Commentary & Opinion

The polls don’t indicate it and my colleagues don’t believe it, but I think there are many reasons to assume Mitt Romney will be the next President of the United States. For one thing, the Romney candidacy is less significant than what is emerging as a referendum on the Obama presidency. President Obama has gone negative attempting to point out why voters should not support Romney, but he has not provided a narrative for his own support. In fact, with an approval rating of 47 percent he is losing the pro Obama constituents.

In most political campaigns, I don’t know any of the contestants personally. I vote based on what I can glean about them. But I do happen to know some of the candidates this time. So let me comment about a couple of people I know in two races in the area reached by this station.

Question:  In a nation in which individual freedom is its most telling characteristic, how and why would church organized and ordained control of religious belief and practice become the most actively initiated and consistently sought-after power; second only to influence of the political system itself?

Labor Day, the symbolic end of summer, has come and gone.  Schools have opened and children are off to new classes and teachers.

But this September is an important month for another reason: this is the month when New York, as well as all other states, must choose the “essential health benefits” that will be offered to those who lack health insurance.

As this political season and the race for the U.S. presidency in particular barrel toward Election Day, it seems that the real issues facing average, middle and working-class Americans are being obscured by innuendo and accusation. The goal here apparently is winning at all costs and amassing power, rather than practical problem-solving and serving the U.S. citizenry.