I appreciate your statements, but ask if you have read  Sen. Obama’s books? How can  he be ‘called secretive’  when he clearly has pointed out that he did drugs, and explained other problems he overcame?  He has been frank enough. Did you know that Cindy McCain became a drug addict and was convicted of stealing addictive drugs when she was a nurse?  That was the end of her nursing career. There’s much, much more about the McCains that Sen. Obama’s people could bring up, but they have chosen a somewhat higher road, such as not bringing up theembarrassing lapses of memory and speech Sen. McCain has shown us (e.g. addressing  a crowd as ‘my fellow prisoners.’ — the kind of verbal slip that’s becoming terrible common to McCain, which must embarrass him.  Sen. Obama has avoided mocking the foibles of old age.  Nor has he brought up Mccain’s gambling, which I know, as I lived in Arizona — and Mccain hasn;t reported his winningson his tax returns, which is unlawful (it would show what a big spender he is!) There are security risks for Sen. Obama’s family in war-torn Kenya that are unique – one reason some of his records are being kept private, but no candidate comes this far without such records having been inspected carefully.  Constant misreporting of his Kenyan relative, Mr. Dinga (sp?),  as some kind of terrorist, by gossipers, belie the photos of Dinga with Secy. Rice and other Bush Adminstration officials supporting his political activities. en. Mccain did not a,low doctors, only reporters, to look at his massive pile of medical reports (though CNN’s Gupta is both doctor and reporter — and Gupta said he didn’t see anything about Mccain’s mental health).  Mccain allowed no photographing of those records, and reporters in general didn;t have much of an idea what they were looking at.  So much for transparency on Mcain’s part.  Indeed, we need to focus on issues. Both men have earned the right to compete. This is the first race I’ve ever written to people about, please forgive any typos, I’m a retired white female, age 65 English teacher with failing eyesight. Tanks.

A couple more points, JA-

Verbal gaffes indicate McCain’s senility, in your opinion? Then what is Obama’s excuse for saying there are 57 states, or getting their relative location mixed up, or talking about being in "New Pennsylvania" (presumably that’s one of the lost states.) Or how about introducing Biden as the next president of the United States!

And finally, I’m just so tired of hearing how McCain’s attacks on Obama distract from the issues. If that’s the case, then why are Obama, Biden and his supporters talking about nothing except McCain attacking him, instead of talking about the um, issues?
McCain hasn’t talked enough about his positive message- I totally agree with that. He needs to articulate ideas about the economy, but at least I give him credit for actually talking about it at all. For instance, he announced that one of the VERY first things we should do is to suspend the rules on IRA’s so that senior citizens aren’t forced to draw out of their accounts at the very time when their holdings have taken such a hit. Doesn’t that sound logical?? Obama responded by saying he’d support this too, but it was McCain who realized this obvious step that needs to be taken immediately to prevent massive losses for retirees. So who is it again that has his eye off the main issues of the campaign?

For so many people who are patently ripe for a dose of fascism, it seems that The One can do no wrong, needs no vetting, need have no specifics about anything, and need not even concern himself with the Rule of Law. The only thing that we have in this country, that has been admired by the rest of the world, is some paper that is known as The Constitution of the United States.  Without the Rule of Law, that paper is as worthless as any piece of trash you see in the street.