Republicans want Obama as opponent

4/1/2008

As a retired UAW autoworker and life-long Democrat, I have paid close attention to this historic election cycle. I've closely watched the Barack Obama versus Hillary Clinton race, and find myself both amazed and stunned as it has played out.

I'm amazed that a man could come from virtual obscurity to front-runner for his party's presidential nomination in only a little over a year.

I'm stunned that a two-term U.S. senator who has devoted her life to serving people of all stripes and colors cannot gain front-runner status in the race for the White House.

I can only deduce from state primaries, that Karl Rove and the Republican Party have had a hand in crossover votes, giving Mr. Obama wins in the Republican red states.

Republicans, seeing their own unelectable candidates and the powerful Clinton campaign they can't beat, chose to support Mr. Obama so as to win November's general election. You need only to look at the states won by Senator Clinton - Ohio, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Michigan, Florida, and California - and do the math. These are all states needed to win the White House that Mr. Obama will not carry because those Republicans, who voted for him in the primaries will not support him in November.

Thus, on Jan. 21, 2009, an old man who wants to stay in Iraq for another 100 years and jokes about bombing Iran will become the 44th president of the United States.

Democrats, Karl Rove will once again have stolen an election from you, the party that should have been a shoo-in winner in 2008.

Charles Stuller

Perrysburg

Experience counts and Clinton has it

As I follow the campaigns of Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, experience has at times been a subject of debate. Some say it doesn't matter who has the most experience. I beg to differ.

Compare it to a military unit going into combat that is going to be led either by a raw recruit just out of officers candidate school with limited military experience and no combat experience at all, or a battle-hardened sergeant, who has combat experience.

When you're in that combat zone, who would you look for to give you guidance, the inexperienced Lieutenant Obama, or the battle-hardened Sergeant Clinton? I know who I'd want.

Joseph L. Molnar

Oregon

Obama isn't ready for world's bad guys

I perceive Sen. Barack Obama to be a genuinely sincere, well-intentioned man - a man one might wish to help coach his little league team. A good guy.

He has stated that he wishes for all the world's leaders to lay their cards down on the table of international diplomacy. He longs to meet and greet the world's most nefarious bosses.

Is he a card sharp of profound perceptivity? Or, is he astonishingly naive? Is he qualified to play high-stakes poker with the likes of Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Il, Hugo Chavez, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad?

I'll bet not.

Brett Mentzer

Kimberly Drive

'Isms' just clouding presidential choice

I am sick and tired of the "isms" in this campain.

Racism. We can't vote for Barack Obama because he is black. Well, he's also half white but you don't hear about that now, do you?

Sexism. We can't vote for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman. And what is wrong with that? Do the names Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, or Irena Degutien mean anything to anyone? There have been dozens of woman presidents and prime ministers in the world; why can't we have one?

Ageism. We can't vote for John McCain because he is too old. Didn't realize that a candidate needed a birth date after 1950 in order to be president. Winston Churchill was 77 the second time he became prime minister of the United Kingdom.

I can judge who to vote for by the plans that they propose for our country, not by the color of their skin, sex, or age. I am sure that other people can as well. Look at their platforms and see what they believe. Don't just listen to the 20-second sound bites on the news. Do some reading - that is what I am doing because the candidate I supported bowed out ages ago.

Let's just look at the person, not skin color, age, or sex. Get with it, people. We need something to change here. Vote for the person you think can help get us out of this mess.

Michelle McGarrity-Pugh

Archbold

We should love U.S., ask God's blessings

I have become accustomed to The Blade's soft-ball, politically biased reporting. The Obama-Wright controversy has given a focus to existing racial issues, and rightly so. But where else but in America can an influential pastor stand in the pulpit and scream an epithet at America repeatedly? (An epithet omitted in The Blade's reporting).

I am proud to be an American and take serious umbrage at this. We should love our country and ask for God's blessing as we work together to make it better. Hatred is not the path. God Bless America and all of us.

Bill Williams

Perrysburg

America not at fault for nuking Japan

I have no interest in debating the political or racial issues raised by Rose Russell in her March 22 column in The Blade, only the audacious statement of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that she quoted. To say that we nuked Japan without batting an eye is to revise history and blame America for World War II.

For 3 1/2 years, our forces fought from island to island, at a cost of thousands of GIs' lives, until they were on the doorstep of the Japanese homeland. Conventional wisdom was that in an invasion, losses would be hundreds of thousands of Americans. It fell to President Harry Truman to decide whether to drop the bombs or risk more American lives. Does anyone really believe that this was not an agonizing decision for Truman? The second bomb was dropped after the Japanese still refused to surrender. Finally, the emperor made the decision to end the war.

Mr. Wright is an educated man and a former Marine, so it is certain that he knows the circumstances that led to dropping the bombs, but blaming America is a popular sport these days. However, it is too soon to revise World War II history; there are too many witnesses still alive.

A.L. Fisher

Sylvania

Dysfunctional state ends Jan. 20, 2009

If George W. Bush were really president of the United States, he would condemn torture. That's what presidents of the United States do. It is illogical to be the president and condone torture.

When right and wrong don't make sense to us, it disrupts our emotional well-being and causes dysfunctionality. America is in a dysfunctional state right now. May this dysfunctionality end quickly. Jan. 20, 2009, cannot come soon enough.

Sarah Maxwell

Archbold

Funding retirement is our responsibility

I read with great interest a recent commentary in The Blade regarding the failed attempts to privatize Social Security, a program described as "essential to the well-being of millions of Americans." The question is: Why is this program now deemed essential? The answer is that over the last 50 years we, as liberated Americans, have slowly turned over our individual responsibilities to Washington, D.C., to the point now that the thought of being personally responsible for our own fiscal well-being seems unfathomable.

I hope that we as a society wake up soon and tell the government "No, but thank you. I can take care of myself."

Tom McLoughlin

Medford Drive

I'm a little confused. If Bill Richardson is like Judas for backing Sen. Barack Obama, who's supposed to be Jesus? Bill and Hillary may both have messianic complexes, but who is supposed to be the Jesus in Democratic strategist James Carville's charade?

Doug Tabner

Grantwood Drive