Letters to the Editor for Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Published: October 28, 2008

Election Grips Writers’ Attention
McCain no maverick
With so many political ads focusing on the personalities and qualifications of the candidates in the presidential campaign, it is easy to forget that we are not just electing a president and vice president.

Your choice in this presidential election will determine not only who occupies the Oval Office, but also who will be the economic and foreign policy advisers, the White House staff, appointments to Cabinet positions and so on — in short the basic structure of the Executive Branch. In addition, the next president will in all likelihood appoint at least one, and perhaps more, Supreme Court justices who will influence judicial rulings for decades to come.

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Despite his claims to be a maverick, it is evident from the way John McCain’s campaign has been run that his advisers are primarily the same folks who brought us the disastrous policies and divisive politics of the last eight years. His campaign has failed to distance itself from the policies of the Bush administration, and has failed to clearly articulate a new vision for the future of the country. McCain’s proposals are essentially an extension of those of the Bush administration. In addition, particularly in the last few weeks of the campaign, we have seen the same kind of poisonous “politics by name calling” that characterized the management of Bush’s campaigns in 2000 and 2004. This exploitation of the culture war was a successful strategy for Bush, but it has led to a toxic political environment that promotes and encourages division along rigid ideological lines.

In his keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, Barack Obama struck a responsive chord among many Americans who yearn for a more united nation. He asserted that we are not a “Red America” and a “Blue America,” we are the United States of America, and we can work together across ideological boundaries to solve our problems. Obama has backed up that idealistic vision by surrounding himself with advisers of many backgrounds and political persuasions. In the process he has gained the admiration of many Americans, including many Republicans and independents. I am confident that this spirit of collaboration and pragmatism will be continued in the advice and counsel Obama seeks as president and in the numerous appointments he will make.

Who will you vote for Nov. 4?  If you would like to continue politics as usual and continue the partisan divisiveness of the past eight years, then perhaps McCain/Palin is your team.

However, if you want to turn the page on this divisive time and work toward a more united nation that can confidently face our many challenges together, vote for Obama/Biden.
RICHARD D. BARNES
Lynchburg

Good reasons for McCain
I really enjoyed the Oct. 26 editorial endorsement of John McCain in The News & Advance mostly because it eloquently captured the reasons to support a McCain presidency. There is no doubt that McCain supporters embrace these opinions while Obama supporters do not. Still all should agree that it was well written and non-offensive even if you do disagree with the opinions within.

As an American, I am fully prepared to accept an Obama presidency as the latest polling suggests. I just hope all of you voting on the promise of Barack Obama’s tax rebate to 95 percent of America realize the consequences. Raising taxes on corporate America and its wealthy members sounds good on paper, but it has repercussions, which will come in a combination of events. As you heard in the debates, it will hinder job growth and will likely cause the shrinking of the work force. Many companies will convert permanent jobs to temporary positions through agencies. More jobs will go overseas. Companies will also hold off on pay increases and perhaps reduce employee benefits. Plans for expansion and growth will be shelved.  And, the price of the products and services they sell will go up. All of this will be the cause and effect to offset higher taxes.

I know your average voter won’t factor in these consequences. The temptation of a check in the mail and the short-term pleasure it brings is like heroin to a junkie. Just give me a fix and everything will be okay. It doesn’t matter that this particular promise is not good medicine for the country as a whole. In fact, it makes our nation less competitive globally.  The rate of taxation in the United States is the anchor around our neck that is constantly dragging us down and the primary reason jobs continue to go overseas. If elected, Obama would significantly raise the weight of the anchor. Eventually folks, we are going to drown in our corporate tax system.

Vote for less government and fewer taxes, not more, that’s the formula that made this country great.
RICK MALEC
Goode

Fearful of Obama’s policies
I hope I am wrong about Barack Obama.
I hope that his economic philosophy to more fairly distribute wealth, that I think is the residue of a discredited social idealism, will usher in a new era of prosperity, rather than economic stagnation and the creation of a burgeoning entitlement class increasingly reliant on the public treasury and whose sole concern in future elections is to vote to themselves more of other people’s money.

I hope that his energy policy, that I think is unreasonably optimistic because of the conspicuous absence of oil, coal and nuclear power, will create real energy independence with abundant and readily available supplies for all our needs, rather than artificially expensive, scarce and heavily rationed energy resources.

I hope that his ideas on improving foreign relations through gestures of goodwill, that I think are dangerously naïve, will result in a new respect for American ideals and influence throughout the world, rather than signal weakness to newly emboldened enemies who will try to exploit perceived opportunities to harm us.

I hope that his vision of a new and principled federal government, that I think is an impossible pipe dream, will create a reinvigorated and dynamic political process, rather than one that disguises the repression of free speech with political correctness, eliminates the free flow of ideas through intimidation, and homogenizes opinion by condemning nonconformity.

I hope that his health plan, that I think is fatally misguided, will result in readily available, quality health care with real choice for all Americans, rather than create a government monopoly for the provision and rationing of health care, overseen by a bloated and expensive bureaucracy unresponsive to and disdainful of the individual needs of the citizen consumer.

I hope that his eloquently expressed desire to uplift the middle class, a desire with which I agree, is the result of real respect for their intelligence and decency and not just hypocritical patronizing to gain the votes of those whom he secretly regards as inferior and as incapable of self determination.

I hope that I am wrong about the man and wrong about the disastrous consequences I foresee if his policies are implemented.

I hope I am wrong, but I do not believe I am. And that is why I am voting for John McCain.
JAMES R. RICHARDS
Lynchburg

For Perriello
I attended the town hall meeting that Tom Perriello held the other week in Rustburg. I was very impressed with his range of knowledge concerning the issues confronting our nation at this time. The Fifth District needs a person like Tom Perriello to represent us. We need someone who knows what the problems are and actually has plans to solve them. We need someone who recognizes the interconnectivity of all the issues.

Perriello knows that the Fifth District has the resources to be at the forefront of the energy independence and green jobs movements. Just drilling for more oil is not the answer. He is fully supportive of alternative energies, investigating second-generation bio-fuels and is committed to getting us off our addiction to oil. We are well placed for the opportunity. Just as the Apollo program provided an impetus to create new jobs and new technologies, so will the search for new, green energy technologies.

Perriello was born and raised in the Fifth District. He attended Albemarle County schools. He went out into the world to help right wrongs. However, he has seen first-hand the problems across the globe. He has worked to end atrocities in West African countries. He has experience in Darfur and Afghanistan as a national security analyst.

I urge all the voters in the Fifth District to vote for Tom Perriello on Nov. 4. He is the better candidate and would make a representative that we can be proud of.
SHARON CROCKETT
Lynchburg

Endorsement seconded
As a youngster delivered the morning edition of The News & Daily Advance seven days a week for six years in the 1950s; I have subscribed to it ever since with the exception of a extended military leave of absence from Lynchburg during the Vietnam War era.

And I could not be more pleased with your Oct. 26 editorial endorsement of John McCain.

You laid it out from a “True Main Street” perspective about things that really matter, even today in our so-called “high-tech, politically correct, global society of change,” recognizing that “it is the individual American who is responsible for himself, his family, his future … not government.”

With so many important things to think about in this election, it just has to be more than a personality contest or spoken words. Thank you.
HARRIS GARDNER
Bedford