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Updated Sept 18th, 2008
Letters to the Editor
McCain’s
‘Straight Talk
Express’
This election, like most, has
included stretching the truth by both
sides. But for the last few weeks, the
“Straight Talk Express” has been
anything but. I am reluctant to use
the “L” word, but to repeatedly say
something that is obviously false is
a problem.
In the last few weeks, McCain’s
campaign has repeatedly claimed Obama wants to teach comprehensive
sex education to kindergartners
when, actually, Obama supported
age-appropriate “beware of
strangers” education. McCain’s ads
also say Obama would raise taxes
on the middle class when, actually,
Obama’s plan would lower taxes on
the middle class.
The claims by Palin are equally
inappropriate. She claimed she
proved her disdain of pork spending
by saying “thanks, but no thanks” to
Congress regarding the “Bridge to
Nowhere.” Yet she publicly supported
the bridge before it became an
embarrassment. She claims Alaska
supplies 20% of the energy consumed
in the U.S., when it is really
3.5%. It’s becoming clear that
McCain and Palin would rather lose
their integrity than risk losing the
election.
McCain is describing his ticket
as being about change. Yet his positions
on taxes, energy, Social
Security, foreign policy, the Iraq
war, Supreme Court justices and
Rove-style politics are extremely
similar to the current administration’s.
A recent analysis showed that
based on the cost per household to
build solar systems, we could power
over 80% of the houses in the U.S.
for less than the cost of the Iraq war.
With the world currently pulling
over 1,000 barrels of oil out of the
Earth every second of every minute,
of every hour of every day, it should
be obvious this can’t last. Our being
less dependent on oil would make us
and the world a safer place. Tackling
alternative energy projects versus
drilling to get a tiny bit more oil
from Alaska is change I can believe
in and is consistent with Obama’s
vision.
I can, with difficulty, understand
some people favoring the
Bush/McCain positions, but to
claim the McCain ticket is about
change when contrasted with Obama’s is more than just a stretch.
You might not agree with all of
Obama’s positions, but he has a farsighted
vision that will be better for
America and, thus far in this campaign, he has demonstrated far more
integrity.
Brent McWatters
La Cañada Flintridge
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