This week, readers respond to Postcard Fridays, defend the PAB appointee with a criminal background, and dispute Sen. Mitt Romney’s “hero” status.
Mitt Romney
Posted inNews & Opinion
US on track to become top oil producer
During the presidential campaign, Republican Mitt Romney made some noise about how President Barack Obama was, more or less, standing in the way of increased domestic energy production. The campaign is over, Romney lost, and media outlets are finally picking up on reports that the United States is on pace to pass Saudi Arabia as […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The high price of the presidency
This spending in this year’s presidential race will crush the record set in 2008. But how outrageous will the sums be? As of October 17, the numbers were staggering. First, some context. The 2008 presidential election cost $1.7 billion, twice as much as the 2004 presidential election. In 2012, spending will at least double that […]
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ENDORSEMENT: For a just future: Barack Obama
In a very real sense, this year’s presidential election campaign has taken place in an artificial setting, the state of the nation viewed through tinted glasses, significant problems and challenges glossed over or ignored. It’s as if voters and candidates caught those problems, briefly, in their peripheral vision and then blinked, turned, and the problems […]
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War with Iran and election hype
It was a little hard to tell whether Mitt Romney was confident or confused in the foreign policy debate on Monday night. We saw the difference between a candidate’s campaign jabber and the knowledge of an experienced president. Side by side, one rings hollow and the other authentic. Romney’s eagerness to pump up Pentagon spending […]
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A divided country waits
The debates are over, all but a handful of voters seem to have made up their mind, and President Obama and Mitt Romney are virtually tied. Regardless of who is elected, this troubling campaign could have a troubling ending, with the outcome not immediately known – and, perhaps, with one candidate winning the popular vote, […]
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US should use caution when aiding rebel groups
The United States has a long history of aiding coups against unfriendly regimes, only to watch the the rebel groups it aided become unfriendly. And the new regimes often have gone on to commit human rights abuses of their own. In some cases, the goal was to stop the spread of Communism. That was an […]
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Truth takes an election holiday
Watching the 2012 presidential election unfold, Jack Nicholson’s great scene as Colonial Nathan Jessep in the film “A Few Good Men” comes to mind. “You can’t handle the truth,” Jessep snarls when he’s pressed about the murder of a young cadet. Something has happened to truth in this election. Is truth’s troubling absence due to […]
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Energy conservation ignored in debate
Early in Tuesday’s presidential debate, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney got off on a tangent that wanted to be a discussion of energy policy. Instead, it was a mess. Arguments were mangled and facts were pushed over into a corner somewhere. As they tried to out-coal and out-natural gas one another, neither candidate was particularly […]
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Debate #2, part 2: Romney’s affirmative-action fib
Well, well, well…. Remember the debate segment last night where Romney bragged about seeking out qualified women to serve in his administration when he became governor? Not true, says our sister alt-weekly, the Boston Phoenix. When Romney was asked last night what he would do to help women achieve pay equity, Romney adopted a tactic […]
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Debate #2: Just how smart is the average voter?
Three-quarters of the way through last night’s presidential debate, I figured the debate was over — and that Mitt Romney was headed for the White House. I feel a little better about the event this morning; most of the media analysis I’ve read this morning is calling President Obama a clear winner in the debate. […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Clean coal is still just a dream
Just a reminder: there’s no such thing as clean coal. During last night’s presidential debate, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney each reiterated their energy policies. And they both included clean coal as an aspect of their plans. But there’s a catch: clean coal is more theoretical than it is practical. The term clean coal can […]
