Central Newsmagazine Letters To The Editor

Central Newsmagazine is Central St. Louis County's exclusive direct-mailed community newspaper.

Most experienced

To The Editor:

Regarding the question of the week of who has more experience, Barack Obama or Sarah Palin.

Why are you asking for comparisons between a presidential nominee and a vice presidential nominee? Although given the health history of the men in John McCain’s family (which is more significant than his mother’s), Palin very well could become president. We vote on the entire or top of the ticket.

And what do you mean by ‘who’s more experienced?’

The village blacksmith was more experienced with horses than the auto mechanic, but when automotive technology took hold, the blacksmith and his experience became irrelevant.

McCain’s been around longer, but his intellectual and resource “comfort zone” consists of the same lobbyists and advisors who helped to create the problems we need to solve. Also, it goes without saying that this information age has radically changed our economy, lifestyles, etc.

It disturbs me that Sen. McCain has been so intellectually uncurious that he has never bothered to learn how to use a computer but he wants to be our leader.

May I suggest that you change the question to “Who is better equipped?”

Eileen Evans

Richmond Heights

To The Editor:

Please. When Sarah Palin was a councilwoman she had more experience than Barack Obama.

Bryan Ard

St. Louis County

To The Editor:

It is definitely Sarah Palin. She at least answers questions with a definite, informative answer.

Barack Obama talks and talks and talks without a meaningful answer, but messes around with a robust talent of tearing down of the opposite party's past and much of that information is at least half wrong. When he finishes (supposedly answering the question asked) he really has not answered the proposed question at all.

Doris Anderson

Rock Hill

No to McCain

To The Editor:

As a veteran who helped treat Vietnam vets with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), I recognize Sen. John McCain as a soldier still resentful over his capture and likely to take this nation to war when it is not necessary.

As a soon-to-be senior, I can see that McCain will not protect the limited securities provided to this country's elderly. As a new grandfather, I know that his stance on education and health care will not ensure a stable future for my grandchildren.

As an environmentalist, I can tell you his "flip-flopping" on energy policy is a danger to the whole world. As a student of political policy, I see McCain's reversal of his stance on campaign financing and his embrace of lobbyists as campaign policy strategists as a dishonor to those who would seek high office.

As a former loan officer and a fiscal conservative, I am certain that McCain's support of deregulation for the mortgage industry and investment banks precipitated the financial crisis we now face.

Reese Forbes

Kirkwood

No bailout

To The Editor:

Kudos to the U.S. House of Representatives for killing a proposed $700 billion bailout to a plethora of our nation's banks and financial institutions. Thankfully, and to their credit, the members of the House acceded to the wishes and demands of their constituents not to use taxpayer dollars to mitigate and ameliorate the current financial crisis.

No doubt, free enterprise and capitalism are the trademarks of the U.S. economic system, but the potential for wealth does not come without a price - the element of risk. Most assuredly, individuals and investment firms are not oblivious to such potential danger. They engage in such financial dealings knowing full well that they can lose money as readily as realizing a vast windfall.

That said, the government should never use taxpayer money to bail out financial markets in distress, unless of course, such non-action might precipitate a depression, which is highly unlikely under current conditions.

This is 2008, not 1929, and governmental safeguards instituted by the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Securities and Exchange Commission are today much more stringent than they were back then.

Truth be told, Republican presidential nominee John McCain could not have been more correct when he stated that the Federal Reserve should "get out of the business of bailouts," and should get back to its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation.

To further add to McCain's astute and incisive remarks, might I say that, as a conservative who espouses fiscal responsibility, I share deeply the belief that our government should unequivocally and undeniably embrace and fully support the tenet of laissez-faire relative to the markets which are currently in financial trouble, and to those which might encounter similar failings in the future.

Gene Carton

Olivette