Unfettered Letters

Views on Obama

Three reasons  to support Obama
I quote from Charles Krauthammer’s column “Obama agenda goes way beyond banks and autos” (4/7, Opinion): “The credit crisis will pass and the auto overcapacity will sort itself out one way or the other. The reordering of the American system will come from Obama’s real agenda: his holy trinity of health care, education and energy. Out of these will come a(n) … economic leveling in the name of fairness …”

Mr. Krauthammer, my hat is off to you. In very succinct terms you have identified the three primary reasons, and in the correct order. I might add, that I voted for President Obama. I hope and pray he is successful.

Dennis Nicely
Overland Park

Conned by Obama
As you may have noticed, President Obama has taken to invoking 9/11 in his Bush-like attempt to raise fear and support for his new never-ending wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan. That’s right, we have all fallen victim to the ultimate con man and the single greatest fraud ever perpetrated on the American people.

Instead of peace, we have war. Instead of economic equality, we have trillions upon trillions being funneled to the super rich on Wall Street. Our unions are being busted under a double standard that allows the honoring of AIG bonus contracts but not of union contracts. A generation has been robbed of its savings, retirements and futures while we talk about Michelle Obama’s sweaters.

Yes, it is true that our president did inherit some, if not most, of these problems, but it is also true that he has perpetuated most of them through his arrogance and bumbling. As long as we continue to be fooled by Obama’s media blitz and his Lincoln wanna-be persona, the middle class will continue to disappear as the unemployment rolls continue to swell.

Frank M. Hendricks
Kansas City

Socialism just first step

As I understand it, socialism is primarily financial (take money from A to give to B so they are made equal). In Marxist doctrine it is the intermediate step to communism, in which private ownership of the means of production and distribution is eliminated.

If the central planners of the Obama administration are successful in nationalizing the auto industry, health care and energy production and in the disarmament of the peasants, it should be fairly clear where we will end up.

If we, the people, don’t act now to rein in this government, I fear that we will look back fondly on the time when we thought Obama was just a socialist.

Jim Barber
Independence

‘Change’ you wanted?

Vice President Cheney consults with oil executives while making America’s energy policy. President Obama consults with bank CEOs while reforming the financial markets.

Is this the “change” you voted for?

Mark Forster
Lee’s Summit

Obama needs support from both parties

  Never in my 75-year memory has an opposing political party been so actively combative in its effort to take down a new president this early in his days in office. It is as though they are all in lockstep with Rush Limbaugh’s statement: “I hope he fails.” 

What compounds the above observation is that in no time since the Great Depression has America and the world been so economically challenged. President Obama is attempting to reverse the direction of the recent administration and accomplish what he promised during the campaign — what Americans elected him to do.

No one expects blind faith, but deliberately tying Obama’s hands makes his job just that much more difficult. If he fails as a result of GOP selfishness and pettiness then, in my opinion, that’s purely un-American.

It’s obvious Republicans are not concerned with our country’s welfare, only their party’s. Shame on their house.

William R. Park Sr.
(A disheartened ex-Republican)
Shawnee

Why we elected Obama

Forgetting eight years of our past president? How can those 96 months, almost 3,000 days, be forgotten so soon?

There are a lot of words leftover to eat from pre-election wisdom. Those with the least help continue to be self-appointed wise men with yet even more words to eat.

Look closely at President Barack Obama. Remember why we elected him. He has surrounded himself with people who know far more than most all of us combined. Reality is as it is now. Conditions then and now make none of us qualified except him.

What all the rest of us need to do is to show patience and support. I repeat: Remember why we elected him. We were right.

Marilyn Frenzel
Overland Park

Pro-Con Obama

Give Obama a chance

Unfortunately, playing the role of contrarian or being an armchair quarterback seems to be what the Republicans and some conservative Democrats have to offer. President Obama has gone to great care to devise a plan to get us out of this mess. He is willing and has listened to experts on all sides and of all opinions. The situation he inherited is complex and cannot be resoled with the snap of a finger.

What Obama is doing may or may not work, as he says, but the alternative is sure disaster. Many small issues like the AIG bonuses, which are being debated ad nauseam, distract from the core issue — but the overall budget bill is much needed. I urge each of us to contact our congressmen and ask them to support this bill.

When our crisis is resolved, we can go back to the fun and games of partisanship, or maybe we will see some benefits in being a United States.

Barbara Alley
Leawood

Obama’s blunder

Barack Obama’s gaffe on the Leno show about the Special Olympics is just a result of the one shortcoming we all knew — inexperience. I also think it comes from being in the company of the master of gaffes, Vice President Joe Biden.

“Stand up, Chuck,” Biden shouted to the fellow in the wheelchair.

Steve Katz
Leawood

Merit pay for teachers

The Obama administration is considering merit pay for teachers as part of plan to revamp education (3/11, A-1, “Top teachers should get better pay, Obama urges”).

Consider the teacher facing 25 students who struggle with poverty, living with single parents who hold minimum wage jobs. Consider the constant threat of unsafe neighborhoods. Remove the principal as support. Substitute a “book” in which to record disruptions. Observe emotionally scarred kids quarreling, vying for attention and lacking basic self-discipline. Observe the teachers, haggard from fatigue and frustration.

Over the past 20 years, teachers have been mandated more parental responsibilities. Before these changes, discipline problems were addressed at home. Today the teacher is expected to parent and can be criticized for a student’s lack of self-control.

Often the merit rests in showing up every day, in caring, in the effort to educate so the cycle is broken. The responsibility for molding self-discipline in a child rests with the parents.

Merit pay might work as an incentive, but the protocol has to include teachers who continue to care, especially in circumstances where test scores might not, or cannot, fully reflect the dedication of those educators.

Pat Antonopoulos
Parkville

AIG bonus debacle

Dear President Obama,

Do not underestimate the outrage toward American International Group and the overall negative effect this is having on the economy, the market and all of your efforts.

Do not tax the bonuses. Delete the amount that is not returned from the next installment. Verbally chastise those who do not return the bonuses and put this to rest.

Finally, there must be mandatory requirements each and every time that federal (or state for that matter) dollars are used to bail out, aka loan, any entity our tax dollars, and this must include no bonuses of any kind or raises for the duration of the loan period.

This is only common sense, and it baffles me that this was not a condition to begin with as I, and millions of others, have asked repeatedly for these types of guidelines.

If our leaders — elected or appointed — do not understand this, then God help us all.

Audrey Casassa
Mission

President Obama’s goal of having a more “transparent government” died a quick death. Washington Democrats have given so many conflicting statements lately that they’re either liars or idiots.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Senate banking committee chairman Christopher Dodd have known all along about the AIG bonuses to be paid with our tax dollars. Geithner lied to a Senate committee March 3 when first asked about this but has now admitted otherwise. In my book, that makes Geithner a liar and a cheat. (Remember his failure to pay income taxes?) For years Dodd has been on the very committee that was supposed to be providing oversight of our banking and financial institutions. This mess all came about under his watch.

Stop pointing fingers at the last administration, because it just doesn’t cut it anymore. Everyone in Washington owns blame, and we’re part of the problem. Quit your bellyaching, lying and whining and start earning your big bucks. Or are you representatives in Washington only there to enrich yourselves and feed your own egos?

Buy Geithner a bus ticket home, and kick Dodd off the banking committee now.

Joyce Howard
Lee’s Summit

Views on Obama

Nation needs ‘savior’
I wonder if those who berate President Obama and his supporters now by calling him “the new savior” are any kin to those who mocked and derided the original Christian on a fateful day millennia ago with cries of, “Ha, ha! So you were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days! Save yourself now by coming down from that cross!”

Well, the temple is certainly in need of rebuilding today. And, if Obama is being asked to be a savior, we all know what (and whom) we need to have him save us from — the failed policies of war, torture, wiretapping and corruption of the last administration.

We have all been placed on that cross of sin and deceit. Now, the question is, can we and Obama reject these policies and save, if not ourselves, our country and our culture?

Bill O’Neill
Overland Park

What is Obama doing?
I agree with Larry Rotert (3/15 Letters) that my 401(k) tanked before President Obama took office. I don’t know about Larry, but my 401(k) tanked when the Democrats gained control of Congress in 2007 and continued even more with the election of Obama as president.

My question to Obama supporters: What is the something he has done to get us back on track? Please be specific.

Randy Kundinger
Olathe

Goldberg’s scare tactics

Jonah Goldberg is fair when he lambastes White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel for saying, “Never allow a crisis to go to waste” (3/12, Opinion, “Exploitation of crisis, fear is not leadership”). Such comments are unseemly and boorish.
Mr. Goldberg is less than fair — really, he is dishonest — when he suggests the current administration is using fear to somehow sneak through its “long-standing liberal agenda on health care, energy and education.” Fear has nothing to do with it. That agenda was the basis of Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency. It was his campaign promise.
Mr. Goldberg compounds his dishonesty by saying the administration’s tactics are “fundamentally undemocratic.” How so? The majority of Americans who went to the polls in November voted for the man and his promises.
Quit trying to scare us, Mr. Goldberg.

Jim Patrico
Plattsburg, Mo.