Letters to the Editor

• I think Brooks is on something

  [Read the article: David Brooks calls Barack Obama a sojourner]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  At least reading his column helps me to focus some feelings I've had that I can't quite make clear.

  Sure, that's what Brooks does best. Wrap some feelings that have no logical place in a gauze that makes them SEEM like they logically connect to facts, while not actually connecting them with any facts.

  That's what makes him such a maddeningly irrational writer - he's literally peddling irrationality as GOPropaganda.

  I don't like McCain's politics, his manners, or his belief system - but I feel more comfortable with the idea of him as President than I do with the idea of Obama as President.

  Good for you. Enjoy the appointment of more conservative judges; no coherent energy policy; no change in global warming policy; no change in Iraq policy and troops there for another 100 years; and in general not one bit of improvement in any front.

  How can I say that? Because McCain IS NOT OFFERING ANY COHERENT OR LOGICAL PLAN for improvement. Period. It's a pastiche of pandering and corporate giveaways. Oh, but on the bright side he's a Viet Nam POW in case you forgot.

  I always thought that Obama would make a great President - someday, when he had proven himself capable.

  So....coming from a single-parent family to graduate Harvard Law cum laude, then working his way up to the Senate by age 40, then putting together a campaign that defeated the most well-funded and entrenched primary candidate in history - that proves no capability?

  Writing two books, one of which won a pulitzer, is no accomplishment?

  He signed onto other people's bills and they were passed in his name without his putting any significant effort into them.... He's nice, but his career is extremely shallow.

  Uh huh. Right.

  Read this and get back to me:

  http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/2/21/164117/783?new=true

  Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 570 bills in the 109th and 110th Congress.

  Senator Obama has sponsored or co-sponsored 15 bills that have become LAW since he joined the Senate in 2005.

  Senator Obama has also introduced amendments to 50 bills, of which 16 were adopted by the Senate.

  McCain is not a nice person. He is a jerk, in fact.

  Agreed. You also left out sexist, racist, lying, and flip-flopping, and lacking in fundamental integrity as shown by his campaign. I can provide citations for all of those, if you wish.

  No one can say that McCain has no character, no accomplishments.

  Agreed. What McCain has is **POOR** character, and no accomplishments on anything that matters since the Bush Admin came into office.

  Unless you count negative accomplishments, such as backing the Bush admin's tragic obsession with Iraq.

  It's an uncomfortable position for a lifelong liberal to be in. Grudgingly admiring the right-winger and not respecting the supposed left-winger in the race.

  True if that were the case - but I honestly doubt that you are actually a lifelong liberal. Perhaps you were once - but from your statements, you are actively ignoring the substance of all of McCain's policies AND ideology, and pushing him over Obama because McCain "feels better".

  And that's the kind of not-thinking that got us Bush instead of Gore in 2000, and Bush instead of Kerry in 2004.

  If you really are a liberal, please look at the facts more, because your emotions are proving unreliable.

  Permalink Tuesday, August 5, 2008 05:26 PM

• @lbrophy - liberal-minded means "thinking liberally". You're not.

  [Read the article: David Brooks calls Barack Obama a sojourner]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  ...just becasue we don't think that Obama is everything you do does not mean that we are not liberal minded individuals.

  OK - how about because you are voting for a conservative hypocrite ideologue who lies and supports Bush's war and economic policies?

  Please explain how you can do that and still be liberal-minded. I'd LOVE to hear that explanation.

  Please try not to be so insulting.

  Interesting that you find that insulting - but I'm just giving you the facts. If you actually vote for McCain, then you are not being liberal-minded in the most factual definition OF "liberal-minded".

  To state the completely obvious: McCain is NOT A LIBERAL, and DOES NOT SUPPORT LIBERAL CAUSES!

  Pretty clear, no?

  Many of the Obama faithful seem to have adopted the GHW attiutude of "your either with us or against us" and that is very troubling.

  Well, I am not one of those people. Tell yourself that I am if you like - but what I am doing is presenting you with the reality of the choices before us. There are two:

  1) A Democrat who has opposed the Iraq war from the beginning, has an economic plan that makes sense, has proposed an Apollo-style initiative to free us from oil, and whose foreign policy and strategy has met with approval from all impartial experts, both here and abroad;

  And who has also shown himself to have great judgement, great character in his marriage, great managment skills, strategic and tactical skills, public speaking skills, diplomatic skills, and grace under pressure.

  2) A Republican who backs Bush's Iraq policies, Bush's economic policies, has a past history of corruption, and has pledged to nominate conservative justices to the SCOTUS;

  And a Repbulican who has shown poor judgment, poor character in his marriage, poor management skills, poor to awful diplomatic skills, and a raging immature temper under pressure.

  So, please - prove me wrong. Please explain to me how choice #2 is the liberal-minded choice.

  thanks,

  ~metasailor

  Permalink Tuesday, August 5, 2008 06:09 PM