I Write Letters By: Mark W Adams

The following was in response to this Op/Ed by Jack Kelly, a columnist for The Toledo Blade and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Beyond the absurdity of the premise Mr. Kelly advances that not only can Senator John McCain win the upcoming election, it could be a landslide as every single indicator of the public's preferences indicate that all momentum favors the Democrats this year -- as any objective political analyst who values his integrity would acknowledge -- why does Mr. Kelly feel it necessary to mischaracterize Barack Obama's position on nuclear power?

Mr. Kelly says. "Mr. McCain also supports building more nuclear power plants, which Mr. Obama opposes." This is inaccurate at best. Indeed, according to OnTheIssues.org, much to the chagrin of liberal and environmental activists, Senator Obama believes "Nuclear power ok if we safeguard against waste terrorism. (Sep 2007)" and that we should, "Explore nuclear power as part of alternative energy mix. (Jul 2007)"

Noting that Mr. Kelly relies on an analysis of Senator McCain's energy proposals from noted neoconservative John Podhoretz speaks volumes by itself, they both conflate what is in candidate McCain's best interest -- what he should do to win -- with what is in the nation's best interest. While not necessarily mutually exclusive, those two ideas require separate and often conflicting rationales.

His Op/Ed also gratuitously throws out Senator Chris Dodd's name, a recent rival of Obama for the Democratic nomination, as a transparent way to mingle the subprime mortgage crisis with Democrats in general and Barack Obama in particular, failing to note that Senator McCain's principle economic advisor, financial industry lobbyist and former Senator, Phil Graham, practically created the current troubles in the financial markets single-handed by pushing through deregulation of lending institutions, allowing them to engage in the high risk investments that have fallen under their own weight.

It's one thing to try and fix the mess in a controversial way, like bailing out Countrywide, or to have even gotten favorable loan terms from them -- and paid the loans back in full. Quite another to have been responsible for it in the first place, which cannot be laid at Chris Dodd's or Barack Obama's feet.

Mr. Kelly is clever, but his goal obvious. Now that I know his game I intend to be more vigilant in monitoring his writing and alert others to it as well.