Voters need the truth about Obama

We are a democracy, and if an informed electorate chooses Barack Obama as the next president, so be it. However, is the electorate informed? I do not believe that the average voter knows who Obama really is. If Obama wins, and if anyone cares to look back, I’m convinced that history will crown this as the most successful episode of journalistic and candidate misinformation in our country’s history.

If Obama’s description of his association with Bill Ayers – as no more than with an acquaintance accused of committing terrorist crimes against our country when Obama was only 7 or 8 – was true, I could buy it. But it is not true. Obama has had close associations with Ayers, both on community boards and in the political arena. This raises serious questions about Obama’s character.

Today, the subject of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is apparently forgotten, but Obama has never explained how or why he sat in church and listened, without hearing, for 20 years, to a man so full of hatred for this country. Combine Obama’s description of the white grandmother who raised him as “a typical white person” and his description of voters who oppose him as men “clinging to guns and religion” and we have a black man who profiles the white voter. Any other politician speaking these words would be branded racist.

Obama’s voting record identifies him as the single-most liberal member of Congress. Like liberals before him, Obama promises more government as the solution to our problems while promising middle-class tax reductions. Face reality, folks. More government programs mean more taxes. At the same time, remember this: President Clinton campaigned on tax reductions but reneged on that promise once in office.

Charles Salembier

Waynesboro