McCain's judgment falls very far short

Over the summer, McCain sang the words "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" to the Beach Boys song "Barbara Ann," thus summing up in six words the complete depth of his foreign policy.

Six weeks ago, John McCain chose Sarah Palin as his running mate.

A person who talks like Marge Gunderson from the movie "Fargo" but who isn't half as smart as Marge. A person who believes that proximity to Russia qualifies as foreign policy experience. A person who, when asked what Supreme Court decisions she can name besides Roe v. Wade, answered "Roe v. Wade." A person who cannot answer the simple question "what newspapers and magazines do you read?" A woman who is so clueless that she refuses to be interviewed by journalists anymore.

Three weeks ago, despite the news of financial sector bailouts, John "Carnac the Magnificent" McCain stated that "the fundamentals of the economy are strong" before events that same day had him hastily backtracking.

Then he said that as president, he would fire SEC Chairman Christopher Cox, despite the fact that a president doesn't have that power.

Two weeks ago, McCain promised to suspend his campaign to concentrate on federal bailout plan, thereby proving that he is incapable of dealing with more than one crisis at a time.

Last week, the stock market has gone down 17 percent. Yet, the only thing that McCain can talk about is Barack Obama's alleged ties to 1960s radical William Ayers.

Of course, the stouthearted McCain didn't have the guts to mention Ayers to Obama's face during the town hall debate. Instead, he waited to talk about Ayers in the comfort of campaign stumps in front of his loving supporters.

This country is facing the worst financial crisis in 75 years, but the subject of William Ayers is the most important issue to McCain.

Robert H. Fredian

Arlington Heights