Presidential election

Let voters decide about Hillary

Mike Huckabee stayed in the primary race until Sen. McCain earned enough delegates to declare him a winner. Why? So people could have a choice and be part of the process. Hillary Clinton should do the same (5/13, Opinion, “Hillary Clinton gracefully should step aside”).

There has been little mudslinging in the last “ugly few months.” The 24/7 TV media and opinion writers pick up on the few negatives, blowing them up and repeating them over and over, because they have a job to do.

If I lived in one of the states that had not yet had its primary, I would be distraught if my candidate quit before I had a chance to cast my vote. The system will work. Allow us all to be part of the process.

Joann Blackburn
Gladstone

Obama’s lack of experience

Edwidge Danticat (5/12, Opinion, “Pro-con: Does Barack Obama offer a real possibility for change?”) thinks Obama would bring a groundbreaking change of leadership to the U.S.

But as an educator, would he choose for his own district superintendent a teacher with minimal years of classroom experience just because that teacher so eloquently and deftly brings his lessons to his students? I think not. He would expect someone with many years of teaching and administrative experience. He would want someone who has expertise in his subject matter as well as the ability to communicate and delegate to others.

Why, then, should we expect any less from a candidate for the presidency? It amazes me that an entire political party dismisses Obama’s lack of experience, congressional or otherwise, as of little or no consequence. It amazes me further that his supporters are more impressed with his oratory skills than with positions of leadership and governance.

A wise man once said that speech is an invention of man to prevent him from thinking. It is also an infallible means of discovering that which he wishes to hide. Democrats do not think cerebrally. They think emotionally. Democrats don’t act. They react.

Peggy Fry
Olathe

Going too easy on McCain

Day after day, the Star’s many conservative columnists savage the Democratic presidential candidates. Conservative Charles Krauthammer, for instance, tells us the gas tax holiday shows Clinton to be “just a pol” (5/13 Opinion).

Meanwhile, Ellen Goodman writes about family matters (5/11, Opinion, “Obama should put verve into his mother’s story”) and Leonard Pitts writes on how “Impulse of uniformity is choking Americans,” (5/13, Opinion). It’s nice that your liberal columnists are sweet.

Maybe it’s even good to know that Sen. Clinton is a politician.

But The Star should choose columnists who remind us now and then about Sen. McCain’s sorry divorce, his pandering to lobbyists and that he, too, demands the gas tax holiday for which The Star’s columnists savaged Clinton.

Charles Hammer
Shawnee

No horse in this race

No longer able to take the daily hammering by the Democratic Party that our country is evil and corrupt, I have changed party affiliation.

The Democratic leaders think that only they and Big Government can solve what they see that is wrong with America. In reality they both are the problem and not the solution. The Democratic Party has moved so far left that I now refer to them as the Socialist Democratic Party. They will say and do anything to get back the White House.

A Democrat will be elected president this year, and I don’t have a horse in this race. There are two socialists, Mrs. “I can’t seem to remember” Clinton and Mr. “my race card trumps any card you have” Obama, and one conservative, Mr. “have shown that I can cross party lines” McCain.

The dumbing down of America continues.

L.F. Buccero
Leawood

Comments

[Jim]

ENG,

You're always dead quiet when it comes to acknowledging that McCain is as substance-free as you say Obama is (if not more), but at least I base that on his actual statements and positions. You can't seem to say anything about Obama without making something up or taking him out of context. The characterization of him as some sort of socialist or appeaser or candidate of Hamas run contrary to the observable proof, that's why those lines of attack are falling flat. When conservatives can sell their ideas and maybe even live them once in a while, then people will listen with an open mind. So far, though, you guys are in for a rough year, one you brought on yourselves.

[Engineer]

Jim
In the tremendous volume of speech that has flowed from the Obama, the one thing he has made completely clear is that he will work to raise taxes as high as he can. He has indicated that he is interested in income equalization by decreasing some incomes. He acknowledges that his proposed increases in the capital gains tax will probably decrease the amount of taxes collected. While passionate over the need for more tax income he is ready to give up tax income to limit some large incomes. He did not answer the point that this action would also decrease some smaller incomes. So if you have a pot and a window to through it out of; dig in, he's coming for you. Personally, I'll keep a low profile, bitterly clinging to my guns and my investments until they come to pry them from my stiff, cold fingers. And come they will if the Obama has his way.

[Jim]

For those of you who didn't join McCain on his trip to the bright and sunny future yesterday, here's the outline of his speech where he laid out his next four years:

1. Get elected
2. ???????????
3. Victory!!!!

Yes, friends, this is the candidate of substance.

[Kate]

Ouch, Jim, I guess Huckabee cost himself the nomination with that one!

(CRD, I don’t mean to tell you how to do your job, but in his 2:49:11 PM post, Jim ended a sentence with a preposition.)

[Jim]

Oh, I don't know Kate. Huckabee's got some entertaining humor you guys can be proud of:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/16/huckabee-jokes-about-obama-ducking-a-gunman/

[Kate]

CRD, in your absence, our grammar and spelling skills just went to hell in a handbasket. Now that you’re back on post, we trust the readability of this blog will be greatly improved. :)

[Kate]

“It seems as though McCain has got an easy ride to this point because a two-horse race is funner to watch than a one-man marathon.”

I agree with Marctnts on this. So far we’ve had the “Tuzla Dash”, “I sat in church, but I didn’t inhale” and now there’s “The Lamb in the automotive lion’s den.” If the Dems want to put the focus on McCain, their candidates need to stop being so dang entertaining.

[CRD]

Grammar is not BuddyT's strong suit.

[Rogue]

Another Lib Whack job quoting the Lib Washington Post like it is the Bible, yawn....

Osama Obamba as the leader of the free world, doing away with all our defense capability, unilaterally disarming, retreat and defeat in the War on Terror. Appeasemnet to the mad man in Iran.

I buying more guns and ammo, and stocking up on canned goods.

We are so screwed.

[CRD]

"IMO the biggest problem the Reps have is the nation is just flat fed up with "fear and smear", with double standards, with "my issues are off limits but every wart your wife has is fair game"."

There's a couple of articles in today's Post suggesting that the Republican party's lack of ideas and dependence on smearing the opposition has ultimately backfired on the party:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051503161.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051503543.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Marctnts]

It seems as though McCain has got an easy ride to this point because a two-horse race is funner to watch than a one-man marathon. Once the Dem's finally sort out all of their crap and nominate a candidate, we'll see a whole lot more scrutiny of McCain and his ideas.

That being said, I agree with jack. I think a lot of Obama's support comes not from those who genuinely agree with his positions (or even the man himself), but from those who are tired of politics as usual and are embracing someone who promises to change things. Whether he can actually deliver has yet to be seen. I tend to think not, since the party machine that he is tied to is one of the two worst things for the nation as a whole, the Democratic Party. The other worst thing, of course, is the Republican Party.

[jack]

You wouldn't hire a school superintendant with a small amount of proven experience. Of course, you wouldn't hire a school superintendant who is 72 years old either.

Funny how McCains problems are off limits while everyone else should be held under a microscope. The country bought that crap once. Remember how nothing that happened before Little Georgie turned forty counted?

IMO the biggest problem the Reps have is the nation is just flat fed up with "fear and smear", with double standards, with "my issues are off limits but every wart your wife has is fair game". The Swift Boat liars have now publically announced that they intend to "attack" Obama "viciously". And more and more of the country is sick of the smear campaigns of the last 12 or 16 years.

It could be that Obama's strongest support will not be people who agree with him, it will be the backlash against the same old same old of the Republican negative campign machine.

[Jim]

Katman,

If what you are saying about Obama were true, he wouldn't be the where he is today. The primaries have a way of weeding out folks with scant experience and no ideas (see: Romney, Mitt).

Besides, the idea of McCain having any "beef" is ludicrous. He was against timetables before he was for them. Now he says his 2013 withdrawl timetable isn't a timetable, but it's "victory." How do we achieve that victory? By sticking to the same policies that have failed to produce it for five years now, that's how.

He was for talking to Hamas before he was against it. Now he attacks Obama for having the same position he himself advocated a scant two years ago.

He's against talking to any rogue regimes under any circumstances, but hires people in his campaign who do lobbying work for rogue regimes. Now he's got to "re-vet" his entire campaign staff to stop the parade of embarrassing lobbyist departures from it. This from the guy who's spent years railing against the influence of lobbyists.

And as far as "messiahs" go, McCain's the one who took us to a fantasy land in his speech yesterday: 2013 under a McCain presidency. OBL is caught, the Iraq war has ended and everything is hunky-dorey, global warming is no problem, the deficit is gone despite his huge goodie-bag of budget-busting tax cuts, and he's healed the sick and raised the dead.

Of course, he can't be bothered with providing any details. That's just how it's going to be. Oh we of little faith.

[katman]

I get the impression many consider Obama the messiah. He has had virtually no experience in government, he has spent mosty of his new term in the Senate 'preaching' about coming change, and he is a gifted orator. "Where's the beef, or perhaps he's a vegan?"

KATMAN

[T. Hanson]

http://LP.org