Facts are necessary in political debate

Mr. Bruce Johnson wrote to you recently, expressing his dislike of President Obama.  He claims that Obama is arrogant and prideful, unlike a President he really likes, George W. Bush.

He doesn’t have much ‘evidence’ of President Obama’s pride other than to point to the fact that the president has made a point publicly  that it was he who ordered the strike on Osama Bin Laden, a strike fraught with real danger for the people involved as well for our President politically. He did it. He did what he said he would do upon becoming President, unlike President Bush who gave up on capturing or killing Bin Laden. He gave up.

I would argue that if a person accomplishes what he or she set out do then he or she should be given some opportunity to point to her or his accomplishment. However, if a person stands in front of the world wearing a costume flight jacket, on an aircraft carrier with a banner unfurled behind him proclaiming that the “mission (was) accomplished” when we all know tragically it was not true, then that’s arrogance.  

But, Mr. Johnson’s diatribe against Obama is no different than the ‘birthers’ who still claim Obama was not born here or fantasize that he is a Muslim. Prevarication and latent racism ad nauseum.  The problem with that line of story telling is that it does confuse low information voters and it takes their eyes and ears off of the real issues.  Here’s one, very briefly stated.

According to Republicans, the rising gas prices are due to Obama’s refusal to “drill baby drill.”   That is simply not true.  Wall Street speculation, market nervousness about Iran and Israel and increasing world demand has spiked the prices. Moreover, gas and oil production in the U.S. is higher under Obama  than it ever was under Bush (by 15%).  That’s a fact.

According to a recent Bloomberg Business Week article, statistical analysis over a long period of time demonstrates “U.S. [oil] production and demand have little to do with the price of gasoline in the U.S., and lend support to the notion that there is not a great deal we in the U.S., acting alone, can do to affect the price of gasoline,”

So, Mr. Johnson and I can argue over who is more prideful — Bush or Obama — but we must keep facts in front us on the issues that matter. I don’t care if a President is prideful. I do care that our President keep his eye on the target as did Obama on Bin Laden and as he is on the development of oil AND alternative energy.

Stephen Drinkard

Bonner County, Idaho