Questions we need to ask Sen. McCain
In your "open letter" editorial to Sen. Obama of Aug. 28, you challenge him to explain how he will address important matters facing America today - problems initiated or exacerbated by the current administration of George Bush.
Obviously, you haven't been listening too well, but I understand that. It was far more interesting to report the negativity that accompanies primary campaigns, to focus on people who Obama has met throughout his life and judge him through them, to give slanderous lies and mischaracterizations as much legitimacy as the truth.
That's OK, though, because Obama is up to your challenge and will again reiterate his hopes, ideals and plans to accomplish his goals and improve the lives of the middle class for the next two months, when you may pay a little more attention to substance.
I expect you will write a similar letter to Sen. McCain next week, asking him to explain how he will change our course when he has voted with George Bush and his failed policies 95 percent of the time, why he will extend tax cuts for the wealthy at the expense of the middle class, how he will relieve Americans who have no health care, how he will brings jobs to those whose jobs have disappeared, why he will continue to address world problems with military force before diplomacy.
Oh, but be sure to acknowledge that he was a POW forty years ago.
Will you ask why he has not condemned torture? Will you ask him why he has denied benefits to veterans? Will you ask him why he has staffed his campaign with lobbyists and how their special interests will influence him and what their positions will be in a McCain administration?
Will you ask him to explain the Keating Five scandal? Will you ask him why women should vote for him when he has voted against women's issues? Will you ask him how he will reverse the downward slide we have been on for eight years? How his very personally nasty campaign will morph into an administration that ends divisiveness? And exactly how will he be a better leader than the man he echoes in ideology, George Bush?
I will eagerly await those open questions to your man, Sen. John McCain, as I await his answers.
Marie Harris
Bartlett