Focus on Obama's message of change
In regard to Silvio Pontarelli's recent letter about Obama, it seems to me that politicians commit social blunders all the time and we keep re-electing them.
A social blunder does not invalidate a candidate.
In regard to his remarks about rural voters being bitter, I think he just told it like it is, and if they rely on guns or God, it just means they rely on something to make them feel better when they're bitter. You don't have to live out in the country to feel this way.
I find that a lot of politicians are elitist and somewhat arrogant, and that seems to be the nature of the beast.
I don't expect Obama to be any different. I just expect him to do what he says he can do to make things different in Washington. It is time for a change.
Whether he heard derogatory comments from his pastor or his barber does not matter. We have all heard derogatory comments about the government and even laughed at some of them.
I'd like him to make some changes that will make it unlikely we'll need to criticize our government in the future.
Who he associates with should not be that big a deal, since most of our politicians seem to associate with people who could not get past a grand jury investigation.
We do not elect associates. We are voting for a president, not a first lady.
If she has had some issues with being proud of America, I'm not surprised. There are a lot of people right now who are not too proud of our country for legitimate reasons and they want that to change.
And whether or not he wears an American flag pin or not is not really that important. It's what he says and does rather than what he wears that really matters.
Yes, we should demand to know what Obama stands for, but he has been trying to tell us through 20-some debates and numerous speeches where he stands on issues.
And the implication that the Obamas do not work for a living, but live off of us, is probably true for any politician who gets a government salary.
The real question is are we getting what we pay for? Are they working for us or special interests? Are we better off now than we were four years ago?
Chuck Bennett
Mount Prospect