Sarah Palin

Dear Editor, The list is long, but I will only list my top three reasons I would never vote for McCain/Palin. First, being a veteran of USAF, I do not support the war in Iraq. I was, however, in favor of going into Iraq and checking for weapons of mass destruction, which we never found, but in our efforts stumbled upon and eliminated Iraq's cruel and inhumane leader Saddam Hussein. John McCain feels we should continue a war that has no meaning, yet is costing us not only lots of money, but innocent lives, and most of all precious time - time fit for our troops to move in on those responsible for attacking us on our own soil and take away any efforts for them to do it again.

When incumbent Mike Harmon was contacted about doing an interview for his race against David Sparrow, he had a quick suggestion. "Why don't you just rerun the story you did two years ago. Or four years ago?" Harmon offered. He was joking, of course, but there is an element of truth underlying the humor. Harmon faced off against Sparrow in 2004 and 2006 for the 54th District seat representing Boyle and Washington counties in the state House of Representatives. Harmon, R-Junction City, put a serious whipping on his Democratic challenger in 2004, winning by more than 2,100 votes.

Dear Editor, It is Obama and Biden's moral fitness we should question. I believe America made up their minds about Sarah Palin's moral fitness when we discovered she decided not to abort a child with down syndrome and face the responsibility of loving and nurturing the child, sold the governor's jet and fired the taxpayers' chef. She immediately started to reform. Let's talk about Joe Biden's mishaps. Any college student can tell you the seriousness of plagiarism. The thought of someone stealing someone else's ideas or writings is unethical.

What began in January with Mike Huckabee's "Christian Leader" ads in Iowa and subterranean attacks on Mitt Romney's Mormon faith has further degenerated into false rumors about Barack Obama's faith and ugly stories about a "witch-hunting" pastor who once blessed Sarah Palin. In the long history of religion in presidential campaigns, the 2008 race may well be remembered as the sleaziest and most disturbing example of misusing religion to win votes and demonize the opposition. True, past campaigns featured smears against Thomas Jefferson as an "atheist and infidel," attacks on William Howard Taft for being a Unitarian, and opposition to John Kennedy because of his Catholic faith (to cite a few examples)

Dear Editor, In this crazy world of politics, we have been treated to another liberal redefinition of word meanings and application. The most current word to undergo a redefinition is "success. " According to Brian Cooney in his column on Sept. 23, the word "success" now means failure. He denigrates Sarah Palin for her success in serving the people who elected her. If there's anything that liberals can't stand it's success of conservatives in the execution of their duties of their office.

There are reasons to question the choice of the commander of the Alaska National Guard as a prospective commander in chief (though there were equally serious reasons to doubt the military qualifications of another backwoods candidate, Abraham Lincoln, who served for a few months as a private and a captain in the Black Hawk War). But instead of engaging this issue, liberals have been drawn, helpless and mesmerized - like beetles to the vivid, blue paradise of the bug zapper - toward criticizing Sarah Palin's religion.

Dear Editor, The recent letter submitted by Ms. Lussier questioning Sarah Palin's ability to juggle the responsibilities of motherhood and career starts with the question, "Is it just me or are Americans missing the bigger picture with Sarah Palin?" It's just Ms. Lussier. Questioning the ability of Barack Obama or Joe Biden to run a business or government and simultaneously attend to the duties of parenting would be a valid question - there's no proof in their resums of ever having done that.

Dear Editor, I have, over the years, read opinions on your editorial page that were blatantly partisan, overtly biased, or simply totally ignorant. The subject of my letter may touch on all three of these unfortunate traits. I quote from a letter on Sept. 4, that read, "Sarah Palin is not Hillary Clinton. " Thank goodness. The writer makes an attempt to compare Palin to Clinton. Palin is a woman who has served as a city commissioner, mayor, and Alaska's governor. Hillary did none of this.

Dear Editor, Just hours after McCain announced he had chosen Sarah Palin as his running mate, I received an e-mail from Feminists for Life quoting Palin as saying, "I believe in the strength and the power of women, and the potential of every human life. " The next message I opened was a forwarded e-mail from another organization meant to inform readers of Palin's "assault on wolves" and attempt "to remove the polar bear from the endangered species list. " I was struck by the irony of these complaints when this country's laws allow human babies to be ripped from the womb limb by limb.

Dear Editor, In response to the Lussier letter to the editor on Sept. 4, I would like to give my opinion. She said that the election is turning into a comedy of errors for the Republicans, yet there is a Democrat running for president that has no business running either. She said that McCain chose a woman with no experience. Does she know that Palin has run a state government and chose her own cabinet of officials to help her? The only cabinet that Obama knows about are the ones where the Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes are kept.