Letters to the editor for Friday, Oct. 17

Karl Rove politics is dead. That's what the polls tell us day after day. This is bad news for John McCain, who was counting on voters agreeing that character assassination was more important than real issues.

So his campaign let Sarah Palin loose to spew personal attacks on Barack Obama's integrity, patriotism, religion and place of birth, mostly by innuendo, then had McCain deny they were doing it and then claimed that the other side was doing the same thing. That's George W. Bush all over again. Sorry, Sen. McCain, you are George Bush, just not for the reasons you had in mind when you denied it in this week's debate.

JAN LINN, APPLE VALLEY

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Immediately after the third debate, Barack Obama was criticized by several pundits as being too "professorial." Since when is a display of competence a negative attribute for a presidential candidate? Perhaps these critics, having endured eight years of George Six-Pack and his buddies, have themselves become masters of low expectations.

CLIFFORD ROBINSON, BROOKLYN PARK

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BLAIR SORVARI, CHAMPLIN

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Where can I train to be a plumber? I would like to make more than $250,000 per year, too!

TOM SEM, BLOOMINGTON

Hennepin County commissioners, in their role as members of the Budget and Investment Committee, voted to give themselves a 3.4 percent pay raise for each of the two next years. The commissioners currently make $93,888 per year. The raise would increase their 2009 salaries to $97,080 and their 2010 salaries to $100,380.

For the increases to go into effect, the commissioners must take a final vote on Tuesday. I urge all residents of Hennepin County to urge their respective commissioners to vote against these pay increases.

MELVIN OGURAK, EDINA

While members of Congress and the president squabble over how much money to spend to bail out Wall Street, they have failed to recognize one of the best investment opportunities for taxpayer dollars. For just a fraction of the cost of the $700 billion bailout to prop up capitalism, a $35 billion investment in the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program would have served to provide children in low-income families access to health insurance.

It is estimated that 9 million children in the United States don't have health insurance. They currently constitute the largest percentage of uninsured Americans. Children as a population are the least expensive and most cost-effective groups to insure. The cost of neglecting epidemics such as childhood obesity today will increase exponentially as this generation of Americans will require a greater amount of health care dollars to address the consequences from the lack of preventative care.

From education, to homelessness, to living in poverty, many children exist on the very bottom of our society. The national standard of achievement in the richest country of the world should not be our gross domestic product, but how well we take care of all of our children.

We gave $80 billion-plus to bail out American International Group Inc.. It, in return, sent executives to a spa where a room for a dog starts at $500. Now the insurance company wants more money.

Perhaps we can instead take up a collection and send their execs to Guantanamo. It is in the tropics and the weather should be very nice, and I believe they will get three meals a day included. I also understand there are some interesting extracurricular activities to take part in.

DEL GROTE, MAPLEWOOD

While campaigning for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama spoke about the military mission in Afghanistan. He said, "We've got to get the job done there, and that requires us to have enough troops so that we're not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." By this definition Obama directly accuses the American military of being engaged in war crimes under the Geneva Conventions.

Having relatives who have fought in the Iraq war, I am personally insulted by these reckless allegations. Obama has absolutely no right to make them, and I believe that he lacks the responsibility and capability to be our commander in chief. He should apologize to the men and women serving our country.

Residents should vote yes for the Strong School Strong City amendment because it will help the students get better materials. Instead of out-of-date textbooks, we'll get new modern ones. We'll get more books for our library. All this will help us learn more and become productive citizens in the real world.

Why should you vote for this amendment if you don't have kids? Because we are the people who will be running the city, state and country in the future. Educated kids are productive adults, so help us learn and help your future!

MATT VILLALTA,