive from the law. Fund-raising is hard; rich contributors are not always perfect people; politicians have to deal with it the best they can, which I think both Hillary and Barack have done. BFD. We should have public financing of elections and we should stop forcing people to raise gazillions of dollars to run for president. If all the money that has been blown on ridiculous campaign ads and so on were donated to charity, it would be a nicer world.
So, can we please get back to what matters to us, the people, who don't have any rich contributors in our lives and are trying to scrape by in a rotten economy brought about by a terrible administration that needs to be replaced.
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irony
[Read the article: Et tu, Teddy?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I heard Hillary Clinton talking somewhere on the campaign circuit yesterday about her trip to the inauguration of Nelson Mandela. She spoke of the historic significance of his election and of the wonderful capacity he had to bring people together. For a moment, I thought she was actually endorsing Obama ... But, now, she was laying claim to having met "many heads of states and important people" when she was traveling on behalf of the U.S. during her husband's administration. But, honestly, everything she was saying in that story of Mandela sounded like a tribute to new leadership with a fresh vision.
The irony is, that's the platform Bill ran on way back when ...
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Only if we elect him
[Read the article: So we've got that going for us]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Only if this country is dumb enough to elect a president with a focus on war rather than peace will there be more wars.
I can't believe we will walk down that road again...
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Best wishes
[Read the article: A farewell note]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Best wishes in your new job. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of Politico, but maybe they're upgrading? Hope they appreciate you and you flourish there.